The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1956-01-13

DlQ the hh&HS COMMISSION go TO
Butte for the purpose of recording
this speech and filing the proceed
ings? They didn't pick it up in Hell
ena, and no one, not even the TV
station, knew the material that would
be used in the speech (other than it
was to be ''on issues of State Govern
ment during 1862 before it was
presented. 1t could just as we'll have
been on oil.
Conversations overheard over cot
fe cups makes speculation about the
answers to these questions real eX-
citing, and are the topic of the nv
ment all over Helena.
At this point we await the de-
cision of the Supreme Court on the
contempt request. They can grant
the request to hear the RR&PS Com
mission arguments or they can refuse,
the latter ending the whole fracas.
If they agree to hear it the RR&PS
Commission will appear before them.
The Attorney General will not be
heard at that time, but can file his
material and have his side of the story
heard at a date following the RR&PS
Commission.
So where this action, initiated by
a bilious old man viii end is yet to
be seen.
"Our pampered tyrant, the Ameri-
can farmer, is about to get his boots
licked again by both political parties,'
begins an editorial in Harper's maya
zine, December 1866, entitled "The
Country Slickers Take Us Again"
And thus begins campaign de-
signed to make the farmer ashamed
of being a farmer-a campaign of
such vitrol as has not in many years
been directed against segment of
society.
This attempt to make the farmers |
desire for economic equality an I'M
worthy and discreditable emotion is
a concentrated repetition of the 1852 |
campaign that made the people of
the whole nation decide it was de-
grading to want better life for them
selves. The tactic was effective in
1852. Is it going to be effective in
1856?
Right now is a good time to ask, at
what point should the farmer be
of the job he has been do
ng? At what point should be con-
'ider himself unworthy of economic
equality?
Ezra Benson once said the "ineffi-
,ient" farmers must go. Where are
he inefficient farmers?
The farm problem in America Gre
tied by Harper's ''pampered tyants"
S too much efficiency. The great hue
md cry is too much production.
The naked truth is the American
armer is doing such good job pro-
Iucing food and fiber for the nation {
We haven't been able to keep up with t
i'm.
Is Americas answer to that situa- t
ion a penalty for doing the job too v
yell? c
Is Americas answer to efficiency r
aking away from a man his life's Q
-ork-the only thing he knows-the G
hing he loves-because he does the b
ob too we'll? v
We divided the great west into F
acts of $50 acres for the purpose v
E bringing colonization to the wide o
pen spaces. The farmer and his fam g
y took great risks, against impos- t.
BILE odds to develop the west. He II
uilt his community and he worked a
IS acres when his only reward was his t.
'eedom, his contribution to a new Fl
nd and food for a growing nation.
ven then he was fighting for recog- lc
tion and equality commensurate to lc
S contribution to the national econ a.
ny. Finally he has done his job 50 N
ell a campaign is being waged al
,ainst him, unbelievable to contem- m
ate in it's viciousness. Ell
No one in his right mind would say
ontana has too many people, even in tn
$50. We still need our farm citizens a
r the economic and social develop a
emit as state.
1t is not conceivable, however, that m
e men and women who settled a da
lderness in the face Of everything w