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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2016)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | April 1 , 2016 | PAGE 9 Labor 100 Years Ago — April 1, 1916 A look back at the front page stories of the Oregon Labor Press on April 1, 1916. A digital version of the front page can be seen at www.nwlaborpress.org/100yearsago California Avoids Paving-Price Inflation You can make the round trip from Los Angeles to San Diego, a dis- tance of 270 miles, for $4.50. This trip is made in a first-class, seven passenger touring car, not in a sight- seeing stage. Moreover, the price is not the result of cut-throat competi- tion as these rates have applied for months. They are merely equitable fares made possible by the system of good roads that the state of Cali- fornia is constructing. Neither is this two cents a mile an exceptional rate for auto travel along these roads. The truth is that in California, good roads have put an automobile outing within the reach of even a working- man’s pocketbook. Everyone is get- ting the benefit of California’s good roads, for the state is spending the people’s money economically so as to get the most out of it. These roads are not merely to entice tourists to California. They are to serve all branches of the community. City dwellers, farming people, visiting automobilists, pleasure seekers, all UPDATE Loyal Legion beer hall updates its history Members of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association (PNLHA) were astonished last year to discover a new Portland bar named after the notorious Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen (4Ls). The bar’s website characterized the 4Ls as a labor union and seemed to identify with its dubious heritage. The Northwest Labor Press published a guest column by PNLHA member Norm Diamond, a labor historian, that set the record straight about the 4Ls. Shortly after publication on March 18, the Loyal Legion beer hall updated its web site, adding more accurate information about the WWI-era Loyal Legion of Loggers & Lumbermen. The update is pictured below. benefit greatly from these roads, for their use is not confined to pas- senger cars; a great deal of auto truck freighting is done along them. In fact, these roads now form the main arteries of trade and traffic that bind the different out- lying communities together. Permanent hard- surface roads are destined to be the making of this Western country. They are to do the most toward solving its transporta- tion problems. In a state like Ore- gon, where, throughout a large por- tion of the as yet thickly settled part, the soil is deep and inclined toward clayiness, agricultural development is dependent upon good roads, es- pecially when we have such a mag- nificent system of rivers as has Ore- gon. For the solution of our local transportation problems is to be through hauling our farm products on auto trucks over hard-surface roads to trolly line feeders extend- ing either from the rivers or from main-line railroads, according to conditions. Good roads it has just been said, will solve one of this state’s greatest problems. What good roads have al- ready done for California proves this. In that state you can ride by au- tomobile at two cents a mile. In Oregon you pay three cents a mile upon a railroad train. Why? Be- cause we have as yet few good roads in Oregon. California’s good roads not only make it possible for automobiles and auto trucks to com- pete with the railroads; they also bring people to the agricultural parts of that state so that California has a population sufficient to give an im- petus to competition in transporta- tion. Oregon needs population, es- pecially agricultural population. Unless we construct a system of permanent, hard-surface roads throughout this state, Oregon will not get its proper portion of the newcomers who are seeking farm homes on the Pacific Coast. This is a self-evident truth that no Oregon- ian can afford to ignore. Two years ago the people of Ore- gon began to awaken to the impor- tance of this road problem. Mult- nomah County became aroused and last year voted $1,250,000 for hard- surface roads. Now we have the Co- lumbia Highway which is destined to make Oregon’s scenery famous the world over. But this Highway is only a forerunner of the road-build- ing that is to, and must, follow. Last year many Oregonians visited the San Francisco Fair, some keeping on as far as San Diego. Every one of these sightseers who got even a fleeting glimpse of California’s ex- cellent road system came back a booster for good roads. California’s example crystalized good road sen- timent in this state. As a result, Ore- gon is about to put out a big good- roads bond issue, and it is well, for the state as a whole needs good roads as badly as Portland itself needs factories. How Paving Clique Operates The danger in all this is that Ore- gon’s good-road campaign will not follow along the lines of Califor- nia’s successful venture. Not be- cause Oregonians are not just as in- telligent as Californians, but because in Oregon we have a cer- tain element— paving grafters thoroughly organized— with which we must contend that Californians did not have. The Oregon campaign for good roads is being shaped at the present time by paving companies that hope to fatten at the public trough. Long skilled in such work, these in- siders are pulling the wool over the eyes of men having good inten- tions, but, unfortunately, not of suf- ficient depth to go to the bottom of this rather complicated problem. In this statewide campaign for good roads, Oregonians will for many years to come have the same clique to contend with that Multnomah County has kept in affluence these many years. Moreover, unless the citizens of this state give much thought to paving problems, and take a more-than-surface interest in this matter of getting good roads, there will not be for years to come, any more competition in paving contracts on state work than there was in Portland in city work, before the Ellis amendment was passed compelling conditions that permit- ted of competition in city paving.
