The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1943-01-28
STATES lust STAND UP

More and more people are coming to realize that states right
and decentralized government are far from being abstract O.
dead issues.
During the year, almost every Montana community suffered
or at least was inconvenience, by bureaucratic control from fan
off Washington. Many of our vital functions were controlled
from there, necessarily because of war conditions. Our most
aggravating case was that of farm labor; even right at the time
our business houses were closed so that townspeople could help
farmers in the beet fields, some of the biggest chair warmers
in Washington were trying to tell our senators that there was
mo labor shortage in Montana"
The reaction of people to these kind of things was evidenced
in the November election. We believe that today most people
are accepting these federal controls, or many of them, as neces-
sary in wartime, but we have seen enough of government by
long distance to realize that we don't want much of it when
peace returns.
In line with this, the Rocky Mountain Association, of which
Montanans, Inc, is a member, recently passed a resolution con-
corning the rights of immense proportion which have been
acquired in reliance upon state laws governing the use of
water"
The resolution points out there are many enterprises awaiting
development which are possible only through the use of water
and that the federal government has cast doubts upon the
authority of the state to exercise control over such use. A case
in point for postwar consideration is our own Fort Peck irri-
CATION project. Interstate water compacts will be needed and
probably can be worked out amicably, as they already are
being worked out for the Yellowstone river.
But, if the federal government acquires complete and eXclu-
sve control of the Missouri watershed, there is liable to be
confusion worse c~onfounded. The rights of no state involved
will be protected. 1t is important that we preserve our state
rights IN the matter OF water control, a well as IN many Oller
things.
Governor Charles Edison of New Jersey has expressed our
feeling about the whole matter much better thar. we can. He
said in a recent statement:
ITO me, one of the most important needs of our times is for
our individual states to stand on their own feet. In the last
fifty years the nation has been drifting toward Capitalization
of power in Washington. Invention and Supreme Court deci-
sions have all but erased state lines, and war and economic
crises have done the rest. In World War One, national interest
made Capitalization a necessity. After that war, power started
TO go back to the states slowly, and then came the depression,
which swung us back to Capitalization again. Washingtons hold
began to relax once more a few years back, but then came
World War Two, and again we are highly centralized. The spirit
local responsibility is dying. The feeling in the states is, The m
Federal gravy train IS going by and we might as well get ours in
Local pride IS gone. tn
In wartime, any democracy must temporarily function in a 4
.totaEtarian manner. and Washington today IS bigger and more
and un1ieldy than i has ever been before. After =
he war, Decentralization must start but who VIII start it,.
Certainly Washington won't !: vii d TOO full O: rested bureau
Interests Only te s-z:= III II liz .o5, and some Of u
At least nuS1 d E-czz nj -=z3y- Ny 6eeg@st hope IS -.
hat New Jersey VIII d oo= :: IL ranges IL winch democracy n
an retreat after the VIZ Z gv=- ,,