Montana labor news., 1945-03-22
1T NEEDS A BLOOD
TRANSMISSION
TO SAVE MONTANA

hG0AAbAAAANa 1ANAAA a Ghk INV
opinion and found 50 corrupt, so vile,
so arrogant, so filthy, that our young
folks are laughed at abroad, and even
suspected, simply because they were born
here.
The Mikado Of evil politics in this
state is the Anaconda Company. An
affiliate is Anaconda Wire and Cable-a
marketing agency for products of the
parent company. The world from Sal
pan and Guadalcanal to Moscow was
shocked by the treason born of greed
and fraud Of the adult child of the Ana
conda. Encouraged by the top officials,
a button box fooling U. S. Inspectors,
Anaconda Wire and Gable was supplying
to our allies in Russia, and for the use
Of our own heroic boys in the Pacific
iungles spools of communication wire
1000 feet of decent outside, 1000 feet
of worthless inside. There is no doubt
of this. These men have paid fines, and
are under sentence Of the courts for
long prison terms. This is thrown up to
our young folks away, and makes them
ashamed to confess where they were
born.
The stranger in our Capital City soon
notes that the Legislature is run from
a corporation bar room in the hotel
there, and he suspects who supplies the
liquor, and pulls the wires from it.
Lately the Federal Power Commission
suspected that our network power COM
pany had hands too unclean to enter
commerce outside of this state; that our
methods should be quarantined. A
searching trial followed. The power Of
propaganda was e~xempHfied before this
trial commenced. There were thousands
of honest investors in preferred stock OF
the Montana Power company. The Sc
curity of these could be made perma-
nent by success of the federal effort.
They had all to w~in-nothing to lose.
The inside ring, owners of watered stock,
induced these gulls to hire lawyers, to
fight against their best interests which
the federal authorities were trying to
advance. The preferred stockholders
attorneys coached in every move by the
company, lost. The clients won.
No honest investor can lose by the
federal governments demanding that a
corporation keep honest books. Market
price of Montana Power preferred firmed
after the decision, which washed foul
Montana linen in front Of the nation.
The gullible owners who paid fat fees
to the company to hire lawyers to weak
en- their own securities, must by now
have as much faith in the integrity Of
the federal power commission as in the
barons who organized the company, or
in the present management that wheed-
led the gulls to pay fat fees to fervent
barristers seeking a ruling against their
clients best interests.
Montana Power is capitalized for one
hundred million dollars. The ruling is
that forty-seven million of this is not
based on tangible assets, AND NEVER
WAS, The president of the Anaconda
testified that there was fair value for
this stuffing. Whatever credence the
home town crowd give such testimony,
the people Of the outside believe it false.
The long buried facts when brought to
light caused a national scandal.
This makes our young folks abroad
ashamed to confess their native state.
This also makes them averse to return
ing to live where valuation for taxation
Of this company is so million dollars less
than valuation for rate fixing. They
see no prospect of a change.
The average young American aspires
to hold public office, to be governor per-
haps. or congressman or senator indeed.
These offices in Montana are often pur-