The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1948-09-03
Propaganda!


Defined in my small dictionary as
"a given opinion or doctrine spread
to persons, or a country")
On my desk is an attractive looking
book entitled UNCLE SANS Bill
i LION DOLLAR BABY-author, Fred
erick L. Collins-printed (not neces
sarily published or circulated by G.
T. Putnam and Sons, New York, price
$3.50.
I didn't pay $3.50 for the copy on
my desk-not directly anyway 1t
was handed to me by a newspaper
man. Clipped to the first flyleaf is
the neatly embossed card of ''R. H.
Fletcher, Butte-Publicity and Adver-
Using the Montana Power Company"
Presumably by courtesy of Mr.. Fetch
er every newspaper in the state got
one of these books.
Presumably too, thousands of other
copies went out to officials, en-
| ployees, and other dependable lackeys
of MP Co., as well as to political lead
ers, businessmen, and others who are
apt to read and then "parrot" the
smooth, silky, and cleverly worded
mental poison that exudes from every
line on ia printed pages. No, none
of us mailed in checks or took another
$3.50 out of our piggy banks. We all
paid for these books, however, in
elusive of men, women, and kids who
didn't get a copy. We paid in the
six to seven million dollars of over
charge the benevolent company soaks
its Montana consumers each year for
electric lights and power.
Mr. r. H. Fletcher DIETER known
as Bob Fletcher, former employee of
Montana Highway Commission, who
is author of the clever historical road
side boards over the state) has in
dulged in a somewhat novel and sell
dom practiced idea as regards the
circulation of Mr.. Collins book. The
book is being freely circulated by MP
Co. and in MP Co. territory. You
would expect it to extol the merits of
said company or to make some kind
of an appeal in its behalf-but not a
line.
The whole book is devoted to a
running attack on TVA-about $500
miles away. About three hours of
solid reading no documented or
proven facts-but in a family con-
VersationaI style that airs and mag
nifies every alleged and every imag-
nary fault the IVA ever had or that
the private power companies wished
it did have. In sum total the book
conveys the impression that concep-
ton and execution of the gigantic
IVA project has been, and is, a
master stroke of the devil himself.
To the individual who has given
little thought to the IVA and even
to those who have not seen it on the
ground, this piled up barrage of attack
may register an adverse sentiment.
This will be accomplished not by
presentation of facts, but by play on
emotions.
OF course, Mr. Fletcher is not cir |
Mr.. Collins masterpiece in
IVA territory. The folks down there
would throw the book in the ash bar
rel and laugh Mr.. Collins out of town.
By the same token, Mr.. Fletcher does
not spend time circulating Montana |
with laudatOry book on the Montana
Power Co. Out here we know the
Montana Power Company and its past
'ecord. Down in the Tennessee Val
ey the folks know the IVA and what
t has done. Mr.. Fletcher fully under
stands that it is more effective and
afer to tear down IVA in Montana
md presumably in good time, to laud
he Montana Power Company in Ten
lessee. This is not advertising. 1t
S propaganda paid for by you and me.
j. G. L.