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About The Ekalaka Eagle (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920 | View This Issue
The Ekalaka Eagle (Ekalaka, Mont.), 30 March 1917, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053090/1917-03-30/ed-1/seq-7/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
•!. • •A, THE EKALAKA EAGLE ' 4 'MAKE PLACE FOR PIONEER STUART VitilNERABLE • MONTANAN, HERO OF MANY ADVENTUREK, END OF RESOURCES. Cannot Be Pensioned, But Will Be Employed to Write State. History; White Proposes Permanent Tax Commission; Whiteside Would Make All Children Legitimate. 1,egisWin, Bureau of the Montana Newspaper '- Association, Helena Granville Stuart, who blazed trails through the state when Montana was a trackless wilderness, is at the end of his resources. There are few men in Montana who have had as much to do with the state'e development, or to whom *the people owe, as much as to this pioneer. There has been some talk of creating a pension for 'his benefit, but the authorities are agreed that such an action wo,uld be unconstitutional. It is probable that the poet of as- ,sistant librarian of the Montana His- torical library wilI he created for his benefit. To this position would be attached a living salary, and the pioneer would spend his declining years in writing a history of the state he has served so long. He writes fluently. No mail in the state is as • Granville Stuart., 410••••••••• iiiii •••••10 familiar with Montana's early his- tory as Stuart, ana his narrative should prove a ntost interesting one. No authentic history or the state, is- sued under state autnority, is in ex- istence. Stuart has compiled a mass of historical data and this would be available for the state's archives. This pioneer, now past 82 years of age, came to Montana lit 1857. lured by the discovery of placer diggings on Gold creek, near Deer Lodge, As- sociated with his brother James .he did much prospecting for gold in va- rious gulches, making minor discov- eries. Letters from the Stuarts were responsible for the first stampede of argonauts into the Montana country. The Stuarts were pioneers in Al- der gulch, where they engaged in the mercantile business. After a few years the brothers removed r to Deer Lodge. Granville Stuart has made and lost several fortunes.. In the early days he was prominent in politfcal affairs. He was the first commissioner of Missoula county, was a member of the territorial council, a body cor- responding to the present senate, in 1872; served in the territorial house of representatives in 1876 and 1879, and was president of the council in 1883. He eerved as minister to Ura- guay and Paraguay. He helped to organize the Pio- neers' society, and the Historical So- ‘clety of Montana, of which he is a past preiddent. If he wrote nothing more than the story of his life it would serve as a history of the state, so intimately has he been identified with the development of Montana. • • • Senator Fred Whiteside has intro- duced a bill that wiA be far reaching and revolutionary if it becomes a - law. It, has to do min ille itimacy. If a married man becomes e father of an illegitimate child, nder this i( d proposed law the child would take his name, and share in his estate with aay children born In wedlock. The father would also be made res- ponsible for the support of such chil- dren. But if the father of the illegiti- mate child is single, the birth of the child automatically and without cere- mony marales him to the woman he has betrayed. • The. proposed measure has excited much comment among the women's clubs of the stake, nearly all the or- ganizations favOring it. The bill Ills the endorsement of the National Fed- eration of Women's,Clubs. • • • The investigation of all _tax prob= lems by a coinmission, which would sit for two years and report its find- ings to the next session of the legis- lature, is the proposal of Hon 13. C. White, representative from Fergus, and leader of the farmers in the leg- islature. • Mr. White is , the man at whose in- stance the tax investigation .was started. In a bill which was intro - ['need a few days ago he proposes to create a permanent tax commission. This commission woutd investigate all phases of the tax / question. It wouM call in experts from outside of Montana If that should be deemed neceshary. Its report would be the basis of legislation to be enacted by the'next iegislative assembly. - Mr: - White - says there is a, differ- ent system of appraisement in every one of the 41 counties or the state. He would standardize the appraise- ment, and make every dollar's worth of property bear the same biirden. • • • Poor old John Barleycorn, groggy