The Oregonian

“ Readers have acquired tastes considerably above the aver age of the country. The irreverent and anarchial spirit of our jazzy day is not reflected by newspapers in Oregon, as in Eastern states. The Oregonian has had large part in the creation of this newspaper culture, for that publication has been known always for conservatism and higher excellence. Publication of The Oregonian as a daily in 1861 began the actively competitive life of that newspaper. ”

“ During the years of his active participation in affairs, no man in Oregon commanded a larger share of public attention.
Just how seriously people took their politics in those days can be grasped from a realization of the difficulties faced by the Oregonian, a Whig paper, in getting its plant delivered from San Francisco for use in Portland. It took nearly two months to get the "materials and hands," the Oregonian's first issue complained in a full-column story explaining its unexpected delay in being born. ”

“ Paul; breeder of thoroughbred horses; compositor and pioneer city editor of the Morning Oregonian.
Ireland left the Oregonian to found the Oregon City Enterprise, having in mind promoting the interests of Oregon City in connection with the railroad then projected but not built, which has become the main line of the Southern Pacific through the Willamette Valley.
The new publisher had in mind also, of course, the idea of making an independent living and getting out of the employee class. ”

“ THE editorial page of The Oregonian throughout the decades the paper was in charge of Harvey W. Scott, bore constant witness of an unremitting labor of love in the course of Pacific Northwest history, on the part of its editor. All future generations of Oregonians will owe a large measure of indebtedness to him for the light his pen threw on the part of Oregon and for the insight he gave into the significance of the unique beginnings of this western outlying community. ”

“ Positive, impatient, energetic, indefatigable, and aggressive, he pushed his ideas of political economy, social responsibility and public policy with a vigor and ability which has given the Oregonian (22) all the reputation it has;—and that is nationwide, and equal to any other newspaper in the 48 states of the union. ”

“ The glory that belongs to the participants in those migrations is the peculiar birthright of the patriotic Oregonian. The passage from the Atlantic slope to the Pacific of these first American households bearing the best embers of western civilization must ever stand as a momentous event in the annals of time. ”

“ The same qualities of open-mindedness and enthusiasm which won the students were equally successful outside in his contact with the old settlers and others interested in Oregon history. Himself the son of a pioneer in southern Wisconsin and a student of Frederick Jackson Turner, he loved and understood the West and almost upon arrival became a loyal Oregonian. The lives of the prominent men who had made Oregon meant much to him. ”

“ His attacks on democracy by pen and voice were bold, persistent, and denunciatory to a marked degree. The democratic journals, particularly the Statesman, replied in kind, and thus considerable excitement was created throughout the territory among the partisans of the respective journals when they made their appearance from week to week. The new plant of The Oregonian, before referred to, arrived early in April and the printed page of the paper was enlarged from fourteen and three eighths by nineteen inches to fifteen and one quarter by twenty and three quarter inches. ”

“ You, of course, it would not expect to please, since one who deems his own creed or formula the last word on religion can scarcely be expected to open his mind to other or dissentient views. Your position requires you to profess an infallibility. The Oregonian makes no such pretension. ”

“ A CHAT ABOUT OREGON MOUNTAINS.
If there is anything of which an Oregonian is more proud than another, it is of his mountains, for every one exhibits that personal interest in them which amounts to a sense of proprietorship. ”

“ There is not a single sensational tabloid in Oregon, and with an occasional short—lived exception in Portland, there has not been.
Pictorial journalism—under which the Oregonian, formerly almost solid type, is now nearly one-fourth picture, has made a rather more rapid advance than other aspects of the changing newspaper. It makes for rapid reading, gives a better idea of some stories than verbal description can give, makes the paper more decorative, not to say more artistic. ”

