The Sidney herald., 1957-01-24
BY Cecil w. Smith. President.
Montana Dakota Utilities

1t is a pleasure to be with yo'
at the Annual Meeting of the Sid
ney Chamber of Commerce ant
again to enjoy your generous hos
pitality. / look back with pleasur'
and appreciation to the reception
you gave to our directors an(
the representatives of our banker
at the special meeting and groun1
breaking ceremony you arranged
in June. We of Montana Dakota
Minneapolis office regret that we
cannot spend more time in the
communities we serve. Twenty tt
thirty years ago it was possible
for us to make more personal calls
on II friends. We were not tieC
down with paper work. One OF
our attorneys recently made the
comment that ours is rapidly be-
coming a paper" civilization
While this comment was more OF
less facetiously made, l think you
will all agree it is more or less
true. Due to the increasing amount
of regulations and the increasing
complexity of our government,
it has become necessary for all
of us to spend more and more
time compiling information, max
ing reports and preparing appli-
cations for certificates of necessity
and for financing. l assume that
you are more or less familiar with
this problem but we in the utility
business find that paper work re-
quires an increasingly greater
amount of our time and additional
expense. AS a result, many of is
cannot spend as much time as we
would like in the communities we
Serve.
Your Chamber of Commerce is
an organization whose principal
activity is to unite the efforts of
all members of the community in
order to promote the well-being
of the area and to make a united
effort in securing improvements,
industry and to promote the gen.
eral welfare in every possible
way. Our company has the same
interest in all the communities we
serve. We are glad to have our
people assist and participate with
their time and effort in these con-
structive activities. We appreciate
the help which your organization
gives us from time to time on
problems which arise.
Fundamentally, what we all need
in this area is more people and
greater opportunities for them. We
should make every effort to inn
prove our communities and devel-
op the area in order to make it
attractive to industry and to pro-
vide a promising future for our
young people. AS far as our COM
pany is concerned, we need such
developments to assure healthy
expansion of Sidney and other
progressive cities in the area,
must likewise look for new
sources of strength and growth if
hey are to meet the challenge of
he times.
In order to present some Of the
problems involved, l would like
discuss a few pertinent topics
rom the standpoint of my SUBJ
ect, Looking Ahead.
The all : important resource
which concerns all of us, is of
curse, agriculture. This is the
,ase of the economy in this en-
ire area and generally speaking,
he principal product involved is
wheat. Of course, in the immedi-
tie Sidney area, you r fortunate
n having developed a sound and
table sugar beet industry. This
las placed Sidney in an enviable
,osition in that the community
5 not dependent upon one crop.
nevertheless, as far as area-wide
griculture is concerned, the diff
which have been ercoun-
cred and which have mol yet
cen solved are as follows: !
ID The accumulation of sur
luses resulting from increased j
during the war years ]
nd an effort to maintain that
in the years following. j
(2) Increasing costs of produc- S
on, such as taxes, labor, equip I
tent and similar items. S
90 Prices which have declined |
ue to the presence of SURPRISES (
nd the loss of world markets l
hitch has prevailed since the end !
{ World War II. I
"a Dwindling, sales due to the I
'ss of foreign markets, the in 1
leasing competition from other I
ountries and the change of eat 2
lg habits in our own country. {
go Larger investment requir-
] due to mechanization of farms b
I'D increasing labor saving de- O
ICES. Incidentally, this is the fun e
amental reason for the decrease t
the number of farms. We hear a
UGH discussion on the reduction e
the number of farms and agi- d
ton for the preservation of fam o
Y farms. This reduction in the u
Imber of farms is a natural re- S
lit of the mechanization of farms t,
I'd is not the evil that it is rep S
scented to be. With the addition Il
machinery and investment, it Il
necessary to operate larger "
rms in order to support such Il
vestment. AS you well know, b
is is not the result of so-called 81
,r~poration farming but is the t.
suit of the more efficient farm f;
expanding and the less eff t.
ent farmer disposing of his land. tc
cidentally, this is one of the n
oblems which the development IL
industry in this area would help m
I've because employment would
en- be available for persons who W
ase farming or who might farm Of
ly on a part-time basis. At the A
ocant time the tendency is for ri