The people's voice., 1959-01-16

| changeu ratner oraStlcaiiy with
members of the sect being branded
as pro-German and Bolsheviks.
Their refusal to buy liberty bonds
or heed the call to arms and a strict
based upon religious principles
were seen as manifestations of Hut
terite subversion.
Sect pacifist convictions were i'm
plemented by minority groups in Can
ada and the United States as a ration
alization to engage in acts of vandal
ism against the Hutterites.
By 1925 at the height of that pc
riod of American history dubbed by
historians as the ''Red Scare" super.
patriots in the United States had made
life so intolerable that only 6 of the
II Hutterite colonies in South Da.
kota remained. A mass exodus OF
nearly 1000 sect members to Canada
caused a cry in some Alberta and
Manitoba quarters for measures re-
stricting the amount of land avail
able to Hutterites.
After the subsistence of the bigotry
of the 20s, large numbers of Hutter-
ties returned to the United States to
repurchase their former holdings.
In 1914, the Alberta legislative as
sembly passed the first of several re-
strictive measures aimed at Hutter-
ties, providing an impetus to renewed
migration to the United States.
Prompted by what were considered
wartime requirements, the legislature
enacted law forbidding the Hutter-
ties to acquire additional land in AL
berta for the duration of the war.
Later, the deadline on land purchases
was moved up to April, 1947.
In that year a fact-finding COM
mittee meeting in Lethbridge rec
commended that restrictions be re-
moved on Hutterite land acquisi-
tions but urged that no extension
to established colonies be permit
ted. The committee also suggested
that the boundaries of Hutterite
colonies not be extended beyond
their 1914 limits and that no new
colonies be authorized within 40
miles of any then existent colony.
It is the latter stipulation which has
been particularly harmful to the sect's
expansion plans. The 40-mile law pre-
vents clustering of colonies upon
which Hutterite economic and re-
ligious thought is based. The prox-
unity of one community to another
permits close fellowship and averts
the duplication of services within the
colonies.
After the Alberta legislature con-
firmed the recommendation of the
interim committee, the butterflies be-
gan search for additional land in
Montana. 1t was in this period that
a group of Hutterites purchased the
Milford Colony site from two Great
Falls residents.
Through efficient farm practices
and wise capital investment over the
past 13 years, the Milford Colony can
boast outright ownership of 1853
acres which is supplemented by state
leases of 2,400 acres. The population
Of the agrarian colony is about $50.
Contrary to the beliefs of many
persons, the Hutterites are not a
government subsidized or tax ex-
empted group. In 1858, the Milford
Colony paid substantial property
and corporate license taxes.
The migration of Hutterites into
Montana after the imposition of re-
;trictions on the sect in Alberta
prompted the formation of a multi
Jude of groups dedicated to stopping
Iutterite advances.
In 1948, committee in Choteau
)egan collection to finance a drive
% secure Hutterite promises to re-
rain from further land acquisitions
n Teton county. 1t was decided that
he committee should aim at the pre-
vention of land sales to members of !
he sect and obtain the word of Hut
erites that they would not attempt |
o expand their Teton holdings. Gov.
Sam Ford wired his support for these
wo proposals.
Following the example of the Cho- J