“ Yellowness in journalism has not triumphed; the tempo has speeded up, pictorial journalism has come in, with the aid of processes undreamed of through the greater part of Mr. Piper's career. This, however, can be classed as bright, vivid, direct journalism, not necessarily "yellow."
In his years as editor of the Oregonian Mr. Piper became, like Mr. Scott, a real institution. With all his strength and studiousness he never lost the human touch. He liked to mix with his fellows. ”

“ Scott made name and fame for The Oregonian, and became nationally known as Oregon's great editor. He was not only a writer and a newspaper organizer, but also a business man of keen foresight and executive ability. He was a pioneer whose life habit was that of overcoming obstacles. ”

“ Of course the poor milksops do not know how little such an incident disturbs a man who all his life has been accustomed to obstacles, and yet never to allow them to stand in his way. The Editor of The Oregonian in pioneer times was accustomed to foot it between Puget Sound and the Columbia and carry his grub and blankets on his back, and to think nothing of it. ”

“ The Oregonian, oldest newspaper of continuous publication in the whole West, is, on the whole, typical of such leadership. The paper had been started right on the heels of the '49 gold rush to California. Oregon was being heavily denuded of its population by the rush for treasure; toll was taken of every industry, every business, every profession. The old Spectator, for example, was shut down for several months about this time because its only available printer had departed for California. ”

“ It has a population of four thousand, good public buildings, and the best hotel in Oregon out of Portland,—the Hotel Pendleton,—besides several others of less proportions. There are two flouring-mills, foundry and machine-shops, sash- and door- factory and planing-mill, city water-works, telephone connection with every part of East Oregon, three banks, seven churches, good common school, a Protestant and a Catholic academy, and numerous substantial and costly business houses, not the least imposing of which is the office of the East Oregonian newspaper. ”

“ If yesterday was the age of the editor, today is the day of the reporter. Old-timers who took the Oregonian turned to Harvey Scott's editorial page first; the younger readers are not likely to turn first to anyone's editorial page. ”

“ In 1922 the Central Oregonian was purchased by R. H. Jonas, born in Kansas in 1881, who has had a long career in Oregon journalism since his start on the Medford Success, then published by Charles Meserve. ”

“ Persons have the habit of using the words 'abuseand 'abusive' too freely. Plain statement of unpalatable facts, clear presentation of fundamental laws which contradict popular prejudice or excite popular passion, are resented as "abusive.' The Oregonian pleads guilty to a certain dogmatism in discussing the silver question. There is no other method than the dogmatic in dealing with fixed and unchangeable principles. ”

“ On his personal side, Scott throughout his career worked so hard, read so much, studied so deeply that he had little time for the lighter things of life. Even in his home, the thing that was singled out for comment by such men as Alfred Holman, his brilliant associate on the Oregonian for many years, and Charles H. Chapman was his extensive library. He cared nothing for sports. And yet there is every indication that his contacts with his fellows—business and professional men, reporters, printers —were smooth. Printers who worked for him never lost a feeling of admiration and personal loyalty. ”

“ THE DALLES, Or., Feb. 4. (To the Editor.) —In The Oregonian January 25 in the items of "Half a Century Ago," I noticed that "Frances Fuller Victor had written a poem for The Oregonian" entitled "Ashes of Roses."
About 25 years ago I wrote verses with a similar title. They were published, I think, in the Springfield Republican and later in the Magazine of Poetry and Art. I am curious to see the poem written so long ago. The verses I wrote were set to music.
Is there any way to gratify my curiosity?
I enclose a copy of the verses I wrote.
MRS. HELEN N. PACKARD.
Ashes of Roses. ”

“ There is not space here to prove this by extensive quotation; but take, for instance, this excerpt from an editorial written for the Oregonian July 16, 1905, on the occasion of Joaquin Miller day at the Lewis and Clark fair as an example of what her style could be when the subject justified:
"The songs of a lyric poet," she wrote at the beginning of an editorial nearly a column long, "record the moments when his life, after hours or days of smoldering, breaks into clear flame. The long stretches of existence for all men are a moving slumber; the senses are dull; the passions sleep. ”

