Political Quotes

“Well, one has to assume--if you take an assumption that the gross revenues are going to be x dollars and that a royalty agreement would be 12.5 percent of x dollars, then you simply have an arithmetic calculation. There are wide differences of opinion as to the value of those tracts. For example, the demand from the State of Montana, through its junior Senator and its Congressman, were for twice this amount of money. It seems to me that there were losses to the State of Montana and that this was an appropriate transfer. I think I would have had a very different view, personally at least, toward the transfer had this transfer been from the people--that is to say, the United States of America--to some private entity. As it is, it is a transfer not to the Governor of the State of Montana, as we tend to personalize this, but to the State. It remains a limited public asset, but a public asset nevertheless. Now, this was a matter which consumed a considerable amount of time.”