Carl C. Webb and George S. Turnbull

“ Only a few days later the postwar planning campaign took the direction of an editorial arguing for adequate sanitation. The editor contended for: 1) the end of haphazard sewage; 2) cleaning up of the water supply sources in the county (a MUST) ; 3) stamping out of mosquito swamps and disease breeding places.
"There is nothing visionary or impractical about public sanitation," Mr. Tugman wrote. "There is nothing which can knock business for a loop or destroy property values so rapidly as an 'epidemic.' The time to 'get scared' about this problem is now." ”

“ This editorial pleaded for the unscrambling of the tangle in the application and distribution of levies for county road purposes. "We have a mess of old laws which have been amended and amended," said the editorial, "so that . . . nothing is clear. No use to get 'het up,' but we do need some sensible approach to the real problem-what's fair?"
And the next day a front-page news story that "Budgeteers Eye Road Tax Mixup." The article described the county budget committee's discussion of the "tangled situation as it affects the cities of Eugene, Cottage Grove, and Springfield." ”

“ Just to illustrate the need of such a program, it was called to our attention the other day that in spite of the recently completed Victory Loan drive in Lane county, deposits in Eu gene banks have climbed right back to a figure close to $30, 000,000. All over the United States, in spite of War Bond sales, in spite of taxes, deposits continue to grow-because nearly everybody is earning income, because consumer goods are scarce or rationed. It is this "excess spending power" in every community which is pressuring for inflation. ”

“ It is the children who will suffer if the school year is cut short, if classes are consolidated in an ill-timed, ill-advised movement for retrenchment. The teachers will suffer with them. The community will suffer damage it will take years to make up. The school board is making no idle threat when it says it will interpret an adverse vote as a mandate to curtail service. If the referendum means anything in Eugene, Oregon, there is no other choice.
The most the school district can save by voting down the budget is a little less than $60,000 on a taxable valuation of close to $14,000,000. ”

“ Tugman's passion for home-rule by home people as against outside control has been accompanied by a recognition that, largely, his editorial job was a home-field job. In his ad dress to the state convention of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association last June he expressed his position thus:
We can add a mite now and then to the weight of world opinion, but it seems to me the best opportunity to justify our claims to leadership is right here at home where we live and work, making our small sector of democracy efficient, intelligent, self-reliant, tolerant. ”

“ More intensive policing of the entire Eugene-Springfield area and in this city, state and county officers must work together. Better controls on juveniles, and the proposed $20 fine on parents whose kids violate curfew seems good. Cooperation of schools, churches and every other agency to develop a recreation program which is healthy and sound. There is no better community, anywhere, than this one, nor is there one with a finer and more generous attitude toward men and women in service. ”

“ A special 2-mill county levy would accumulate close to $100,000 a year, $500,000 in high school site. A 5-mill city levy would accumulate close to $70,000 a year or $350,000 in five years and a similar school levy would raise slightly more than that amount. But, as old debt is paid off even these seemingly heavy levies would be less than requirements for debt, and cash raised and ear-marked for well planned projects would save taxes on future debt, because borrowing and borrowing and bonding could be held to a minimum and kept on short term serial basis. ”

“ Editor Tugman went on to say that "it matters very little that these school budget elections are prescribed by state law (the six percent limitation having been exceeded) . We are election-ridden. Here is one of the great causes of non-voting." He went on to conclude:
We elect public officials to perform certain services. Then we take over their powers and reduce them to mere "yes men." A school board may give days and weeks of intimate study to a financial program. ”

“ Tugman's editorial said (October 17) :
We know of no better defensive measures than to preach constantly:
Mind your own children's health and keep them constantly built up with good food and plenty of sleep to resist ALL diseases. Have a competent medical man advise constantly on the condition of your kids and don't throw those school health reports into the wastebasket. Avoid all dirt and flies. Through the latter half of 1943 the paper ran occasional editorials and news articles to stir up interest in the city-manager question. ”

“ Space does not permit of a consideration of the many public issues on which Mr. Tugman gave his home city leadership, through the depression and in the pre-war years when the lowering cloud of war was casting a dark shadow over the nation. High taxes and debt aroused statewide clamor when the depression struck the land. ”

“ This is a quick and practical answer to the problem of Lane county's market milk producers-give the local O.P.A. power to act! Cut the red tape! Cut out this business of appeals to Portland and San Frrancisco and Washington, D.C., and give local administrators credit for common sense...
And this editorial concluded:
The domestic problem of each community is a local problem. ”

“ Nor is there any community more interested in "its own" and after all, the health and decency of our own is the big end of our problem.
It is noticeable that Mr. Tugman seldom carries on more than one important editorial campaign at any one time. It has been his theory that the readers' attention may thus be divided, to the detriment of the campaign. ”