Free Land Vanishes Under New Law •• •• •• es •• •• So •• •• •• •• •• •• o• •• Hundreds of Thou.5ands of AcreS of Grazin - g Domain Is \From reports that &ono to this department,\ said C, D. Greenfield, commissioner of agriculture and pub-. licity, \the number bf filings under the recently enacted 640 -acre grazing hiimestead act in the next six months will cover a very large portion of the - free government latids in this state. At the Helena land office have been informed the filings aggregate about 25,000 acres dnily. At Miles City they are running about 60,000 acres, and at the other land offices east of the mountains the story is about the same. \The last report of the general land office, under date of July 1, 1916, showed that there was sur- veyed public land in Montana open to entry aggregating a little more 'than 9,000,000 acres. This includes mountainous, agricultural and graz- ing lands. \In the,year from July 1, 1916, to June 30, 1916, more than half a million acres of surveyed public lands were entered in Montana. The en- actment of the 640 -acre law, which was signed by the president ,early in January, has had the result in tivo weeks of causing_ filings cm - more government land in this state than wee entered during the whoie of the Meal year ending last June. Most of Acreage. Left Grazing Land. \The 640 -acre act provides for the entry of grazing land and this charac- ter of land today -constitutes the larg- er part of government lands now open to settlement in this state. \The last report df the commis- sioner of the general land office shows that in the Billings land dis- trict, comprising the counties of Big Hem, Carbon, Musselshell, a part of Rosebud, a part of Stillwater and Yellowstone, there were on July ist, 284,674 acres of agricultural and grazing land open to entry, and 110 acres of mountainous land. \In the Boteinan- land district. comprising a part of the county of Beaverhead, parro - raarbon, Gallatin, a part of Jefferson, part of•Madison, park, a pail of Stillwater, and a part of Sweet Grew there were 18,154 • C. D. Greenfield. acres of :mountainous land and 330,- 225 acres of agrictinural and grazing land. \In the Glasgow district, which is made up of the counties of Dawson, a part of Phillips, Richland„ Sheri- dan and Valley, there is an aggregate of 1,899,565. acres. all classified as agricultural and grazing lands sub- ject to entry. \In the Great Palls district, which is compri,sed of a portion of- Cascade, a portion of Chouteau, a portion of Fergus, a portion of Hill, a portion of Lewis and Clark, a portion of Te- ton and a portion of Toole counties. there are 461,941 acree surveyed and open to settlement, of which 12,836 is classified as mcountainous, this be- ing in Lewis and Clark county, and 319,358 acres as grazing and agri- cultural. \In.the Havre district, comprising the counties - of Blaine, Chouteau, Hill, Phillips and Toole, there are 621,530 acres which are classified by the land department as mountainous, agricultural and grazing. .\In the Helena land district, com- prising the -eounties of Broadwater, a part of Beaverhead, Cascade, Deer Lodge, Gallatin, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Madison, a part of •Meagher, Park,, Pqwell, Silver Bow, a part of Sweet Grass and Teton, there is an aggregate of 2,122,480 acres, classi- fied generally as mountainous, agri- cultural and grazing. \In the Kalispell land district, which includes the. counties of Flat- head, Lincoln, Sanders and Teton, there is an aggregate of 119,010 acres, which is classified as moun- tainous, timber, agricultural and grazing. \In the Lewistown district, which comprises the counties of Dawson, a part of Chouteau, Fergus, a part of Meagher, Musselshell. Rosebud and a part of Sweet Grass, there is an ag- gregate of 766,169 acres, ali classi- fied as farming and grazing with a small amount of timber land. \In the Miles City district, in which are included the counties of Big Horn, Custer, Dawson, Fallon, Prai- rie, Richland, a part of Rosebud and Filed on Daily Wibaux, there are 2,408,640 acres, all classed as grazing and agricul- tural. . \kit the Vetionla dititritt there are 141,756 acres' of surveyed public lands, of which 18,300 acres, located in Beaverhead county, is classified as arid and grazing; the remainder in Granite, Missoula, Mineral, a part of Powell, Ravalli and a part of San- ders counties, is classed as moun- tainous, timber and mineral. Public Domain Soon to Disappear. \When it lit remembered that the entries in the land districts in east- ern Montana have probably averaged 30,000 acres a day within two weeks of the 'time the Ferris law becaine operative, it will be seen that it will not be