The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., March 01, 1924, Page 7, Image 7

MARCH, 1924
THE UNITED AMERICAN
7
BUILDING THE COMMONWEALTH
AREGON is a wonderful state.
V Its climate is superb.
Its natural resources are far superior to that of any
other state in America.
It could easily be the envy of all other states in the
Union, were it not for the boneheaded politicians of
domestic and imported brands who for years have
harrassed and hampered progress in this wonderful
state by taking “a shot” at every legitimate, private
and public enterprise, undermining all safeguards in
law for the legitimate conduct of business and estab­
lishing a reputation for public irresponsibility for
Oregon that has not alone kept down industrial devel­
opments, and kept out investment capital, but served
to drive away from the state many of the people who
had taken the risk, brought in capital, begun industrial
operation, put large sums of money in circulation and
had put their shoulders to the wheel, helping to carry
the tax load.
This may be a frank way in which to analyze the
situation, too frank to suit even some of our friends,
put we will not get anywhere in a hurry, while we con-
peal and deny facts commonly discussed and keep on
[whooping up, as good “'boosters,” anything that’s in­
vented to divert our attention for a little while. Only
[by talking “turkey,” as the saying of the street goes,
[all of us, can a public conscience in citizenship be
[aroused sufficiently to make the voting margin for
sound and constructive government become an accom­
plished fact.
Nearly every legislative assembly of this state has
tor the last ten to twenty years had a sufficient
¡number of representatives and senators to com­
pose a bloc ready to introduce and “drive through”
[experimental legislation vitally affecting agricultural,
[commercial and industrial pursuits, causing enormous
expense to the taxpayers and the citizens of Oregon
[in readjustment operations necessary in order to con­
form to the requirements' sufficiently to be able to
continue operation.
In this way we have accumulated a public liability
of suspicion and distrust that is threatening to wipe
out our public assets of confidence, assets without
which a community or a commonwealth cannot hope
io attain the fulfillment of its possibilities.
The spectacle of an incoming administration in Ore­
gon devoting a great deal of its time to undo what a
previous administration has done, with each new
legislative assembly aspiring in a measure to accom­
plish a similar feat, is quite a common-place thing in
his state, something to which we seem to have be-
ome so accustomed that it no longer causes any
public alarm beyond the bowlings rf the partisan
press, wrathy on account of the displacements that
iccur in the numerous appointive offices.
I The supreme consideration of public service is in
ianger of having become too secondary to engage
¡serious attention. The all important consideration
ieems to be the preservation of political strength.
I If Oregon could rid itself of its political wire-pullers
¡of innumerable partisan and group affiliations
and secure the services of public spirited men in both
legislative and administrative offices, the progress of
this state would become a reality and the increase in
population would rapidly restore public confidence and
wipe out both mental and physical liabilities.
Had an Oregonian in 1910 ventured in the face of
the sound optimism of that day to predict that the
population of Oregon would not exceed eight hundred
thousand by 1925 he would have been called an in­
veterate pessimist and few Oregonians would have
given such a prediction a moment’s thought when
everybody was talking of anywhere from two to three
millions by that time — fifteen years hence.
Those who still live in this dreamland, only moving
the pegs ahead every so often, and continue to “play
the game,” should cease to be inhabitants of a mental
“fools Paradise,” get down to earth and go on a ram­
page for a political housecleaning: cause the elec­
tion of only rational legislators pledged to undertake
no enactment of freak experimental laws, and put into
the executive office only men certain to manage the
state in the interest of all, men who shun group influ­
ences and are big enough to serve the interest of all
the people instead of the few, regardless of party,
■reed or race.
Oregon’s present governor, when he campaigned for
that office, pledged himself to effect tax reduction, in
the event of his election, to an extent far beyond the
powers of that office. The people, who had met so
many disappointments in the past, liked the gover­
nor’s talk and a number sufficient to elect, took his
word for it. Now they are more disappointed than
ever because the governor has not alone been unable
to reduce their taxes but has been the main instru­
ment in setting in motion another tax machinery “The
State Income Tax,” which is destined to keep many
settlers and a great deal of capital for industrial de­
velopment out of Oregon at least for some time while
we are experimenting with this new state tax law.
Oregon should have had, and could have had, three
million contented, happy and prosperous people within
its borders today, if the people had been united in
their efforts to build this state during the past
fifteen to twenty years, or since the world’s ex­
position was held here in 1905, when the outside
world learned more concretely and at first hand some­
thing of the vast possibilities of this great and spa­
cious commonwealth.
The Oregon state machinery of administration, in
proportion to the population of this state, is very
unwieldly, scattered and by far too expensive. A
practical and economic governor, less interested in
political fences and more interested in the general
welfare of the state, should without any serious dif­
ficulty be able to eff ect a vast amount of elimination,
and through consolidation in every department cut
the cost of state government. But this could not be
accomplished without removing an army of “vote­
getters” from the public pie counter and from the
easy chairs they now occupy in the innumerable de-
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