The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-10-26

remoteness and indifference. Washington is too far
away and regional offices too often not able to
operate with sufficient autonomy and flexbility.
In addition, the federal government is an absen
tee landlord in the West. 1t owns some 275 million
acres, nearly so per cent of the of the Noun
tain States, in national forests parks, and mineral
The fact that the federal government pays
taxes these lands is a constant source of
irritation to state and local governments. The two
three million dollars in annual payments in lieu
of taxes described shared revenues is hardly
sufficient to allay this of antiederal feeling
Like any landlord, the federal government seems
highhanded once in while. The most recent and
most pubicized case in point is that of the con-
troversy over the Jackson Hole National Monument
in Wyoming. An intensive campaign in the West
press has led Westerners to believe that Mr..
Ickes and Washington" have been most arbitrary
and dictatorial in taking more land, removing
it from the rolls and from by private enter
prise, and in general dsregarding the interests and
desires of Westerners.
Whatever the truth may be, many persons in
the Mountain States readily willing to believe
the version they had read; and result the gulf
between the Rockies and the Potomac has again
widened
ON BALANCE, however the federal government
" creates economic activity in the Mountain
States than it destroys National interest demands
the conservation of our natural resources; and in
its operation of the OIL mineral and timber reserves
of the Mountain States the federal government has
proved itself a good steward. Most of the postwar
planning and experimentation for develop
ment in the Mountain States today is being carried
by federal agencies with federal funds. And
while the federal government pays taxes its
lands it does hand to local governments large
subsidies to support national programs.
In 194O for example the Bureau of Internal Rev
enue collected about rs million dollars in taxes in
the eight Mountain States In the year, Uncle
Sam spent 255 millions in those states in
subsidies, relief payments and other forms of pay
ment. Additional millions disbursed for gov
eminent salaries and for loans by the AAA the
RFC, and similar agencies
Private absenteeism, by contrast not only drains
away the natural wealth of the West, but pockets
the profits as well. There is no balancing item
the other side Yet there is very little popular out
cry in the West over the deleterious effects of
private absenteesm, while States Rights" and
Down with Bureaucracy" have become the clarion
call of every local demagogue from Arizona to Idaho
Perhaps the explanation of this seeming paradox
is to be found in the alliance of business and politics
which is largely in control of Western policy and
Western thinking today-a control which in many
of its aspects presents the most serious barrier to
postwar economic expansion in the mountain region
In the alliance of business and politics in the
Rockies, business is clearly the senior partner. The
dominant characteristic of its thinking is conserva
tism, and it has managed to impose its philosophy
on many a citizen The advocates of traditional
Western progressivism are decidedly in the minority
in the Rockies today.
The basic policy of this business leadership is
the defense of the status quo 1t wishes to protect
its power against ali entertainments; and by and
large it is satisfied with things they The
Mormon business leaders in Utah looked askance at
the surge of activity in their empire. The
Seventeenth Street Crowd" in Denver thinks that
what Colorado needs is tourists and not
factories. The public utility and copper combines
in Montana and Arizona want no interference with
their policies The sugar and cattle interests in
Colorado Wyoming, Nevada, and New Mexico
united in the support of the popular orthodoxy
TN CONSEQUENCE, the few progressive dissenters
in the business world highly unpopular with
the dominant business leadership. Henry Kaiser in
particular represents serious threat to established
power and accepted patterns of thinking Mr.. Kaiser
actually has said that the West needs to be indus
riazed More serious still, he has let it be known
that he has plans for the operation of the great
Geneva Steel Plant in Provo, Utah. and the equally
strategic Denver Ordnance Plant in Colorado If
Mr.. Kaiser persists, he may well become the spear
head of drive to break up the established status
Iuo policy of the Mountain West
But Mr. Kaiser not only has to do battle with
Western conservatism. He also must overcome
Eastern opposition to his program of Western de-