very long before there will be very little' puhlic land in Montana suitable for grazing or agricultural purposes open to entry. \Of couree, much of this land upon which filings have been made will undoubtedly, when the classifi- cation is made, be held not to come under the 640, -acre act, but, in the meantime, the effect will be to pre- vent others making entries- tinder a classification or under a law which would be sustained by. the land de- partment. \It is not an exaggeration to say that the number of inquiries from outside the state received by this de- partment, by the state land office and by the United States land office in Helena, concerning the location atid opportunity to file under .the 640 - acre act, aggregate more than one hundred a day. \The remit of the limitation of government land open for entry in Montana will have the effect of mak- ing lands owned by the state more -eagerly sought for and will undoubt- edly add to the salable value.of all deeded lands suitable for agricultural purposes in the state.\ How Non-Partisian League Started The spectacular victory of the Non -Partisan league in North Dako- ta, and the spread of this organiza- tion into Montana, South Dakota., Minnesota and Iowa are attracting a calls attention to the fact that the great deal of attention. _.:The league \interests\ are residents in St: Paul etands for state-owned utilities, in- and Minneapolis and belong to Min - 'eluding flour mills, elevators and nesota. They are not amenable to dollars, please.' And they got it. The packing houses, and a state rural North Dakota's regulation or control, first 100 farmers they canvassed credit ayetem. A recent BiStic of the so that in North Dakota the case ha.a Literary Digest contained an exhaus- tive review of eastern newspaper opinion of this organization, which in a single campaign has won control of Montana's neighboring state. The New York World co..respondent says that the league is a secret organiza- tion and only actual tillers of the soil are eligible for menibership. It the \utter subjectiem of this great commonwealth to alien interests which preceded- the farmers' revolu- tion, effective with New Year's.\ He always been one of \submission or revolt\. The preseice revolt came with thi'suddenness of one of those \twieters\ whi , e4 occasionally tear through the state. The Farmers' Non -Partisan League was founded less than two years ago and dipped into its first political campaign be - for it was a year old. Its victory in has 60,000 memberc. In North Dako- the late election, this correspondent' ta. - The revolt, which has called says, .is \even more astounding\ many a Cincinnatus from the plow, when it is rernembered that North is \primarily a prcZest againsi. the Dakota is a state of \magnificent die— juggling of grain prices and the spec- tances,\ and he adds: ulation in food-pricca by the cham- bers of commerce,\ and the purpose of the league is to \put the specula- tive markets out of business through co-operation of the state and the far- mers in the distribution of land -prod- ucts.\ As to ways and means, we are told thtit the farl-er- legislators 'thin a constitutionai convention to raise the debt limit of the state from $200,000 to an aimant that will al- low the accomplishment of their aims, A Bismarck correspondent of the Ne - w —r- York Tribune says that it is dif- ficult for an easterner to understand The First Hundred Members. \Eighty-five per cent of the inhab- itants live scattered on farms and must be reached by personal canvass for the most part. That, in fact, is just the way they were reached. Two geniuses named A. C. Townley and F. B. Wood, both farmers without former political experience, organ- ized the campaign. They borrowed rnoney with which to buy automo- biles to cary them about from farm to farm. To each farmer they visit- ed they showed in black and white the revolutionary program of the _ farmers' league calling for state- owned grain elevators, flour mills, and packing houses, for state hail in- surance and a state -operated rural credit system. They asked him did he favor it, and, on getting an af- firmative answer, they said: 'Nine Lynn J. Prail er, Fernier Governor of North Dakota. from the effects of hts recent dim- . trous battle at the polls, may have to meet his adversaries again, this time in the legislative arena. The con- stitutional amendment, adopted at the last general election, fixed the time for the closing of saloons two yeare away. Senator Annin has in- troduced a bill, which if it becomes a law, would put the liquor interests out of business on December 31 of this year. • • • Hon. Maggie Hathaway' would pen- sion all mothers whose husbands de- sert them. She has introduced a bill in the interest of these unfortunates. The bill also provides for the support of children whose parents are con- fined in any of the state institutions. • • • Senator George McCone yearns for the old convention days, of the warm handclesp and the hot air, and where one would meet all the \boys.