“ The best legislator is the most practical man—the man who, if he sees he cannot suppress or abolish the evils with which he has to deal, will abate or diminish them as far as he can. He is as far, too, from overstepping the bounds of prudence and judgment and defeating his object in that way, as he is from sitting down in a helpless despair, with a whine that nothing at all can be done. . . . Today it (the Oregonian) would insist more strongly if possible than ever before, on high license as a means of reducing the evils of the liquor traffic. ”

“ In an editorial on the 19th the Oregonian complimented Wood and Hume, saying they had "earned the gratitude of all decent persons. The Mercury has been no worse of late than it has been for years. It might have been suppressed at any time by the employment of the resolution and vigor these gentlemen have shown. The verdict of the jury in Wood's case cleared the way for the vigorous proceedings of Hume last night. Between them they have abolished a publication insidiously demoralizing as well as unspeakably offensive. It is not probable that the Mercury will ever resume publication." ”

“ One may assume that The Oregonian news paper has rendered valuable service, else the public would not give support over so long a duration of time, nor would the fame of the publication, as one of the world's best newspapers, be so far spread. Circulation of 110,000 copies daily and of 170,000 Sunday, which is the largest in the Pacific Northwest, indicates that the newspaper holds a high position in the regard of the people, and suffers no decrepitudes. ”

“ Mr. Scott viewed the "Coxeyites" as belonging to the ultra-radical forces of socialism. His disbelief in "community help" for the individual and his faith in personal industry and prudence fired his utterances with a fervor which angered the "Oregon army." A mob of Coxeyites in May, 1894, surrounded The Oregonian building for several hour's calling for vengeance. In answer to their plaint, "We are starving in the midst of plenty. Why?" Mr. Scott had answered (April 21, 1894) :
"It is easy to tell why. ”

“ It is no disrespect to the memory of any of the very able men who handled the Sunday features of those early days to say that the development of the real Sunday paper, with home-produced rather than syndicated features, is a matter al most of the last decade or so, and that the later Sunday editors—Clark Williams, Philip H. Parrish, W. H. Warren, and Edward M. Miller on the Oregonian, and Donald Sterling, O. C. Merrick, and Sam Raddon Jr. on the Journal have done more than a full share in this development. ”

“ Not having to struggle for an existence as did the early immigrant settlers, and being furnished with the means without any exertion of their own, they were enabled to found the first school, and do many other things for the improvement of society, for which this generation has reason to be grateful. [53]
↑ Journal of Spaulding, in U. S. H. Rept. 830, 27th Cong., 2d Sess.; Anderson's Northwest Coast, MS., 263; McLoughlin's Private Papers, MS., 2d ser. 9; Hines' Oregon Hist., 90. ↑ See Portland Daily Oregonian, Dec. 29 1854; Roberts' Rec., MS., 100. ↑ Wilkes' Nar., U. S. Explor. ”

“ SMITHFIELD, Polk County. Smithfield, formerly a railroad station about five miles northeast of Dallas, bears the name of Absalom Smith, a pioneer settler. Smithfield post office was established July 28, 1893, with Ira Kimball postmaster, but the railroad station was in service before that date. The compiler cannot tell when the post office was closed, but it was before March, 1900. The railroad through this place was originally the narrow gage line of the Oregonian Railway Company, later standardized by the Southern Pacific Company. ”

“ Winter is a poor time for traveling, but the best of seasons for settling down at home and finding out what a good state we live in. Whether your taste is for romance or stern reality, adventure, poetry or fairy tales, history or politics, the literature of Oregon can please you. Having been the home of the Indian and the pioneer, Oregon is the land of romance and adventure: being the home of the mountains and the sea, it is the land of beauty; becoming the home of the thinker, it is the land of progress. ”

“ What there is in the territory of Oregon to tempt our national cupidity, no one can tell. Of all the countries on the face of the earth, it is one of the least favored of heaven. It is the mere riddling of creation. ”