Hungry Horse news. [volume] (Columbia Falls, Mont.) 1948-current, 1955-08-12
Visitor From India

Our guest Tuesday afternoon on drive up Glac-
iers Sun highway to the foot Of the Gar
den Wall was ShibaShankar Behera, engineer at the
Kirakud Dam the Mahanadi river in midas state
of Orissa.
Behera fine man, is one of about 50 foreigners
seeing American dams and irrigation projects under
the International Cooperation Administration program
He came here to see Hungry Horse Dam and We'd
nesday and Thursday will be at Tber Dam near Ches-
ter.
Hungry Horse, the nations third highest, fourth
largest built of concrete had peak employment of
about 1850. Hrakud Dam in India will employ about
10000 incidentally it is considered the worlds longest
dam, being three miles of earth and concrete up to
go feet high with Is miles of dikes
AS we drove into Glacier we developed the thought
that main difference between the United States and
India was the economic status of the individual
Strings of cars went by. License plates were:
Washington California Iowa and New Jersey. paun-
chy bear was holding up another string There were
South Dakota, New York, Montana, Wisconsin and
Illinois. America comes to Glacier, and these Ameri-
cans are carpenters, machine operators mechanics,
clerks and lawyers
In India where it requires 10000 men compared to
1000 here to build dam, home for the machine oper-
ator and carpenter is apt to be mud plastered cot
tage Of two rooms, minus plumbing.
We take our automobiles, refrgerators, paid va
cations and fact that our youngsters can go on to
college they desire, for granted The struggle in In
Ola and in many other parts of the world is the prob
lem of getting enough to eat Here it is to meet pay
ments on the car bought every two three years
The United States has poverty but it is the least of
any land.
One could literally see Behera's warm, dark eyes
absorb the beauty of Glacier. He commented: 1--WE
have Kashmir, but it is inaccessible"
The modern industrial age is just coming to In
dia. Construction wage is under 81 day. The 81 in
terms Of about five rupees is able to keep a roof
over family and buy simple food In America men
in comparative jobs have refrigerators, automobiles
and paid vacations that often times bring them to such
places as Glacier. We were seeing them Tuesday.
Some of us talk about 81 an hour wages as toe
high, and others think in terms of automaton elm
mating Jobs and there's also featherbeddng to keeE
men on payrols even though they don't produce. We
tend to overlook that there weren't 81 and $3.50
hour wages on one hand and development of Ameri
can technical know how" automaton"-on the other
our people would be living like they do in India
We were thinking in these terms. Mr.. Behera wa
not He referred to of his country in bolster
ing agriculture production A few years ago to pre-
vent mass starvation there importation of abou
900 tons of food Now India apparently can feet
itself This is progress The nation has about $50 DAM
and irrigation projects under construction and is build
ing aluminium and steel plants.
The Beheras have four children, and they have
milk They lack refrigerator but keep cow Mrs
Behera does not have the electrified home and shs
has six servants to help with household chores Beher;
sees the day that this will be three We remarked
that in Columbia Falls we did not at this time know
of single housewife with ull-time employee assist
ing her.
Behera comes of an old civilization but new
country. His independence day is back in 1947 He ap
preciated that most of America could come to Ola
cier. In his country planning and effort is appar
emily licking starvation, and ahead is long row. Am
erica has come long way MF