Montana labor news., 1945-04-19

t&t8
rave, hearty, gay, earnest, solemn.
the East and South; or men from Mon
tana who knew all about minerals and
mineral lands, and who, knowingly,
served the interests of the railway COM
pany faithfully and well. One Of these
commissioners, in the most important
district, posed as a mineral expert and
Democrat under one administration, and
as a mineral expert and Republican
under another administration; but, in
reality, was a railroad agent and servitor
all of the time, and has never done a
lick Of work since.
The Northern Pacific owned millions
of valueless acres of land in Montana
before these commissioners began their
work of classification. When that work
was completed, it owned but little, if
any. worthless landau Of its real estate
holdings in Montana we're valuable. Pre-
vious to this alleged classification it
owned many square miles of mountain
peakes, barren wastes, rock-slides and
desert drift-heaps Of gravel on which
scarcely a spear of grass, a stick Of
mercHantable timber, a stalk of grain,
valuable vegetable root or fruit tree
would grow. In lieu Of such worthless
lands it o possesses millions Of acres
of rich agricultural and timber lands,
the latter Of which will soon become
priceless. It was a vast real estate deal
the profits Of which meant many mil
lions Of dollars to the great railway cor
poration which manipulated the entire
governmental machinery of the mineral
land classification in Montana.
Shrewd, INSCRIPTIONS land agents of
the railway company accompanied the
several mineral land commissioners in
all their expeditions and examinations
Of land. They, also, stood at their elbows
when setting in session as a determining
board to pass upon doubtful or contested
claims. The interests of the public wert
entirely neglected. The railway agent
4, and attorneys were always at hand
, When any commissioner was disposed t.
he fair and decent, he found two othe
commissioners, a majority, against him
and the majority determined the fina
& result.
, It is true, that, in a few isolated in
stances. a commissioner did rebel an
T. threaten to make exposure Of the whole
sale fraud, but nothing ever came of til
T. matter. He may have complained, an
it is known, in one instance, that or
commissioner resigned in disgust and IT
vealed the real facts to a prominent cit
zen of Montana; but even he seems
a, have been silenced, as nothing furth
20 was ever heard from him. But most
g them made no complaint, served Il
Northern Pacific faithfully, Loyalty al
well, and allowed it to work its ov
ir sweet will from beginning to end,
al The revelation of the m honest cor
u missioner who rebeled, complained al
he resigned is interesting. Here it is in su
N stance as he told it:
In our examinations, we would COZ
to a tract of land, and the railway la
agents would say to the Montana min,
al expert commissioner, That land
nd mineraI-it being utterly valueless a
innocent of a trace Of mineral-and
70, expert commissioners usually acquiesC
"a in the experts pronunciamento. II
.bo tract Of worthless land was set as
,od for the public. Another tract would
valuable, either as agricultural land
4b because it was heavily timbered. ]
railway agents would declare it to
non-mineral. At once the mineral
pert would be found to be exactly of
same opinion and the two eastern p
ID ticians generally acquiesced. The r
III road got that tract. This went on
after day, week after week, and mo
der after month. The railroad practic
,is- was made judge and jury as to its {
lev property rights, made the selectil
classification and pronuncamentos,
heir ieapeu 'ie harvest Inc runway "
pany had its own way and bagged all
arv game"
not The result was inevitable, lucrative
the railroad, disastrous to the state
a public. The Northern Pacific got rit
hev all its many millions Of worthless &C
the and received valuable and salable a
all cultural and timber lands ii lieu TN
Of. It was mastery strategy--or ras
, Of ity-upon the part Of the railway C
telv pany; it was impoverislment and swi
ner- ling as a c%onseuence to the people.
public-poor, misguided, unsuspec