MONTANA. 



577 



of new ones. The Governor estimates the prod- 

 ucts of the mines of Montana for 1885-'86 as 

 follow: Gold, $3,450,000; silver, $9,600,000; 

 copper, $8,000,000; lead, $1,250,000; total, 

 $22,300,000. 



Ccenr d'Alene Country. Considerable interest 

 19 felt among the people of Montana for the 

 annexation of a small and narrow portion of 

 the so-called Pan-handle of Idaho. It is sepa- 

 rated from the rest of Idaho by almost insur- 

 mountable natural barriers, and it is united to 

 Montana by Nature and the strongest ties of 

 community of tastes, customs, and interests. 

 It is wholly a mining section, settled largely 

 by former residents of Montana, and developed 

 largely by Montana capital. The people living 

 there, it is said, almost unanimously desire an- 

 nexation. 



Indian Raids and Reservations." Between the 

 reservations north of the Missouri," says the 

 Governor, " and still more from the tribes in 

 the British possessions and the Crow reserva- 

 tion in the southeastern part of our Territory, 

 continual raids are being made back and forth 

 through a settled portion of Montana, for the 

 purpose of stealing, or under the pretext of 

 reclaiming stolen horses. If unsuccessful in 

 getting Indian horses, they have little scruple 

 in taking those of our settlers, and in either 

 event all of such parties subsist by killing the 

 cattle of our settlers, as there is no game. It 

 is a heavy tax, which our people ought not to 

 be compelled to bear, and will not always 

 patiently submit to, no matter what the conse- 

 quence. It must be evident, from very little 

 consideration, that it will not be politic to cre- 

 ate any permanent Indian reservation on or 

 near the border-line, that Indians can commit 

 these depredations on either side and escape 

 so readily from their pursuers. International 

 difficulties will necessarily ensue, so tedious 

 and unsatisfactory, as well as troublesome and 

 expensive. I hope this fact will be impressed 

 upon the members of the commission appointed 

 to negotiate for the reduction of the reserva- 

 tions and the settlement of the Indians in sev- 

 eralty. If the Indians could be induced to go 

 to the Indian Territory, it would be the most 

 satisfactory disposition to all concerned. If 

 the Indians are to subsist by agriculture and 

 become civilized and self-sustaining, a country 

 farther south, with more natural rainfall, would 

 suit them better." 



Public-Land Surveys The Northern Pacific 

 Railroad is completed, so far as Montana is 

 concerned. The original act creating this cor- 

 poration and subsidizing it with a dowry of 

 land, contemplated that the survey of the land 

 thus granted should progress as the road was 

 completed. This obligation of the Govern- 

 ment has been neglected. The company has 

 not cared to have its lands surveyed until there 

 was a demand for them. Now that these lands 

 are taxable as soon as designated by survey, it 

 becomes the interest of the people in all of the 

 counties in which these lands lie to have them 

 VOL. xxvi. 37 A 



surveyed, otherwise the law subjecting them 

 to taxation is avoided. If the railroad is com- 

 pelled to pay taxes on its land for the general 

 improvements that enhance their value, the 

 company will soon exert itself to find settlers 

 and customers at reasonable prices, and thus 

 the country will be sooner and more generally 

 developed, and the burdens be more evenly 

 and equitably distributed. 



Changes of Land Laws. Congress has shown a 

 disposition to change all of the laws under 

 which citizens can obtain titles to lands, save 

 the homestead act. This attempt, the Gov- 

 ernor thinks, would never be made if the 

 members were familiar with the situation. 

 "There is not one quarter-section in ten, on 

 an average, in this Territory, on which a man, 

 however industrious, could settle, rear a home, 

 and obtain a subsistence. He must have irri- 

 gation to raise any crop. Land is of little or 

 no value without water. The desert-land act, 

 if only approximately carried out, is more fa- 

 vorable to the Government, the country, and 

 the settlers than either of the other land acts. 

 The Government gets as much for its poorest 

 land as it ever received for its richest in the 

 Mississippi valley, the country is made habit- 

 able, and the settler with his land secures the 

 means to make it productive. Some pieces of 

 land favorably situated can be irrigated at 

 comparatively little cost, while other very 

 large tracts can only be reclaimed by ditches 

 of great length and cost, beyond the means of 

 any single settler." To encourage the con- 

 struction of such irrigating canals by the most 

 available means, says the Governor, is clearly 

 and in every way to the interest of the Gen- 

 eral Government. A repeal of the desert-land 

 act would greatly retard the settlement of the 

 Territory. 



Political. The Democratic Territorial Con- 

 vention met in Helena in the latter part of Au- 

 gust, and nominated Joseph K. Toole for re- 

 election as delegate to Congress. The Repub- 

 lican Territorial Convention was held at Butte 

 on September 15, and Wilbur F. Sanders was 

 nominated for delegate. The following -are 

 the most significant declarations contained in 

 the platform : 



That Montana will not have in the councils of the 

 nation that just influence to which she is entitled un- 

 til she is admitted into the Union upon an equal foot- 

 ins: with the other States ; and that efibrts to accom- 

 plish so great a result have, for partisan reasons, been 

 shamefully neglected. 



That "we favor such laws as will give to mechanics, 

 miners, and laborers a first lien upon all mines and 

 structures upon which they may perform labor. 



That a board of arbitration should be provided by 

 law, which shall have authority to determine all dif- 

 ferences and disputes submitted to them which may 

 arise between employers and employe's, to the end that 

 strikes and lock-outs may be avoided. 



That in the Territory of Montana we favor greater 

 strictness of official responsibility, economy in admin- 

 istration and legislation, and that every article of 

 property within the limits of the statute, according to 

 its value, should contribute its quota of taxation. 



That the passage by Congress of an enactment 



