The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-03-16

III A rev dTl1CleS nave dppCdiCu III III
Peoples Voice about the late stat
election. They have analysed tn
causes of defeat, but none have o.
fered a remedy for the future. AS
political observer, | have this to ado
The trend of the nation was to tn
right, as was evidenced by the substi
tuition of Harry Truman for the rea
progressive, Henry Wallace. Howey
er, some states held their ground AM
still others swung further to the left
like California and Washington, as /
shown by their choice of additiona
progressive congressman. Montan
swung further to the right than an.
state
Labor itself was disunited in thu
last campaign. What the G. /. o. sup
ported, the A. F. of l. opposed ant
visa versa John F. Mckay described
very fittingly in these columns few
weeks ago, that the bourgoise-mindet
labor organizations cannot conceive
of any other condition for themselves
than being the "hired help of CAPT
| tall"
| Left Erickson's defeat was due
largely to lack of organization and his
| failure to face the real issues. BY apol-
ogizing to the voters for the sup
port of the p. A. c., his refusal to
accept the services of Jerry ]. O'Con-
nell, confused the voters to such an
extent that large blocks of farm and
labor groups turned against him. If
Jerry O'Connell had run in place of
Erickson, he would not have lost by
such a large margin as Erickson lost
II such a campaign had been waged
the final results would not have
changed, but the voters would have
become much richer in political
knowledge. He would have shown up
the real political powers, such as the
bipartisan machine of Wheeler Demo
Gratis and the conservative Republic
cans. geared to the corporation politi-
cal machine of A. c. M. and Montana
Power Co.
This latter combination is the most
vicious force against progress in
Montana. They own large share of
now opdptI uG sta
lions are also directly or indirectly
controlled by these same groups. Mon
tana has about 100 weekly newspa-
pers These small town country news
paper editors have been prostituted
by the Montana Power Company for
years with their quarter page adver-
Using. Few people stop to consider
that every consumer is Indirectly pay
ing for spreading their poisonous
This advertising is
back to costs of operations,
thus increasing the cost of electrical
energy to the consumer. How many
people in Montana knows that Mon
tana Power has one valuation for
rate-making purposes and a much
smaller valuation for taxation pur-
poses. How would you, Mr.. Business
man, like to base your selling price on
cost of operation and another rate for |
taxation purposes based ON reduced |
physical values. This practice is con-
tinued from year to year because the
Montana Power Company own and
control the Public Service Commits
sion and both legislative bodies. Some
lalf-hearted attempts have been made
n the past to change this practice,
out it has always been stopped by
he power lobby.
Now what is the remedy? Two |
years from now, the people of Mon |
ana will be asked to vote for Unit |
I'd States senator to run against the
bipartisan corporation candidate, B.
(. Wheeler. How are the Montana
people to be informed on this vital
natter. We have one Independent
newspaper, THE PEOPLES VOICE,
'wned comparatively by farmers, la
)orers, small businessmen and pro-
,ressive elements in general. Politi-
ians have risen to power in the past
" means of progressive newspapers,
UGH as the WESTERN PROGRESS
I'VE, which was used to elevate that
olitical reprobate Wheeler. Then the
aper went out of existence. This
annot happen to the Peoples Voice
ecause it is comparatively owned and
managed. But If the VOICE is to be /
n effective force in campaign, in
tead of having 5000 subscribers in
he state, we should have $4,000 bona ;
lde subscribers. We should have /
Minute Men" in every county and In
very large community to build up the