Montana labor news., 1944-03-30
OPEN FORUM M
J. O'Connell Suggests Consumers Be Represented at
Montana Power Company Hearing Now Going On

Editors Note: The following letter
was received and read at the last meet
ing of the Silver Bow Trades and Labor
Council and ordered published in the
Montana Labor News:
CIO POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
Butte, Montana
March 27, 1914
Ed c. Vawter, Secretary
Silver Bow Trades g. Labor Council,
Butte, Montana.
Dear Sir and Brothers:
Today, there opens in the courtroom
at the Federal building in Butte, a joint
hearing of the Federal Power Commits
sion and the Montana Railroad and Pub
lie ervice Commission, called for the pur-
pose of determining the true valuation Of
the properties of the Montana Power
company in this state The hearing is
expected to continue for period of three
to four weeks so that there is ample
time for your Union to participate either
directly or indirectly in the proceedings.
The Federal Power Commiss ion
charges, after many months of intense
investigation and examination of the
utility and its books that the Montana
Power has illegally oyer-valued its prop
critics in the incredible amount of $53,-
OOO,00O which constitutes 44qe of the
S1l9,OOO0OO which the company claims
as its valuation This means that the
consumers of the Montana Power has
been overcharged 44qo on their electric
bills in this state. It means, too, that
stockholders have been bilked to invest
their hard-earned savings in a company
boasting a valuation that constitutes
S59,0OO,00O water. Yet, the Montana
Power now has the audacity to enlist
these same stockholders to fight on its
side, and spend their own money, at the
rate of 25c a share, or a total of $4,000,
to hire lawyer to defend this pure un-
adulterated robbery of themselves and
the consumers of Montana.
A small group Of stockholders, particu-
larly at Butte and Great Falls, has sent
letters to the corporations preferred
stockholders, asking them to get in this
fight to oppose their own interest and
welfare, and to oppose the common peo-
pie of the state who constitute the util-
ity's customers. This letter asserts
without any reason advanced therefor
that the charge of the Federal Power
Commission sis unreasonable, and is an
unjustifiable attack on a PRIVATE
business" This Notwithstanding that the
Montana Power company is PUBLIC
utility offering a PUBLIC service, from
the PUBLIC'S own water resources. Then
in the same old time-worn, outmoded
slogans, typical of the mentality of the
Montana Power officers and legal staff
it further uses the old shop-worn Estates
rights" argument, alleging that we also
feel that this action is another encroach-
ment on states rights" This, too, not
withstanding the fact that the Montana
Power operates on an interstate basis
selling power in Washington and Utah
as well as Montana, and selling its wat
cred stock from one end of the nation tC
the other.
Flushed with its recent success in the
Fqathead river controversy where it coyly
hid behind the skirts of the farmers
workers and other inhabitants of thai
valley with its subservient Governor al
a mouthpiece, the Montana Power nov
hopes to repeat by similar tactics in thii
proceeding. 1t has shrewdly listed OF
its so-called stockholders committee th'
names Of men and women connected
with labor and religious organizations o.
this state At an appropriate time
through its control Of the absentee.