Montana labor news., 1937-07-29
Union and Silver Bow Trades
and Labor Council Urges Gov
eminent to Establish Power
Project at Fort Peck.

The United States government is
being urged by the unions of Silver
Bow County and the unions of Cas-
cade County to establish a generating
and distributing electrical power unit
at Fort Peck in eastern Montana.
The Great Falls unions have char
acterized the present dam at Fort
Peck "a huge duck pond"-worth-
less for any good reason-&orthless
unless its tremendous po~tentialities
are put into some useful channels,
mainly reclamation Of barren land,
irrigation of arid lands, generation
of power for the industries of the
state of Montana. This is not the
first time that industry has been shut
down in Montana through the greed
of corporations. They want to mon
Iopolize power development in the
state of Montana and do not want
the government to get into the bust
ness of generating and distributing
power. This interferes with a mon
Iopoly that the private utility insti-
tutions have always had upon this
state. The power sites of the state
of Montana have been taken away
from the people, exploited, and the
profits from these natural resources
utilized to further enlarge the CAPT
tai structure of these corporations.
In the Anaconda Standard Of We'd
nesday morning, the Cascade Trades
and Labor Council was praised for
its demand that the use of 10000
kilowatt hours of power, now being
utilized in the construction of Fort
Peck, would be transferred to the
Operation of mines and smelters in
the western part of the state. How
lever, it is doubtful if the Cascade
unions really want to shut down in
dustry in one part of the state in
order to maintain industrial opera
tons in another part of the state. Of
course, they do want the smelters
and mills and mines to operate and
want members of their organizations,
men and women in their W COM
munity, to be employed.
But that isn't the main intention.
The Great Falls unions have plead
ed with the government to establish
a power unit at Fort Peck. They
have gone farther than any other
union organization in the state of
Montana to have this done. They
have had power committees; have
written letters; have pleaded with
representatives of the government to
have this done.
The Silver Bow Trades and Labor
Council last night, when a discus
sion arose over the power situation,
endorsed a resolution that had been
acted upon by the Cascade Trades
and Labor Council, but the union in
Butte also requested that the gov
ernment establish this project at
Fort Peck. Why should the people
of the state of Montana be continu-
ally faced with a famine of power
and mines and mills shut down be-
cause of the lack of foresight and
the selfishness of the corporate in
terests? When the Montana Power
Company grabbed up the franchise
at Poison, and promised to develop
a power station the people were led
to believe that such a thing would
transpire, and that the power station
would be built. They promised the
people of the state these advantages;
they promised the Indians certain
advantages; neither M of which was
done. The hydro-electric station at
Poison will not be ready for a long
time. The Montana Power Company
holds this franchise. 1t was given
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