\ lie has introduced a bill which would amend the primary law to permit the selection of candidatee for office by party conventions. • • * What will be the state's deficit for the next two years? Senator Kape of the special comtnittee on taxation and assessments. has made his report in which he estimates the deficit at from $760,000 to $1,000,000. In this estimate are included $326,423 to square the general fund, and $294,940 asked for by the chancellor of the University of Montana. State Auditor William Keating takes issue with Senator Kane's com- mittee. Mr. Keating says the deficit at the end of the next appropriation period will not be more than $40,- 000, He contends that the estimates of the senate committee are high. • • • Senator Oliver of' Fallon county would make of county division an easier matter. As the law now stands there can be no division that does not leave the old county with $8,000,000 'assessed valuation, while there must be $6,000,000 worth of assestiable property within the bor- ders of the new - country, the area of which must be not less than 1,600 square miles of territory. Under the law now 66 per cent of the electors uet vote in favor of the division. Oliver prop:Sees to reduee the stip- ulated appraisement to $6,000,000 worth of property in the old county and $3,000,000 in the new. lie would also reduce the minimum area of new counties to 1,200 square miles, an - d permit a simple majority vote of the erectors to decide as to divi- sion. • • • Si Perkins is the human dicta - phone. He writes legislative stories for the Helena Independent. The other night the republicans of both houses met in secret caucus in the ball room of the Placer hotel. The caucus had been in session about 30 minutes when a noise, coming, ap- parently, from under the orchestra platform attracted the quick ear of Chairman Ituben Dwight. Ile in- vestigated. He found Perkins lying there. He had been taking notes of the caucus proceedings. The report- er was dragged forvh and barred from the room. The caucus sent a committee to the Independent office and demanded an apology. Will Campbell, the mana- ger of the paper, declined to apolo- gize. The incident was discussed in both houses next de ' ', and Perkins was, by reeolution, barred from the floor of the senate. , A resolution to the same effect was defeated in the house by one vote. • s • These new measures will be in- troduced shortly: Providing for the Sunday closing of saloons. Compelling all flour mills to ac- cept wheat and grind same into flour on a custom basis. Providing for voting by mail. Increasing the salaries of county aseessors. Providing for the storage of flood waters. Providing for manager form of les and towns. Appropriating hatcheries. the commission - government in cit- money for fish Flottr for Hobson. • The Judith Milling company has filed articles of incorporalion at Lew- istown and will engage in the flour milling business at Hobson. The com- pany is capitalized for $20,000, the directora.being M. J. Davidson, E. J. Conley' and Elizabeth Davidstin. MORE WOOLIS SOLD AT 40 CENTS A POUND FRED I. LONG OF GREAT FALLS SELLS HIS 1015 CLIP AT THAT FIGURE. Wool selling at 40 cents is a real- ity for Montana flockmasters. Fred I. Long of Great Falls sold his 1915 clip at that figure. There was a to- tal of about 160,000 pounds in the clip which had been in the wool warehouse since it was clipped in 1915. The sale was made through a -Boston house. When the clip that brought the 40 cent price was taken from the sheep's back, the going price' was about 24 cents with „an occasional clip bringing 25 cents the pound. When the wool was being sheared. there were buyers at Great Falls try- ing to induce Mr. Long to sell but he told them that they needn't go to Frazier, where it was clipped, un- less they wanted to take it at 26 cents. They declined to look at the wool and he sent it forward on con- signment. Mr, Long has been a persistent op- timist on the proposition of 40 -cent wool. He has said Ile would not sell for less than that and when he an- nounced that he had sold the wool, he smiled and added, \At 40 ,cents, as I had planned.