Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Montana’s constitution

[Editor's Note: Former Montana Gov. Ted Schwinden provided these remarks for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Constitutional Convention in Helena June 15.]

My fellow Montanans. I am sorry that the trip from Phoenix to Helena is a little too much for these soon to be 97-year-old bones. But, I join you in spirit. In 1969, when Jean and I moved to Helena from our Tule Creek farm in Roosevelt County, strong winds of change were sweeping Montana. I came at the beckoning of newly elected Governor Forrest Anderson to become Montana’s State Land Commissioner. I had been to the Capitol as a young legislator a decade before and the 1959 Legislature could well have been the 1933 Legislature. The longstanding coalition of copper, utility, and cowboy was still a powerful presence. On the 7th floor of the Placer Hotel, the Anaconda Company had a “birthday party” nearly every evening where thirsty legislators could enjoy a drink, or more likely drinks, in a hospitable environment, and build a first class club sandwich while they (mostly male) chatted with their corporate hosts (mostly male). If there was any evidence during that 1959 legislature that the old coalition was about to start crumbling, I certainly couldn’t discern it.

But a decade later, rapid change was occurring, a change in which the thousands of Montana service men and women who had returned from WW II brought with them a new perspective. Whether it was the combat experience or the new cultures we discovered, Montanans left the war different than they entered it. And when the GI Bill opened college doors to America’s 15 million returning veterans, both the country and Montana were going to change. The GI Bill set the stage for the creation of an educated citizenry which, Thomas Jefferson had told us years earlier, was crucial for the American experiment in democracy to succeed. The sons and daughters of towns like Wolf Point, Wibaux, and Polson, embraced their college education and wartime experience, and saw Montana in a vastly different way than did their parents or the stodgy yet solid leaders of their communities.

And much of what these newly enlightened Montanans saw of their state government they didn’t like. Under Montana’s 1889 Constitution the Governor as head of the Executive Branch was very weak as 182 boards, bureaus and commissions diluted whatever power the Governor might have. The Legislature was shrouded in secrecy. The press had been controlled by the Anaconda Copper Company until they sold all their newspapers to Lee Enterprises in 1959. By 1969 the new press and enterprising new reporters were shining light into the dark corners of Montana government. Montana’s Copper Collar was being loosened and Montanans wanted it totally removed.

Forrest Anderson’s Executive Reorganization followed almost immediately by the 1972 Constitutional Convention and the Constitution that emerged changed Montana government forever. One hundred citizens gathered together as Montanans, not partisans, to craft our foundational document, hailed by many across America as the nation’s best state Constitution. I knew so many of those who gathered as delegates and was so enthused to see that the two women out of the 156 legislators in 1971 had blossomed into 19 women out of 100 delegates in the 1972 Convention. And their positive impact was felt in every Article of the Constitution.

On June 15-16 in the State Capitol and streamed live on the Montana Public Affairs Network, Montanans have the chance to hear much about Montana’s 1972 Constitution. Hopefully the eyes of all Montanans can be opened even more to this wonderful document crafted over 54 days, fifty years ago in 1972. Enjoy and learn from these proceedings. Enjoy the celebration. And enjoy your future days in Montana under the strong, people-oriented provisions of Montana’s 1972 Constitution. It serves us all well.

Former Montana Gov. Ted Schwinden is now 97 and living in Phoenix. He was governor from 1981 to 1989, and was State Lands Commissioner at the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1971.