The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-07-13

of Des Moines, attorney who frequent
lily represents AFL and Clio unions;
Kansas, Floyd Black of Topeka, sec
rotary of the Kansas State Fedora
ton of Labor; Montana, Sylvester
Graham, Billings, CLIO regional direc-
tor; Nebraska, Henry Petersen of
Guide Rock Nebraska Farmers Union
director, and Roy N. Towl Omaha
parks commissioner, with one-half
vote each; North Dakota, Gaylord
Conrad of Bismarck, editor of the
Bismarck Capital; South Dakota,
Henry Mundt of Sioux Falls, attorney;
and Colorado, Charles Graham of Den
YER attorney. Other Missouri valley
states will be represented within the
next 30 days.
A decision was reached by the con-
ference to secure the signatures of
million Missouri valley citizens to a
petition favoring the establishment of
Missouri Valley Authority and that
this petition be presented to congress
before the next senate committee
hearing on the bill.
Missouri state senator Claude B.
Ricketts, was one of the speakers at
the conference. Senator Ricketts, is
chairman of the State MVA Commits
sion, a state appointed board charged
with the duty of inspecting the opera
! ton, benefits and standing of the Ten
nessee Valley Authority. This board
is expected to render it's official re-
port to the state in the near future.
Senator Ricketts, described the Today
study of the IVA and said:
my own individual idea is that the
trip showed me the necessity for con-
certed, co-ordinated authority over
the diverse problems, the diverse
areas across the numerous state and
county lines.
1T eliminated in my mind the err
roneous idea that it was of social
istic, regimenting, paternalistic char
acter, dabbling in social service, char
acter building, folk-dancing and other
foreign fields"
Soldier Talks
T/Sgt Chester Kinsey of Montana,
Air Forces gunner, declared MVA is
important to men in the service be-
cause they have wasted three to five
years in pursuits from which they did
not benefit directly and they can't
afford to waste three or four more
years in a postwar depression"
Fowler Harper, Washington, solicit
tor of the Department Of Interior, told
the conference Friday afternoon that
opportunities for ultimate develop
ment of the Missouri Valley are far
greater than those in the Tennessee
Valley" and that neither the Pick
Sloan plan nor any other advanced
by competing bureaus of the federal
government can develop a river valley
like the Tennessee Valley Authority
has.
Trip Convinced Him
He declared that a national policy
of developing regional resoursec is
the answer to postwar unemployment
and pointed out differences in the
Murray MVA bill and the Department
of Interior bill which seeks to set up
system of regional authorities as a
haNiOhdl POllOJ
Farm and labor organizations parti-
cipated actively in the conference and
provided strong leadership. Repre-
sentatives of AFL building trades
councils from various Missouri Valley
centers endorsed both MVA and the
work of the regional committee in a
meeting July preceding opening of
tho raoiOnaI confarauoa
]. j. Guenther of Omaha, president
of the Nebraska State Federation of
Labor, was elected vice president of
a Nebraska Committee for MVA
formed at the close of the regional
Frank Cronin of Omaha,
Clio regional director, was elected a
director of the Nebraska committee
Don Chapman, state president of the
Farmers Union and Charles Cotter,
secretary of the Montana MVA Asso-
citation were among the representa-
tives from this state.