Montana labor news., 1938-06-09
Are Highway Funds
To Be Used 10 Assist
Anaconda Company!
Musselshell
IL mniharnn

~ " VIC A1ttlll6j ny tAS 0latN AAA5il
way Commission, of the Rogers Pass
road between Great Falls and Mis-
soula and pointing out what it means
to the people of eastern Montana if
this contract was let. Evidently my
previous letter only found its way
into the editorial wastebasket, as
many of my communications have a
habit of doing, and since this mat
ter is of considerable Importance to
the people of eastern Montana and
to Montana as a whole l am writing
again and sending copies of this let
ter to other papers whose editors
are also interested in the efficient
and equitable expenditure of our
highway funds.
The cost of construction of the
Rogers Pass road will be approx
mately So, SOC, 900, which means that
there will be little funds from our
highway funds to expend on con-
struction in eastern or other sec
tons of Montana where road con-
struction is badly needed and has
waited for years for completion.
Now let me give briefly a few
reasons why this Rogers Pass road
is being given the preference over
construction in other sections of
Montana which are in all honesty
entitled to preference over the
Rogers Pass since there is already a
well improved route between Great
Falls and Missoula.
Several years ago the Anaconda
Copper Mining Co. acquired title to
an excellent stand of virgin timber
lying between Lincoln and Bonner
and at that time the c. M. and st.
Paul railway proposed to build an
extension through that territory,
During the Harding Coolidge-Hoo-
yer deterioration period which pre-
coded the depression" and partly
because of financial difficulties
brought about by Wall Streets fren-
zied financial methods, this extern
sion of the Milwaukee was never
built. Now with the improved high
ways and highway haulage facilities
it appears to the Wall Street finan-
ciers, the Chase National Bank, and
our own lesser lights, the A. C. M.
officials of Montana, that the really
smart thing to do is to have our
Montana Highway Commission
spend $3,500,000 of our state high
way funds in the building of a first
class logging road into this section
so that this stand of virgin timber
can be handled and taken out in the
proper style and with less expense
to the A. C. M.
There are approximately sixteen
miles of construction in the Rogers
Pass route and some of this con-
s~truction will cost as high as $4,000
per mile while roads in eastern and
other sections of Montana car be
constructed for as low as five or six
thousand dollars per mile.
Evidently the attitude of the Wall
Street financiers, the Montana Off
Gals Of the A. c. NJ, and the State
Highway Commission is that the
farmers and the people of other sec
tons of Montana can go to Halifax
or any other place they choose but
the timber belonging to the A. c. M.
must be taken out in style over an
oiled highway constructed and paid
for from the proceeds of the state
gas tax. The people of other sec
tons of the state may travel over
cowpaths, and goat trails, but moth
ing must be permitted to interfere
with the sacred profits of the Ana
conda Copper Company or their
Wall Street directors, the Chase
National Bank.
l have never posed as one of those
Heather lunged" boosters for my
own locality, %preferring to do what
seems necessary and let results
speak for themselves, but when | see
editors, commercial organizations
and boosters clubs continually
shouting about boosting for their
own communities, l do like to give
these Jealous and industrious
boosters every opportunity pos
sible to deliver the goods. Conse-
quently I am calling this matter to
your attention and Il hope) through
your columns to the attention of the
people in sections of Montana which
will be adversely affected by the
construction of the Rogers Pass high
way.
Here, then, Mr.. Editor and mem
bers of boosters clubs, is an oppor-
tunity for you to "do your stuff"
Do a little of that much heralded
boosting" for highway construction
in your own localities. Your people
in your communities have waited
long and patiently for road construc-
ton to which they we're and are
justly entitled. Their patience has
been sorely tried and they by all
signs and tokens are entitled to
priority in highway construction
over the Rogers Pass road. Our state
gasoline tax in 1897 brought into the
state funds approximately five mil
lion dollars. If three and one-half
million dnllnrc L. rnnnt thic ,tnar on