r-'' v. ' CITY UEIffi "A MILE OF MILLS" and more coming Is what makes Oregon City the best on the coast outside of Portland. Oregon City ships 300 tons of goods every day and reoelves j tons. That's why Its the best city In the state. 30th YEAR. OREGON CITY, OREGON. FRIDAY. AUG. 30, 1912. No. 15 01EGOM CO E FOR MEN TO USE THEIR READS YOU HAVEN'T GOT TO BE RICH TO THINK SOME. DIG OUT YOUR OWN IDEAS, And See if the Remedy In Sight isn't the Play. The past five years have brought a bunch of reforms in Oregon and every last one of them is making Rood. The Courier editor was not a resident of Oregon during these contests for more representa tive government, but he has waded through the newspaper ines and knows something ol what it cost the people to get tnem. And how many of them would you voters let go or ; Pretty good stuff aren't they? They are means through which you can get what you want, if you can t get it otherwise. They are reforms which give the common people an even break and a show for them selves measures for the best good of the greatest number. And as I read the editorials and comment and news stories of these proposed reform laws, before they were laws, I see thai Oregon was slated to go to ruin with a rush, just as soon as these laws got onto the job. . But the ruin didn't come ac cording to schedule. Things wouldn't ruin; business refused to catch paralysis, spinal menin gitis, mumps or any old thing. The laws went into effect. They made good, and it will take some mighty slick joker work to kill any of them. All this you know it doesn't tell you anything, but perhaps it will, if you will go on down the column with it. About the biggest one of the reforms you got was the initiat ive the power to go out and get what you wanted when the legis lature would not give it to you. The purpose of the initiative is to submit propositions for relief when things are not right. It is nothing more or less than a trial by jury, with every man who cares to be a pleader on either side, and the whole people a jury. This fall we have several cases on the calendar and ready for trial. One of them is a taxation re form law. It is called a graduated single tax. It might just as well be styled an improvement ex emption, for it simply means to exempt personal property and labor products from taxation; And to offset these exemptions there will be specific taxes plac ed on big land holdings, on rights of way and on franchises. Now I don't care who the man is, Republican, Democrat, Social ist, Pro hi or Bull Mooseer, every last one of them will tell you we need reforms in Oregon's taxat ion, that the present system is robbery of the worker and favor itism to the speculator; that the system is rotten and that we need a change. And now that we have an op portunity for a change, a change that will put the taxation just where it should be put, are we going to let the same scare stories the same crowd told on the iniative, and referendum, keep us from it? The man who produces, who works, clears and improves, has nothing to fear from the propos ed exemption law. To him it will be a Christmas present. . The man who has iilty acres improved and fifty acres unimproved will have nothing to fear, for his exempt ions will offset his wild land and it will be an incentive for him to make furtther improvements. But the man who holds out a big tract and does not improve or make it produce, but who sits back and wails for the worker to improve around him and his property advance in value this man will have to pay your exemptions. And shouuin t ne t You taxpayers of Clackamas County are, not crows, and I don't believe you are going to get scared at a straw man stuck on pole, even if they do give him the awful name of "Confiscat ion." You have a chance, to change our taxation. It needs it .You have a chance to try out a reform that promises you just what you are asking for. Its working, and working awfully, right un in Canada George Hicinibolham and Charles D. Shields to the contrary not withstanding. It carries with it' in this coun ty the right, to kill it just as easy as you made it. And where is the worker, the improver, the producer, who can get right down to brass tacks and justify his opposition to the proposed measure? The man who will blow away prejudice and reason will admit that the proposed law will equal ize the taxation that too few of the workers pay the most of now. The speculator, the franchise, owner, the tax dodger are satis fied with the present system. A STATEMENT AND A STORY. THE PURPOSE IS TO NAIL . PAIR OF RUMORS. NO MALICE OR PIN-STICKING, Vacation Week. This issue of the Courier is rather light and much matter is left out. It's vacation week. Print ers have to have a day or two olT once a year. We'll be back on the schedule next weeK. Slab wood for sale, 16 inch,$3 per cord, delivered. Leave orders at James Atkins Lumber Co., Ore gon City , Ore. Phones, 1'aciiic 316, Home A. 31. . Difference Between Family Gath ering and Publlo Picnic. If, when you have finished this column, you think it is a hedge, think again for the Courier doesn't hedge but it is glad to make right, and dead right, ai?y injustice to any man, if the editor knows he has done the man an injustice. There have two reports