“ Tugman began a critical study of tax and debt structures of city, schools, and county. This study became a continuing project, which he has never abandoned, with the result that he is a recognized authority in that field His leadership in public financing is recognized as vital in the long campaign which has pulled Eugene, in particular, out of the deep slough of debt into which the city had been plunged—as it seemed, hopelessly. ”

“ Anybody, young or old, rich or poor, may give any amount from one cent up at any time by the simple process of depositing at a bank. Lists of givers to be published at least twice a year but without stating amounts. Trustees to have utmost freedom, within rules of prudent business management, to do anything at any time if it meets the test "for the good of the community" in the board. ”

“ The board's action was commended in a comprehensive editorial, the closing paragraph of which summed up the situation:
In the gradual elimination of one item of expense alone—the $9000 a year we have been frittering away on interest on operating debts for the mere lack of any modern financing plan—there is an opportunity for Mr. Goold to save much more than his increased pay. There are many other loose ends. It's now up to Mr. Goold and the board. We believe the people of Eugene are tired of political operation of the schools and that they will insist that the new system be given fair play. ”

“ And even serial bonds should not be used except for improvements of the very greatest permanence. It is sound practice to borrow for a new power plant or for lands and buildings that will outlast generations. It is exceedingly bad practice to borrow for wooden bridges which probably would not survive the bonds. The interest on $10,000 term bonds in thirty years would be close to $15,000, making total cost $25,000, and the chances are that long before the bonds were paid off the bridges would be gone. Let such bridges be built out of cash income.... ”

“ The plan is worth serious study in this community.
Now that the "hard likker" ration has been cut to a pint a week, there may be considerable cash which can be diverted to future homes-and the post-war employment of thousands of men.
The helpful psychological effect of postwar projects on returning veterans was the topic of an editorial published June 13. Herein it was pointed out that the veteran would have a "terrific readjustment to make." He would be greatly helped by the right kind of planning for his interests in the postwar period by those at home. ”

“ It can be upset by a very small group of malcontents who pick out some item for janitor hire or black ink and make an appeal to prejudice. The great majority of voters have been hurried to the polls so often on cries of "Wolf! Wolf!" that they get tired of trying to be discriminating and stay home. We vote and get nowhere. ”

“ Henry Kaiser and many others have contended that people should be urged to save now for things they can't buy now which they are going to need badly at the end of the war. The Treasury has consistently frowned on such a program under government auspices lest it interfere with the sale of relatively long-term war bonds-and this is wise, because at least 10 per cent of every family income should be in War Bonds. ”

“ May 3 an editorial commenting on a bad milk situation at Madras, Oregon, under the heading "Madras Milk Rebellion," argued for local milk control, with an eye on local conditions.
A Fourth of July editorial headed "After Seven Months of Delay" still complained on the federal slowness in handling the milk supply problem. "The aims of these wartime controls," it was set forth, "are admirable; the administrative machinery is perfectly fantastic and impossible." ”

“ Following up these earlier articles there appeared April 12 an editorial on the local stockpile of improvements calling for $590,000 a year for Lane County projects. The point was made that this expenditure constituted, in addition to other advantages, a home front against inflation. "We do not expect every body to agree either on projects suggested or on the financing proposed," Mr. Tugman concluded, "but we ask for argument, intelligent thought on this program. ”

“ It should accomplish many things which elude ordinary county, city, or school district action. The Yank sergeants who were here recently got a peek at the Century Fund charter and their comment was: "This is the doggondest community!"
We interpreted that as a compliment.
Commenting, in an editorial (November 19) on cash financing of municipal projects, the editor combined in one sentence two of his pet ideas. He said: "Sure, there is always good old Uncle, but he's up to his ears, and we rather like the idea that he has some thrifty and self-supporting nephews in Oregon." ”

“ Two editorials published within a few days of each other in June, 1927, gave a line on the consistent attitude of this editor on bonds throughout his work in Eugene; not a willingness to vote bonds for anything desired in the name of improvement and progress; not, on the other hand, an unreasoning opposition to going into debt for any public purpose. On the power bonds he said:
The Guard is for the $1,250,000 bond issue to expand Eugene's municipal power plant. ”

“ The budget was approved in the election that followed this editorial expression.
The election was followed by a reminder that there was a big job to be done in getting the Eugene schools back to a sound operating basis:
It is ridiculous to have a school board with no money in the bank between tax collections and the school clerk trotting to the bank with six per cent notes whenever there is a plumbing bill or a payroll coming up. ”