The people's voice., 1959-11-20


stood up and filed from behind tn,
high bench after hearing the appea
of the Welfare Department from E
mandamus order of the Silver Bow
district court, the chips were down
Each judge had the story. They hac
asked questions of Tom Mahan. at.
torney for the Welfare. Questions
had been asked of Thomas C. Malice
and William Brolin, who had won the
mandamus writ from the lower court
for the Mine-Mill union and William
Galley, citizen, who was receiving
fifty per cent of his welfare entitle-
ment as an American in Montana.
Mandamus simply means "obey the
law.
AS courtesy directs, Chief Justice
Harrison was first to trail his long
black toga down the steps from the
court room, followed by his Republi-
can colleagues, Justices Albert C.
Angstman and Wesley Castles. The
two Democrats, R. V. Bottomly and
Hugh Adair, stood fast as the other
three passed behind them. They
single-filed out of the sc to face the
quiet conviction of their own writing
in their private chambers.
Five minds honed with the jargon
of law must face the spectre of want
and privation which stalks the streets
of Montana cities. In the quietude of
the rear chambers listening to the
hiss of the steam radiator which |
belied the below zero temperature
outside, the five honed heads must |
busy themselves with a lower court
mandamus.
The decision will be of interest to
more than those who must exist on
SO per cent of what the Welfare De-
partment has established as subsist-
ance level living.
The question as I see it (the editor
of this paper is quite democratic and
allows even my low-brow approach),
is whether the law is sweet; or it is
a plot to be avoided. The law is
sweet, according to my view of the
IOWSI COuIC QeClS1Ou.
The Welfare Commission went
quite beyond the law when it ordered
is department to establish class dis
,inction under the guise of not re-
lucing strikers to paupers. The COM :
mission orders of August and Septem- :
)er abridged the law by allowing"
he striker to receive consideration !;
wen though he had $500 of assets d.
eft. This original abridgement of ..
he premises of any government led
hem to conclude, as stay-within- ,
heir-budget measure, to establish =
rades of citizenship. :
This can only lead to a suspect =
ur-government attitude whic h ;,
naws the vitality from the honor 7
bility of your experience. -
The chips are down. Obeying the =
NV is a sweet experience which must ;,
xtend even to those who sit on the =
Ugh governing boards. Harry Burns Is
:,
The single man standing on the >,
Did street in Butte is expected not u
, take the milk bottles from a porch -,
ven though his stomach commands q,
lch action. :,
He stands cold and knows he must
ait for break. He knows the sweet
w will make right the temporary - =,
ills which beset him. The same sweet IL
W will direct our high court. ~
The milk on the porch is not plot '"
,ainst the mans stomach. The law
not going to break the Welfare. &c
lie Welfare need not reduce citi- IL. e
MS by so per cent. -
The need is apparent for full well ~ ~
re. In Butte, two aldermen of the Tl aa
" government, obviously with 4 -
cans to leave, left. ~ ~
Blasphemous profanity burst forth ~ ~
om the Highway Commission Tues ai' ai'
y when they discussed a suit to @ Sol
ow cause why the whole Livingston - -
Billings proposed routing for In pI pI
state 10 should not be abandoned. III
airman Harry L. Uucifer, by his
n admission) Burns was so over l
ought that he was caused to re- Z
rk, "'Mr. Small, you can now as al
ne your usual position by the key g
e" f "
But no. The commission was so CO
ken by the papers served from the tt
Wis and Clark district court by M
III ii