come to this oilice, or two stories, rather, that have grown out of the articles this paper published of the Sunday picnic at Schnoerr park. The stories are that Mr. Schnoerr is being blamed for what transpired at that Sunday picnic, and that the articles were written for the purpose of injur ing his chances for election to the state legislature for which he is a Republican nominee. ii tlie Oouner was disposed to attack Mr. Schnoorr politically, it would not have hidden behind others to do it. It would have come out in the clear, put his name in plain type and went alter him. There would have been no Italian "'rk in it no knife in the back but a stand in the clear. But the Courier had no thought of blaming Mr. Schuoerr for the things that were' permit ted on that day. At the time of writing the article it had no thought of blaming any person. The point was that beer was being publicly dispensed, girls and boys could get it, and that such conditions should stop. . That was all. Let me tell you a Jittle story that will illustrate how the Cour ier looks at these matters far bel ter than the Courier's editor could tell it. A few years ago, looking for stories of the unusual, I went to a town of about 2,000 people in Southern Texas, a German town, and a town in which the Jingiisn anguage was never spoken. The town is Germantown, a place back from any railroad, north of isan Antonio. This town, with its one street, perhaps three miles long, is a duplicate of the German towns. Everything is in the style of the V atherland it is a German town brought to America. i stayed several days in inis own and found the neoDle and their quaint .customs wonderfully lascinating. When the sun went down and A Cool Kitchen EVEN IN MIDSUMMER With A REAL LIVE BREEZE blowing away the sultry air and cooling the whole room That's Yoor Kitchen and all others, too that HAVE AN Electee FAN Portland Railway. Light & Powe Company MAIN OFFICE SEVENTH ALDER. ' PORTLAND Phones Main 6G88 and A. 6131 the stores closed, then the fami lies brought out their tables, set them along the sidewalk and they gainerea arouno ana arank then beer. And this seemed the natura order of things, as fitting the time, place, and people. On Sunday I went to church. The weather was excessively hot and the services were held in a grove. After the services these several hundreds of people went to a large tent neamy where sev eral kegs of beer were ready, and family after family would carry pitcher after pitcher to some seat or table and there would eat their lunch and drink their beer. It was a part of their way of observing the baoDatn not pro faning it. They drank the beer as we would lemonade. It was their way.their custom, inherited a part of them.. There was no drunkeness, no hilarity. A man becoming drunken would hav been arrested in a minute. Do you get the drift of why this illustration is used? In that county, governed entir ely by Germans, the jail had stood vacant for one and a half years. I here was no work for the prosecuting attorneys, sheriffs or grand jurys. Now what I mean is this: There is a heap of difference between a German Sunday picnic and a Yankee b low out. Let the Germans bunch up and have their beer and lunch and it will be as peaceful as a mothers' meeting. Let a bunch of Americans get around a keg of beer and in less than thirty minutes some one will be looking for an argument, another win start something and plenty others will see it doesn't die out or the occasion want for excitement. I don't believe Mr. Schnoer is any more to blame for the wide open conditions of the recent Sunday picnic than I am. -1 believe he is just a3 strongly opposed to boys and girls being served with beer on Sunday or any other day, as I am. For years Mr. Schnoer has been generous with his- park. Any worthy society or cause has been welcome to it at any time. He has turned it over to them and told them to have a good time, and when they have gone he has cleaned up the park and had it ready for the next society. There was irtP person that had anything to do with the recent article in the Courier but the writer of these lines. What polit ical construction might be put on it was not thought of. It was written to call public attention to a condition that should not be permitted again. It was written to stop our boys and girls from getting drinks that they could not get otherwise. . This picnic in Question was one of the unexpected. It occurred and was over before it was real ized what it really was. It won't happen again, that the officials plainly assure. There was no politics or pin sticking in the article. It simply stated such public picnics and Deer drinking should not he per mitted. The law says they shall not, and the sheriff says they will not. WANTS JUSTICE IN RIGHTS SCHEUBEL SHOWS UP SOME BAD SMELLING LAWS. PROTECTION TO BIG INTERESTS Jokers Put Through When Peopl were not Looking. Oregon City, Ore. Aug 26, 1912 Editor Courier: I believe that every law should provide for a square deal whether it ue ior a corporation or private individual and lor that reason I wish to submit for consideration the following bill: "Section 1. Every person, firm corporation or association claim. ing the right to the use of water for power development