\ The consignment brought Mr. Long a return of at least 16 cents on. every pound, as it could not be considered as likely 'that his wool would have brought more than 26 cents at the outside, if he had•been willing to accept that when it was sheared. On that basis, he said, he could pay all charges, make a liberal allowance for interest,on the amount represented by the wool, and show a handeome advance over the going •price 'of wool when the clip was taken off. Mr. Long is not now engaged in the sheep business, except in , a small way, though he was at one time one of the largest flockmaeters in his section of the state. Last yearovhen the sheep prices were good, he_dis- posed of practically everything he heldk and retired. He is heavily„ in-' terested in real estate. joined the league, involving this fee, to a man. After.that the harvest of members averaged a tittle above 90 per cent of a possible crop.\ Two Thousand Meetings. As the \membership drive\ ex- panded, Townley and Wood gave over active canvassing to aseistant organizers and• remained president and vice-president of the league. To- ward the last of the canvass the league was employing one hundred organizers and oue hundred automo- biles. During the winter of 1915- . 1916 it promoted five to six - hundred meetings in every part of the stite, and by last February it had obtained :30,000 members and had organized three-quarters of the state. On Washington's birthday, 1916, a meet- ing was called in each of the 2,000 voting precincts of the state simul- taneously. The attendance was phen- omenal, in many cases 100 per cent, and in not one below 90 per cent. At these meetings delegates were elected to legislative district conventions, and these district conventions nom- inated men for both houses of the legislature, and elected delegates to a state convention which met in Fargo in the latter part of March. The state convention nominated Lynn J. Frazier for governor and named the league's candidates tor the other state offices and the supreme court, Then the league swirled into the pri- mary campaign, we read, and \tore it wide open.\ It rammed its candi- dates, including Frazier, down the throats of the opp6sition, with the exception of P. M. Casey,.1,teacandk date for state treasurer, a democrat, \whom the democrats obligatingly nominated.\ Casey, beaten by two hundred votes, was the only leaguer defeated for a state office. Townley the Founder. Of A. C. Tovvnley, the inspirer and chief founder of the league, the Tri- i b o u s n ,B ? correepondent writes as fol- \Townley by the way, used to be known as the 'flax king' of the elope. The slope is that part of North Dako- ta lying west of the Missouri river and sloping up tow• -rd the Rockies. Here, near 'the Montana boundary, in Golden Valley county, Townley had one of the world's biggest flax farms, in which he 'tad invested his own money and SOMe belonging to relatives and friends, His machin- ery, including a large number of tractors, be had bought on credit. \The first year, with 900 acres un- der cultivation, every thing'went well with him, and he is said to have cleaned up $20,000. The next year he expanded his farm or ranch over 8,000 acres, and the railroads adver- tised him extensively as an example of prosperity to prospective settlers. This was in 1910. But a combina- tion of circumstances, including crop failure, caused a complete collapse of his ambitious venture, and he and his wife packed up a few belongings and abandoned the farm with its stock and machinery to the creditors. \After this Townley farmed in a much smaller way in different parts of the state, even at times, it is said, working as a term -band. But in all this time he never ceased to preach the doctrine of political and indus- trial independence to his neighbors. He attended fanners' conventions and addressed •them on occasion, but for the most part he confined his pro- paganda to personal conversations, until he had come to be known throughout the state ea the foremost exponent of th'ose politico -social ideae which the non-partisan league's -program _embodies. The farmers said of him that he was the first North Dakota farmer to lose enough to care Bo .\ ss of North Dakota. . Townley attended the farmers' convention in Bismarck in the early spring of 1916, which Insisted that TRAGIC PMTH OF MEAGHER RETOLD NEWCOMERS IN LEGISLATURE , LEARN SIGNIFICANCTE OF • EQUESTRIAN STATUE. Judge W. P. Pemberton, State His- toric Librarian, Informs Question- ers How Famous Montana Secre- tary of State Met His Death in Night in Waters of Missouri. The equestrian statue in bronze that stands upon a stone pedestal in the middle of the main walk in front of the Montana state capitol attracts the attention and aroulies the curios- ity of members of the legislature who are newcomers to the state and have not been before at Helena. There are a number of such this eession, 'particularly from the rapidly settling farming regions of the state. A group of these were curiously examining the heroic bronze figure a day or so ago, and one of them said: \Whose statue is this? Who is the man?