The people's voice., 1943-12-10

RED HERRING
, In Ireland of old, the landed gentr.
on horseback would follow a TO,
through tenants corps. Farm folk
kept a foul red herring on string. |
the fox ran through the garden patch
= an alert lad would rush wildly ant
drag the red herring across the trai
before the hounds arrived. Thes'
would then follow to barren land thu
boy dragging the stinking fish.
The devices success brought its
use for diverting attention for les!
commendable purposes than saving {
garden from revelers on horseback
and "16 spans above the law"
Four months ago all of our Dopey
Dupes( the electorate) were wrought
to frenzy about plan of the fedora
government to raise Flathead lake ar
additional seven feet above the 10
foot raise permitted the power com
pany under the treaty between the
F'lathead tribe and one of their broth
ers (by adoption), head of the Mon
tana Power company. "Ten million
dollars worth of land was to be
smamped." Women and children half
naked were to be ruthlessly driven
from their homes by barbaric army
officers" ct cetera, ad infinitum let
ad nauseam). Flathead lands were
quoted at $1,000.O0 the acre by the
Company Press.
| Nhoh o11 I,1r1r q
United States cannot and never has
yet taken any private persons prop
erty without paying its full value.
When the Power company condemned
similar land around Flathead lake, it
probably paid about S250O the acre,
or less. Perhaps some choice sites
went as high as $4,000 the acre.
The government has invaded the
Mellon family's aluminium monopoly.
1t is aiding a crowd near Spokane to
reduce the metal from forms of clay
With more power, more aluminium,
the go families believe, "United we
stand, divided we fall" Like the
labor union motto, can injury to one
is an injury to all" There are count
less billions of tons of medium con-
tent aluminium clays in western Mon
tana. Heinze first, Clark second,
found out that Wall Street wanted no
competitor in large scale development
of the vast unopened mineral wealth
of the Treasure State" 1t surely
does not want the government in COM
petition with the Anaconda or Mon
tana Power here.
If, by federal aid reducing alum
mum on the Flathead large competi-
tive capital entered, the government
and such funds might jump east to
the Yellowstone and do open pit coal
mining for 25 cents the ton as the
Northern Pacific does in Rosebud
county.
Then, too, the federal generation of
power on the Flathead might provide
cheaper current for the lead zinc,
silver miners in the Occur d'Alene
country, or some bunch might start
with cheaper power a glass works
from some of our unexcelled silica
deposits These reasons for the
charivari of our daily press about
raising Flathead lake level are hid |
den, but present and controlling in
part the patent cause is the lease on
Flathead power is for SO years; about
15 years has run. If, when the lease |
expires, the nation is using part of |
the power there, it would be an easy |
step forward to just use it all, not |
renew the lease.
The governor sings infringement of |
states rights to the Knife and Fork |
clubs far and near Qittle needing that
this marks a change of the weather
vane on his mansion from when, dur
ing the session of 1941, he refused to
aid our hearty hunters opposition to
troll of the wild life of Montana.)
And now, the army engineers sug-
gest a flood control and irrigation
lam on the Yellowstone. The weather
yane screeches loudly on rusty hinges.
Before the Dopey Dupes (Montana
oublic) join the governor about Vel
owstone dams, let's find out who owns
he Yellowstone river.
Some years ago scream was
heard. There was a plan to divert a
mall amount of water from the Up ]
,er Madison into Idaho. The Press
beloved, Montana Water for Mon {
ana Farmers" Several years later /
ONE farm dopey dupes near Town !
end wanted to divert some Madison &
iver water (after its confluence into l
he Missouri). They found out pretty q
uick that power company owned
he Missouri river g
Now, before l get excited over the 4
Ian of damming the Yellowstone,
lust examine a good abstract of title.
the Power company owns it, they +
ave counsel paid by the year to pro- {
ect their property. The courts are
lways open. l;
1t might hurt the scenery little, il
ut for 25 years I have thought it "
-ould steady and increase the flow o
irrigating water from Gardiner to n
idney if seven-foot control dam a
ere put just above the Upper Falls 7
the Yellowstone. 1t would not cost a
trivial million dollars l am told, but
len public national opinion would S,
ot consent that in the park any d
'ivate ownership could exist. W
Niagara looks as grand to me nova p
ays as it did before it was made to al
rive mankind. tt
Dear Governor, do you not know 81
lat the underlying cause Why the fC