shall on or before the 1st. day of January 1914, and on or before the first day of January in each year tnercauer. pay to the state o Oregon in advance an annual li cense fee of not less than fifty cents or more than two dollars for each and every theoretical water horse power claim; pro vided, that upon filing the state ment provided by said Chapter vdii or the General Laws of Ore gon of 1911, the United States or the state, or any municipal cor. poration, claiming the right to the use of water to any extent for the generation of power, or any other claimant to the right to use water for the generation of twenty-five theoretical horse power, or less, shall be exempted from the payment of all foes herein provided. For the purpose of this act, a horse power is hereby defined to be 550 pounds of water per. second of time for each loot of available fall. Section 11. Section 1 of Chan ter 221 of the General Laws o Oregon of 1911, and all laws and parts of laws in conflict with Section 1 of this act are hereby repealed. JUST A BIQ SMOKE. The Four Errors In Tax Roll do Not Change Results. With big headlines the Enter prise came out last week with the startling news that the months of work on the graduated single tax was of no account, because it was a mass of errors, that the original roll could not be recog nized, etc., and then it went on to show FOUR errors in the fig ures in this county. The amusing part of it is that the four errors were on personal property assessments, which under the proposed graduated single tax would bo exempt. in answer to the .hnterorise charges V. S. U'Ren sent out the following letter: Oregon City, Aug. 23. J. E. Jack, who condemns the single tax roll in the Oregonian this morning, is an excellent and very careful officer, but in this matter he has spoken rather hastily. There are more than 13.000 separate entries in the book. In copying these he had found four errors, and all relat ing to the personal property. This work was done by skilled help. most of the clerks having had long experience in the official tax and assessment work o.f Clacka mas County. Three of these er rors were made by these clerks and one by two men that I em ployed, one of whom had had sev en years experience. As to the public service corn- oration assessments and taxes, these do appear prominently in the first seven pages of the book. It is through my own oversight that they do not appear in then- regular alphabetical order in the roll. That only four errors have been found in copying 13,000 en tries seems to me a good reco mmendation for the general ac curacy of the work. As to the State Tax Commission and its work, I am ready to stand by every line of the book. If theie is any injustice it is in the record of that body and not in our state ment of it. Sincerely yours, w. s. u Hen. Those Vexatious Errors. The Oregon City Courier com ments on one of its exchanges calling the "Bull Moose" party, the "Bull Mouse" party, and wonders whether it was a mis take or malice. We then turned to the front nasre of the Courier and discovered a headline that read "S. P. Buys Electric Lint." Is that a new kind of antiseptic bandage Bro. Brown or did you hit the wrong key.? Stayton Mail. Reckon it was a case or ringers in the wrong place, and we might have known it would come. We searched the Mail for a wrong address to get even, but our Stayton brother was on the job and we couldn't even find a turn ed letter. But there 11 come a time. The Legislature of 1909 pass ed a law which will be found at page 370, 1909 Session Laws private corporations appropriat- ing water tor power purposes providing that all persons or AFTER THE PASSAGE OF THIS ACT. should nay a license fee to the State of Oregon annually of not less than twenty-tive cents or more than two dollars per. horse power per. annum. The language i me law was not suincieniiy lear to protect the WATER POWER TRUST and fearing that they might- be compelled to pay the same licenso fee for the use of the water appropriated before the passage ot the law or luuu, in 1911 the WATER POWER TRUST caused to be passed another law. which will bo found at page 418, Session Laws for 1911. This law provides that every person or private oorpor ation having appropriated water for power purposes PRIOR to May 22nd, 1909, should only pay a license fee of 10 oents for the first 100 Horse-power, 5 cents in excess of 100 to and including 1,000, and one cent for each horse-power in excess of 1,000. The P. Ry. L. & P. Co. is now pay ing one cent per horse power per annum for the Willamette J?ans and other appropriations in ex cess of 1,000 horse-power, being the choice water power sites in Clackamas County, while any other person or corporation ap propriating water since May 22, 1909, is compelled to pay from 25 cts. to $2. per horse-power per. annum, as may be determined by by the Board of Control. This is an injustice to any person or corporation undertak ing to develop water power since the passage of the Act of 1909. The bill I have submitted will treat all parties alike and compel the WATER POWER TRUST to pay the same license fee that any other person or corporation would be compelled to pay, who appropriated water for power purposes since May 22nd, 1909. I shall be