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.