The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1937-03-25

one of these large railroad companies,
the Great Northern, pays more than
half the cost of educating your chill
dren; do you know that it pays more
] than half of the cost of maintenance
of your roads and bridges? Do you
+ know that ii pays more than half of
of the cost of your county government?
The taxes il pays furnishes the funds
for these purposes. We in Montana are
far removed from the centers of popu-
lation that buy our goods. 1t is neces-
sary, therefore, for the produce of our
fields, the output of our mills and
mines to be transported long distances
by freight to reach the consuming
markets Likewise, almost everything
we eat, drink, or wear is transported to
US by freight We are, therefore, vi
tally interested in costs of transporta-
ton. Yet in the last legislature there
was q bill introduced, which would. if
passed, have increased transportation
costs by 20 to 80 percent. am speak
ing of the bill that sought to limit
freight trains to 10 cars. Such meas
ure would have increased the trans
portation costs of the railroads and
they in turn would have to pass the
additional burden on to the shippers
and receivers of freight am sure
you would not want this additional cost
tackled on to the things you buy Nor
would the consumer in the East that
builds a home want to pay the addi-
tional cost of the lumber or building
materials. Apparently the results of
such measure were not correctly an
alyzed by our legislators or the fact
that they thought they were bene-
fitting few additional employees at
the expense of large corporations
warped their judgment
In private industries person has to
qualify to hold his job, in political life
this does not seem to be necessary.
Any man can run for office with or
without qualifications for the particu-
lar position. AS a result, how many of
the men in our legislature today could
pass an 9Th grade examination Do you
think that men of that mental capacity
are qualified to run the affairs of the
state of Montana and keep ii on an
even keel2 To the man whose budget /
is limited, the waste of money in rum
ming the affairs of county and state are
appalling. Ask yourself the question: /
Is the government Of our state and
county worth the price we are paying /
for it, If not, we should clean house
went somewhat adrift on my sub
ject Fortunately the bill | spoke of
y,,1r<,ay&f aao ,,Far Li1taJ j., tbr x4.4a eo,,
ale by either one or two votes. We will, I
therefore, be free Of this menace for an
other. two years 1t was claimed re-
duction of train length would speed up
deliveries. etc.
CAT this point in his address, Mr.. Neils
told how it used to require from three
to four weeks to ship car of lumber |
to the eastern market, while now it can
be done in almost as many days.
Lumber Industry Also Advances
In January 1919 the J. Neils Lumber
company bought out the Libby Lum-
Der company and came out here as
manager. | will soon be able to quail |
ify as an 4old timer Many changes
have taken place during that time in
the manufacture of lumber At that |
time most of our logging was done with /
donkey engines, some horses. and
Clyde skidder Today all this equip
ment is obsolete and is being disposed I
of as junk. The caterpillar, a product
of the World war, is taking the place
of the skidding machines. Now it looks
as though our logging railroad with all |
our logging cars and locomotives will |
have to be abandoned and new in
vestment made in trucks and trailers |
At one time we used over 100 head of
horses around the plant and in the