pleased from anyone who has any suggestions or amendments to make to this bill. Respectfully yours, C. Schuebel. Here's One to Chew On. An Oregon City man wanted to go to Grants Pass. The car fare was three dollars and he had only a two dollar bill. He took the two dollar bill to a business man here and pawned it for one dollar and lltty cents. Then he went to a friend and sold the pawn ticket calling for two dollars for $1.50. That gave him the three dollars necessary for a ticket, and , he went to Grants Pass. Now the man who bought the pawn ticket for 81.50 paid fifty cents extra (the pawn broker s fee and got his money back. The pawn broker got his loan hack or ti.bu and mane miy cents profit, and the man who bought the ticket to Grants Pass was a dollar ahead. The friend who bought the pawn ticket was just even, so who was out on the deal? OH, THAT BAD U'REN (Portland News.) Mavhe vou saw a glaring yarn this morning about how that bad, bad man U'Ren had sent out a fake list to the Clackamas Coun ty voters in a hideous effort to shoo them into the single tax fold. Listen to what U Ren says about this alarming scandal; most folks who know U Ren do not consider him a liar: "Out of 13.000 entries in the tax list there were four mistakes, none of them caused by anything tax department." 1 Well, well, and A couple of cisterns, isn t it a roaring shame that four naughty mistakes out of 13,000 statements appeared to mislead those poor Clackamas ballot holders 1 About 13,00 to four is the ratio between the logic and justice of the U'Ren side of it and the land monopoly side of it. PUTTING ON THE CLEANER. Governor West now Lining Up Against the Portland Bunch. Governor West's crusade against vice in this state is the one absorbing topic of conversa tion everywhere. He cleaned up the road houses, he cleaned up Huntington and Redmond and made the corrupt officials resign; he forced the treasurer or mrnsnurg to re sign on the charge that he was running a Blind pig, and now he has undertaken to clean up Port- IU11U. District Attorney Cameron o Portland did not take kindlv in the governor s style of delivery so west promptly removed him and appointed Walter II. Evans assistant Uuited States district attorney in his place. Mr. Evans is consiuering me matter or ser ving. Already there is an agitation for a recall for the governor. and the only reasons that can be given is that he is doing his du ly and rorcing others to do theirs tiere is the way the governor put it up to tne Portland omoials There has come a time right now when every man of you has got to choose his companions. Either you line up with the decent element.' with the mothers, wives and sisters, or you line up with the pimps and macpuoreaux and the women of the street. I know well enough where I stand and I expect to know whether the officers of this city stand with nie. What's a man Koinsr to do but take a stand when a governor hands out this line of talk? lhere are no two ways about it a man has simply to sav I ... : t v. u ... . v. " am wiiu wit) guveruur 111 Ills ei- forts to make the sworn officials do what they have taken oath to do, or l am against law enforce ment and lor wide open Oregon towns and cities. You can t get around it but what Governor West is dead lght. He has hung the hides of corrupt oinoiais up to -the shame of the state and he should. In every case thus far. the results have amply proven that the olll- nalswere unlit for the positions mey neid. . . , 1 he governor says . it is the grafting officials who protect and license crime that he is after and he says if he can rid Portland of thorn the rest of. the clean up will be easy. It is to be honed that a recall petition could be started so that it could be emphatically proven to, ne governor mat this stale is for eceucy and honesty. The vote would tell a story that, the ele ment fighlting West does not want told, and you may be sure they will not dare try on the re call. . . . But one thing the . governor will find, and he probably knows it cerore ne tinds it, that that Portland bunch is a hard line to go up against, and his pathway won't bo strewn with roses. AFTER ANOTHER Into the Tall Uncut. The Woodburn Independent ays a twenty-five mile logging road, built on main lino stand ards, running from Silverton in a southeasterly direction and lap. ping a timber region growing 12,000.000,000 feet of the finest Douglas fir in existence, is announced for construction by the Silver Falls Lumber Company of Portland. Flagg and Standifer, Portland Railway construction firm, were Tuesday awarded the contract for grading, ballasting and tracklaying on the new line. A run crew or men will ho at work on the project this week. The comnanv nromntinir the project is composed of capitalists from Portland, Texas, and east ern slates. A milling business is ot a part of the plans of the company, but the logging indus try win ho engaged in exclusive ly. While logging will be carried on to the extent of 600,000 foot of lumper daily, it is said even at this rate it will take einhly years to exhaust the supply of timber in the region tapped by the new line. 8oclallstlo Address. Next Tuesday night, September H. L. Hughes, secretary of the Spokane Charities Commission, ill deliver a