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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 29, 1949)
The 1949 State Legislature What Were Its Successes? Its Failures? • • • A Democrat's View Senator Richard L. Neuberger When a Junior College at Portland was proposed to this session of the Oregon legislature, a majority of the members warned against haste in such a step. They defeated the Junior College P>ill and adopted, instead, an interim committee resolution to study the ouestion for the next two years. ... A Republican s View Representative Giles L. French An attempt to divide members of the Oregon legislature into Republicans and Democrats after election is remindful of the old Irish saving,. “Let’s choose up sides and fight.” Seldom is there partisanship in the Oregon legislature. At the session'just ended there was an attempt made but it was generally, Result: No Junior College for a consider able time. When a private pow er c o m \]jx n y sought from the same legisla ture permission to con struct a clam across the DeschutesRiver, sportsmen and recrea tionists urged an inter im committee to study the question for two years, in order that the state might know the effect of this dam on fish runs and scenic val ues. A majority of the legislators h r uslie d aside these objections and gave the dam an immediate go-aneau signal. Result: No protection for the fish runs, but the utility com pany gets the dam site. These contrasting attitudes are typical of the 45th session of the Oregon Legislature, a legislative dominated completely by the Republican Party; Democrats occupy a mere 21 out of the 90 seats. Portland is the only metropolitan area in the West without a state-supported college; but the young people in Portland re quiring an education can wait while an interim committee re ports Of course, no interim committee must be allowed to in terfere with the plans of the utility company which desires to ravage the picturesque Deschutes River. The legislature has flouted the mandate at the polls Novem ber^ for a $50 old-age pension, although 313.212 Oregon voters favored this measure. The legislature pleads that it has no funds. Vet a dividend tax to help support old-age pensions was buried in the House Taxation Committee atrd never even re ceived a hearing. The same legislature which could not keep faith with our elderly citizens appropriated $106,455 tor just one highway committee—to square illegal appropriation of that sum made by the 1947 assembly. The legislature paid constant lip-service to the Stale Con stitution. but defeated overwhelmingly a bill to require legis lative reapportionment by population, as required by that Con stitution. I'ndcr the present unconstitutional districting of the legislature, the Republican hinterland counties have far great er representation than the Democratic cities and towns. It takes SO,000 voters in Multnomah County to have a State Senator; onlv 7,000 in the backwoods. Yet this does not prevent tne oratuis num mem selves in the sacred folds of the Constitution on February 12 and February 22. The Republican Party which dominated the 1949 Oregon Legislature was not the enlightened Republican Party of \\ avne Morse, Henry Cabot Lodge. Jr.. George D. Aiken and Hob Lafollette. It was the Republican Party of Pricker. Kent, W'herrv and other extreme reactionaries. Oregon has one of the nation's severe housing shortages, for this state has gained more proportionately in population since 1940 than any other part of the Union. Federal rent con trols expire in the summer of 1950. before another legislative session will convene. Yet the legislature refused to bring to the lloor a measure providing for standby rent controls after the U. S. program expires. W hat will this mean in increased rents to tenants in Portland. Kugene and Salem—to married students at the University of Oregon who must rent their liv ing quarters? The Uemocratic Party in the Oregon Legislature had a rel ativelv mild liberaFprogram. These were its salient features: 1. Junior Colleges for the state. „ 2. Old-age assistance of $50 a month. (Please turn to page seven) Editor's Note Believing our readers should know about their state govern ment, we asked two legislators of widely differing views to write especially for the Emerald their views of the 1949 session of the Oregon State legislature. Arrangements for the two ar ticles on this page today were made by Emerald Feature Editor Walter Dodd. The pictures were furnished by Old Oregon, alumni maga zine. 3VIR. NEUBERGER Richard L. Neuberger is a member of the class of 1935. While at the University he edit ed the Emerald. Neuberger has authored numerous magazine ar ticles as well as several books. During the war he was a cap tain in the army. Neuberger was elected as a Democrat in the Ore gon House of Representatives in 1940. In 1948 he was elected to the State Senate from Multno mah county, receiving the largest majority ever obtained by a win ning candidate. While in office Neuberger has received wide publicity and has become quite a a controversial political figure. MR. FRENCH Giles L. French is a member of the class of 1921. He is editor and publisher of the Sherman Coun ty Journal. French has been president of the Oregon Newspa per Publishers association in 1940-41, and has held offices in the association as vice-president and a member of the board of directors. French has been elect ed to the State House of Repre sentatives from Gilliam, Sher man, Wheeler and Morrow coun ties since 1936. He is mayor of Moro. In the 1948 election he was reelected without opposition. French is a member of the Re publican Central committee and has been quite active in Repub lican politics. OREGON’S CAPITOL unsuccessful other than providing excuse for a speech. As far as state gov ernment is concerned there is no well known political program for either party. In fact the expressed theories i n national affairs change ' so rapidly that it more often is a division be tween the ins and the outs, with the outs at tacking and the ins de fending. Division as to youth and age, rural and ur ban, industry and agri culture is much more factual. 1 raditionally Oregon legislators have been men (and wo men) interested in their state with emphasis on their districts. That interest is the basis of their voting records and few of them, and none of the best, will be swayed from their sense of duty by partisanship. Except in rare circumstances, and in few matters have political leaders been effective in holding legisla tors of any party together. The welfare of the state is almost invariably paramount to the welfare of a political party. It should be. The 45th legislative assembly was not a spectacular one unless it may be called spectacular that it balanced the largest budget the state has ever had without recourse to new taxes. Previously raised funds were used to some extent but less of them were taken that the budget was increased. In these days of high costs the people of Oregon may be thankful that their tax levies will not follow the state budget and increase. That is conservative economics, and good economics. The legislature put its stamp of approval on an increase in basic school funds for the state which is designed to make the state pay approximately one half of the cost of elementary and secondary education. Other bills were passed at the behest of the education com mittee that will make consolidation easier, relieve the transpor tation difficulties of sparsely settled counties, continue the training school for veterans at Klamath Falls and establish an extension university at Portland which is expected to grow in to a full sized junior college in time. A veteran bonus was passed by the house and later killed when veteran’s organizations declared it unsatisfactory al though they had once given it approval. Veterans were given more money for education and a larger fund from which to draw loans. The highway interim committee had its work approved which will increase gas costs by one cent and license fees by $5.00, all the money to be used for highway construction and maintenance. The interim committee had found a demand for moie and better highways which was echoed by the legislators. Labor \\ on additional benefits from both workmen's com pensation and from unemployment compensation. For the lat ter the employers will also reap benefits in reduced rates. La bel is not so much interested in high unemployment benefits, feeling that steady employment is of much more value. Game fees were changed, higher of course, for rising costs of management cannot longer be met by increased number of hunters and fishermen. 1 neie was little in agricultural legislation except for the foimation of a potato commission, a new brand law and some new milk law s. Kai mers successfully fought off a change in the milk control law although city people made a determined effort to repeal it. Many interim committees were approved for tax study, for educational study, for highway finance study, for Portland Multnomah county consolidation study, for legislative reform t Please tuni to page seven)