The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1960-12-02

so in the world of the mighty corpora
tions. states and nations. In fact the
strangest dreams may sometimes be
more rational than interplay of rela-
tionships that are recounted by the
journalistic floods of newsprint.
The other nap I envisioned an as
sembly of charlatans (why l should
be in such a company and the purpose
of the meeting was not quite clear)
which consisted of a priest, doctor,
magicians, fortune teller, lawyer and
the most surprising person to whom
have ever been introduced-Bed-
ding. Bedding looked exactly like a
pile of bedding except when intro
duced the false folds revealed a di-
minutive female face which, though
young in appearance, was quite ma
ture. The midget inside the cloth pile
could change the folds with a single
flick and the exterior shape and ma
terial composition would change. I
surmised that she was an assistant
to the magician.
| am quite sure this character ex-
lists outside of my dreams. Bedding
is Arabic numerals in which book
keepers hide the true character of
our protective policies. The bedding
we surround ourselves in that we
may sleep.
The point in case is the Highway
Commission story last week in
which said that after five months
of this fiscal year less than ten
million of the IL million dollars
available had been let to contract.
The wire services preferred to say
that some "a millions had been let
to contract this year. Bedding had
merely shown them some of this fis-
cal year and the last six months of
Last fiscal year. Thus the workers
who badger authorities of any cate
CORY for accuracy to be contained in
their deathless prose came up last
week with only partial stories. The
real total of contracts let in this
fiscal year is $6.808.815.11.
This figure is quite meaningless
in itself for it must be reflected
against previous fiscal years. In 1857
when the highway program first be-
gan to boom the total was SGT, 1922
900. Then 1858 saw an increase to
$35,426,OOO. Last fiscal year totaled
s4O,SO2,00O despite the complete
shutdown of contract lettings for
several months to obtain an increase
in the federal gasoline tax.
The calendar method would show
that in 1853 $36,020,388 was spent
and that 1859 spent only $20,621,-
lis. Making confused status in
which our friend Bedding is best
able to do her tricks.
The Highway Department is in
rather serious difficulty as was indi-
Gated by Chief Engineer Fred Quin-
nells prediction announcements. 1t
takes at least six months to dicker
with private persons for any major
right of-way purchasing. This coupled
with the anchor, or checking role,
played by the Bureau of Public Roads,
causes delay in time for the execu-
ton of plans into disable transport
links.
This dickering with private per-
sons is a fairly rapid process when
compared to the agonies gone
through trying to get right-of-way
from governmental agencies WA
jor projects are at the moment
held from committing to contract
because they cross Bureau of Rec
iamation and Forest Service lands.
The department maintains that the
planning work is not behind. But
count the forecasted jobs up on your
fingers and it can be seen that the
seven million now committed plus
the ten million dollar Wolf Creek
Canyon and the Is million project
from Butte to Whitehall done by the
outside engineering firms and four
or five million amount of work held
up by right-of-way and it is plain to
see that the 72 million available to
Montana this fiscal year is not apt to
be spent. This at time when I'M
employment seems to have frightened
it's paralyzing hand upon large seq
ment of our citizenry.
y