The people's voice., 1959-04-03

/ wise effecting postal curtailments" il
Montana, always Gin the interest o.
economy and improved service.
Improvement in service has MOI
been realized" wrote Senators Muir
ray and Mansfield, Congressman Met
calf and Anderson. "The question o1
economy remains to be demon
strated.'
They asked Summerfield to give
them list of the post offices closed
in Montana since Jan. 1, 1854, and
the estimated savings which resulted.
They asked about added costs in post
offices to which the workload of
closed post offices was shifted; and
the extra costs of star, truck or ex-
tended carrier routes.
They also asked for similar in
formation on curtailment of railway
postal service.
And while they were at it, they re-
quested Summerfield to compare costs
of handling mail at Billings before,
and after, closure of the airfield mail
setup there.
SMOKEY THE BEAR
My seven-year-old Karl became a
Smokey the Bear addict about the
time he first saw, in the zoo here, the
symbol of the Forest Services cam
paign against man-caused forest fires.
Karl stopped me the other day
when he asked me where Smokey the
Bear came from. Here's the story
from the Forest Service:
In 1850, a man-caused fire ragged
for five days over the Lincoln Ma
tional Forest in New Mexico. 1t
burned 1900 acres of timber, killed
countless animals, burned off the
cover which holds the water. The
only living thing the mop-up crews
saw was badly-burned black bear
cub. The New Mexico State game
and fish officials took him back to
Santa Fe, treated him for third-de-
gree burns and nursed him back to
health on diet of pablum mixed with
honey and milk.
New Mexico's game warden offered
the cub to the Forest Service as a
living symbol of the need to be care
full with fire in the forest. So three
months after the fire, Smokey, then |
in at 10 pounds, was flown
to Washington.
Since that time he has become a
national figure. The Advertising
Council has built promotion cam
oaign around Smokey to which busi-
lessmen contribute around $40 mil
ion worth of time and space year.
The cooperative federal-state fire
program budget is around
100000.
Smokey also is major financial
contributor to the program. In 1852,
because of his popularity and stand
ng with the youngsters of this coun-
ry, Congress passed law protecting
lis name. The Secretary of Agricul-
ure is authorized to issue licenses
or the manufacture and sale of com
nercial Smokey Bear products pro-
ided the product is in good taste and
arries a forest fire prevention mes
age. All the money from these Ii
enses goes for furthering the nation
yide cooperative forest fire preven-
ion program. {
To date, some 80 Smokey products t
ave been licensed. They include a I
eddy bear, wallets, belts, T-shirts, 7
,aves, ash trays, Lewis, hats, books, 6
omic books, songs and records. To I
ate, the 5@o royalty on these prod +
cts has totaled almost 100000. f
In 1853, Smokey started ,enlisting q
lnior Forest Rangers, some 2 million
whom have since received kits
zee for the asking from Smokey S
ear. Headquarters, Washington %, h
c. Montana is one of handful t.
states which distribute their own d
is. If you, too, have likely pros h
ect, direct your request to Gareth b
oon, Montana State Forester, Mon 7
ma State University, Missoula. p
rEP UP INDIAN TRAINING G.
Thursday the four Montanans in
ongress co sponsored legislation u
hich would step up the existing pro- g
am of adult Indian vocational train =,
g. u
This program started three years
%. A total of $3.5 million annually is
ay be appropriated for this pro- tt
II L L..