The people's voice., 1957-02-01

Pacific Railway official, attempted to make much
of the possibility that when the dam is built rail
service will be discontinued to the Polson-Ronan
area, and that the people of Lake would be at the
mercy of the truckers for service In the first place
rebuilding of the MP line to continue service into
the is contemplated in the Army Engineers 3O8
review report, with the relocation being paid for by
income off hydro-electricity produced by the dam
Secondly, it should be borne in mind that there is
competition between the trucks which, if the time
did come when the rail service discontinued
would ensure good service to the public. 1t should
also be further borne in mind that MP already shoots
its through freight trains along It's lower route
through Mineral county in order to avoid Evaro hill
Only it's local freight and passenger trains now go
via Evaro Except for the heavy lumber and agrcul-
tural shipments originating at Poison and Roman, the
railway company could not justify continuing main
tenance of the Evaro line from financial angle.
Paradise dam no. continuation of rail service into
the PoIson-Ronan is entirely dependent upon a
continuing high volume of shipping from that a.
The amount of rail freight passenger volume from
all other points along the Evaro line financially does
not justify maintenance of that line. (1n fact, if
recall correctly, it's only about decade ago there
was talk about MP seeking regulatory commission
permission to abandon the Evaro line)
Mr. Haw also made much of an assertion that Para
disc would be balancing reservoir subject to
draw-down'' of a hundred or feet down
stream poWer-generating requirements demanded.
Fact of the matter is that the average draW-dOWn
d
in Of emergency brought about by either ex-
treme drought the danger of serious flooding
conditions due to heavier than usual winter snowfall
The testimony of Walter Mcdonald, representing
the Fathead Indian Tribe, although in opposition
to the dam, appeared more to be concern for the
rights of the Indian people of that reservation
McDonalds over the loss of possible revenue
from the two Buffalo Rapids dam sites Indian
land, if and when the dams might be built, was we'll
taken, but hardly realistic The 84th Congress, in
passing the Murray Mansfield-M -Metcaf $5,000,000
YelloWtail right-of-Way resolution, has enunciated
policy of far-deaing with Indian landowners that
will apply to the Flatheads the Congress de-
sres to apply to the Crows In other Words Indian
lands and power sites on the Flathead will not be
bargained for solely the basis of their agricultural
grazing value but rather, their full value for
all purposes
Wellington Rankin, as a reported spokesman for
some of the people of the Paradise valley
centrated his oratory on stirring up emotions and
sentimentaiteS much the same he did at the Army
Engineers hearing the project at Hot Springs in
1948. Twas glorious oratory to listen to, but, there
wasn't much meat in what he had to say.
Testimony by Grange Master Winton Weyde-
meyer that construction of Paradise dam would re-
suit in sacrificing hundreds of taxpaying Montana
farms primarily for the benefit of industrial eXpan-
sion in downstream states . :" more of the
fear variety of statements put into the record by
opponents of the project. He like other opponents,
failed take into consideration the greatly increased
taxable value which will result because of the avail
ability of water for several times many irri-
gated acres as would be inundated. Likewise, his
completely overlooked the great amount
of supplemental irrigation water which would be
available to Lake and Sanders counties once great
quantities of cheap power available for pumping
purposes.
Fear of loss of revenue and income in Lake county
was expressed by several opponents including Ray
Loman, editor ROMAN PIONEER. Further study
of the effects of mutipe-purpose dam developments