Socialistic speech in Willamette hall. Mr. Hughes is said to be one of the ablest and brainy men of ho Socialist party, and his ad- res8 will well be worth hearing. It is free to all. MASSACHUSETTS FACTORY WANTS COAST LOCATION. WRITING PAPER AND TABLETS. Manager B. T. McBaln has Gone East to Confer vglth Omoials. There are hopes or rather good prospects of taking on another paper mill here a writing paper. envelope and tablet factory. The Pike-Crane Paper Co., of Pittsfield, Mass., want a Pac ific coast location for a finishing factory and Oregon City wants that company to locate here. They think well of this city, and Manager McBain left for Boston . this week, where he will take the matter up with the heads of the company, and he hopes to show them that we have almost every thing that a paper, mill wants the power, the timber, the rates,, the location and the labor. Mr. McBain says if the com pany should locate here they would invest $100,000 in the building and would add at least 200 hands to the pay roll. The falls at this city generat es considerably more power than is used by the several mills here during the most of the year, and could be supplied to other factor ies. This finishing factory would be a nice industry to take on, as it is said it pays good wages and. there is ever a ready market for ', the goods. And here's hoping when Mr. McBain comes home he will bring the factory along. He will be ab sent several weekks. MR. SCHNOERR'S 8IDE. A Letter of Explanation In Regard to sunaay Picnics. Willamette. Aug. 26. Editor Courier: Referring to different articles in your paper reflecting mis- credit on my picnic grounds on ' the west side of the river. I here- ' by ask you to publish a few lines in defense of myself.- mere are conspicuous signs everywhere on the grounds ; no intoxicating , drinks a lowed m ' this park. . 1 1 he ground is rented out. almost every Sunday to some lodge or sooiety or closed family' circle, bringing along their lunch baskets. Portland lodges in par ticular preier my park to any location on the river. I am working from ten to twelve hours every day at the farm splitting cord wood, to earn living lor my lamliv. and be lieve me when Sunday comes I feel like desorving a rest and not perform police duties in ' the woods or search people's lunch baskets for beer bottles. Fee charges for the use of mv park do hardly cover tho expense of cleaning up the next day. If this agitation is continued I will cut the whole park into cord wood and . you Oregon City people will have to look a long time for a parallel in such close vicinity to your homes. as to hoodiumi8in permit me to say, tnat I surely cannot be held responsible, because I did not raise hoodlums in my family and r our youth is so degenerated that decent families cannot spend a few hours in my park without getting molestod by some fresh boys, who have not yet commend ed to shave the blame will have to bo laid on somebody else's door. Yours truly, Gust Schnoerr. Big Spud Yield. The Macksburg district will furnish an immense potato crop this fall. The quality is said to be fine and the quantity at pres ent neyond computing. Many or the Early Rose are said to bo ex- ptionally rine. Aurora Ob-rver. Mrs. Margaret Hanlfin. who as been at St. Vincent's Hospi tal in Portland, for tho past two months, has been removed to the ome of her sister. Mrs. Chas. Springer, on East 37th. St., ortland. and her condition is much improved. Alec T. Dale, of Oakland. CaV. ho has for some weeks visiting nis old nome at Tionesta, a., was the guest of Mr. andMrs. W. A. Shewman, at Concord stat ion, Wednesday, on his return trip. Mr. Dale is one of Oakland's romment real estate owners and predicts his city the future top- but the slip of some clerk in the notcher of the Pacific. Plan for the County Fair. The management of tho coun ty fair at Canby expect to make is years exhibilation and enter- ainment one of those holiday 1 weeks that will well be worth a week off this year. The fair is being extensively advertised, pretty much the whole county will be there, and Portland is expected to send hundreds or visitors each day. There is a string of extras this year, or special attractions that will have something doing every minute, and there won t he a dull minute during the four days. . Plan your work to have a hol iday week, take in the races, the ball games, the barbicues and have the time of the year. . .After the Ribbon. Clackams county's big exhibit is now ready for the state fair, and Clackamas county expects to get a place along up toward tho top in the premiums. Those in charge of the collection have been working hard on this ad vertising and it is just possible the splendid display may cop out the big prize. Wanted one hundred goats for browsing, address George II. Brown, New Era, Oregon.' Teams wanted to haul wood. George Lamrners, Oregon City, Rt. three. Lost. On Molalla.Road Aug. 23, one auto seat. Finder please leave at this off ice and receive reward. Lost Ladies watch, Sunday eve ning in Oregon City between Sus pension Bridg e and car line. Finder please leave at Courier office. Teams wanted to haul wood at Beaver Creek. Also want to let contract for logging 20,000 feet. George Lammar's saw mill, Bea ver Creek, Oregon. ,