\ Standing ,near was Judge W. Y. Pemberton, state historic librarian, a pioneer Montanan, and he promptly replied: \Francis Patrick M eaghe r; 'Meagher of the Sword.' \ The judge knew the famous secre- tary of state and acting governor, and he told the group of his poetic and romantic history. He recalled that Green Clay Smith was governor of Montana territory at the time Meagher met his death in the Mils= souri, and .that the latter had gone from Helona to Fort Benton to re- ceive arms for the state, brought there by - a river steamer from the states. Newcomers Interested. The melancholy and tragie death of the Irish patriot, civil war soldier, statesman the wilderness and lead- er among the -hardy spirits whit 'laid the foundation for this state, inter- ested the newcomers, and one' of them inqhired for the particulars. Judge Pemberton gave them. \And did you know him?\ a man , asked. \I did,\ the judge replied. ' And the answer showed how recent is the foundamental history of Mon- tana. After that the interest of the new citizens centered as much in Judge Pemberton as in Meagher, in the living representative of the pio- neer era, es in him whose wanike statue stands before the capitol. \Governor Smith had been in the east,\ said the judge. \He was com- ing up the river on a - iiteamer at the time, too. The people at Fort Ben- ton had honored Meagher with an entertainment; he had been up late; it was gathered from his disappear- ance during the. night that he fell overboard -into -the Missouri. Missed Footing and Lost Life. \He doubtless was taken ill. The steamer had no rail. and when he came out of hit cabin for air, by some mischance he missed his foot- ing and lost his life.\ \Did they recover his body?\ somebody asked. \Never said the judge. \It probably drifted down the Missouri and lodged on a sand bar. 'The sand soon covered it. Everything possible at the time was done to find it, but without avail.\ And so was told the tale of \Meagher of the Sword.\ After a life of stirring adventure, brilliant deeds and constructive achievement, death suddenly, in the night, such a death as soldiers often meet; a tomb in one of the mightiest of rivers; and memory of him and his gallant ex- ploits kept green in the reminiscences of his compatriots and fellow empire - builders, and impressed uPon those who come after by the equestrian etatue, the legislature take advantage of the constitutional amendment passed the year before and establish a state- owned terminal elevator within the state. The legislature not only re- fused to do this, but repealed the small tax provided two years before to raise money for the erection of an elevator. The farmers were furious, we are told. and out of their fury was born the non-partisan league. By right of personality 'Townley becatne its head, but he declined to run for state office, as did every other officer and organizer of the league, \lest the sincerity of his efforts be chal- lenged,\ and we are told that he worked as \only a lean, wiry, stoop - shouldered American, with a hook nose and close -set eyes can work.\ When the opposition had waked up sufficiently to put up a fight, Townl_y was the main point of *attack on his record as the \dethroned flax king.\ The league program was largely ig- nored, but Townley could stand it, and now he is the \boss of the state.\ Propaganda of the league is to be carried on in four more states -- Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, and Wis- consin—and press dispatches Inform qii this is the reason the league's headquarters have been removed from Fargo, N. D., to St. Paul. They quote President Townley as saying. that North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Montana are already being organized, while the same work •will later be extended to the Pacific coast states, the southwest, and the extreme south, and we read that the • plans of the league as stated by him— \call for strict sta.% supervision of marketing conditions and public ownerehip of important industries which relate to the marketink of the farmer's products,,such as grain ele- vators, by which it is proposed to establish a fair system of grades and marketing, packing houses, cold stor- age plants and flonr mills. \Uitimately we shail have feder41 ownership of grain elevators and other important and necessary ad- juncts to marketing, •which are now controlled by Monopoly to the great injury of every citizen of the United States. consumers of farm ptoducts as well as farmers. ••• 1 , r
