The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-12-10
Coolidge
Continued from Page one)

but | did believe that if you would
remove one member whose actions
showed that he was not qualified, and
replace him with some other man, and
suggested Dan O'Hern, l would be
willing to serve. There was no
thought on my part to run the high
way department except if I knew that
we would eliminate one incompetent
and replace him by another man, we
some good for the people of Montana.
1t takes three commissioners to con-
troll the highway department and we
would have had to enlist the support
of a third, fourth and possibly fifth
member.
You say that Wheeler is co-operat-
ing with Mr.. Holmes. This statement
means very little, as his cooperation
means that he wants to get along
with the present regime, knowing full
well what he tried to do during the
Ayers administration and he was not
fit timber for me to work with, be-
cause | refused to join the commits
sion with my hands tied and unable
to do, with the cooperation of the
majority of the board and the state
engineer, what was required to obtain
efficient, honest service for the peo-
pie of Montana by building roads.
You brought up the subject of a
certain state board that you promised
me faithfully you would replace as
soon as you were inaugurated. l have
argued that point several times with
you but you did not concede to make
any changes until January Sth, so l
waived this consideration entirely to
see whether or not your word was
still good that you would make the
change in the coming January, which
is one year late, but this, l want to
assure you, had no bearing on wheth-
err accepted the highway appoint
ment or not.
You put the responsibility on Mr..
McKinnon rather than Mr.. Wheeler
and his associates about the promo
ton of this road between Huntley and
Billings south of the Yellowstone
river. The fact is, McKinnon was
working for this clique. This infor-
nation was given me both by Mr..
Winkler and Mr. Holmes and in my
opinion, neither Mr.. McKinnon nor
Mr.. Wheeler or any other of Ayers
appointees should be allowed to serve
on this board after the way it was
handled, and know you know the
oh In
the engineers office. I did not say
that Wheeler controlled the commits
sion, but he, together with McKinnon
and the other stools, were able to
hold up this road for period of four
years, according to my best informa-
ton, and that is not the only depart
ment in which these same sort of tao
tics were used. My information on
the fact that $1S0,000 was lost to the
state of Montana in matching federal
funds on this project came to me from
both Mr. Winkler and Mr.. Holmes.
wish to repeat that I do think Mr..
Holmes is the best highway engineer
Montana has ever had and with full
cooperation of at least majority of
the highway commission, he could
and would give Montana an honest
administration, free from graft and
pressure from the contractors asso-
citation.
| did not know that you did not
have the power to call a grand jury
investigation but l do believe that
you, at the head of our state admins
tration, could have impressed on the
legislature to call for an investigation
in every department to clean the slate
before you took over. You simply
wanted to bury the past and let by
cones be bygones, knowing full we'll
that a certain person here in Great
Falls offered me $4,000 for your cam
paign fund if you would waive all in
vestigation with reference to the
highway department and even waive
the proposition that he had made be-
fore to be appointed chairman of the
highway commission with authority to
select the state engineer. Personally,
/ think that it is your duty to see that
if there was any skullduggery in the
past, it should have been cleaned out
and those persons guilty given their
just dues.
/ do know that you told the general
public you were opposed to the Hitler
bill, but the progressives in the legis-
ature were opposed to it's repeal be-
cause they thought they had elected
a champion of the rank and file, but
it appears to me that you have taken
advantage of it since it was not re-
pealed, the same as Ayers had done
before, although l will say you have
let a great many of the stooges con-
tinue to function in the various de-