Helena Locals

Last week the citizens of Helena, Mont, (pop.: 11,803) learned that their infantile paralysis epidemic was serious but not alarming. Labor trouble was delaying work on the new high school. The commissioners for Lewis & Clark County decreed an increase of .85 mills in the local tax rate. A posse was hunting one Henry John Miller, following the murder of a teacher at the State Industrial School in Miles City. The proposed dog races at the State Fair were off. George Miner, agent at the Northern Pacific station, was selling travelers' insurance on false teeth and Paris Cleaners were doing three ladies' dresses for $1. Field mouse kid shoes were on sale at Smithers for $6.75 and rib boil could be purchased at Hennessy Bros. for 7-c-per lb.

What made this local news of extraordinary newsworthiness to Helenians was that they were reading it in their home-town newspapers for the first time in 90 days. Ever since the printers of the arch-Republican Record-Herald (evening) and the arch-Democratic Independent (morning) went on strike over wages in mid-May, the capital of Montana had to depend on bulletins, radio, out-of-town newspapers and grapevine gossip for its news. Last fortnight the printers' strike was settled (TIME, Aug. 20). Last week the Record-Herald and the Independent made their reappearance on the streets and in the homes of Helena.

Declared gusty, florid William Alexander Campbell, editor of the Independent: ''Whew, what a relief! Don't get the idea I was vacationing during the strike. I worked the hardest I have in years. Maybe I can take it easy now."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.