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About Oregon City courier. (Oregon City, Or.) 1902-1919 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1915)
GOVERNMENT BY MAGIC More Economical and Efficient than Our Stupid Methods of Legislation Suppose that Congress or some state legislature had enacted a law that every male person old enough to wear pants must have the said gar ments appropriately adorned witn a crease up the bacK and another down the from! The law would have been nmvaii with a howl of derision. All the powers of tne nation could not have enforced it. Vat cnmo inv isible government A l V BM " " W aopret. in tan (mile power aitl OVIUV uvvi v v ... 0 really enact this law and the people foil tnr it. unanimously. There was mt loo-al exn&nse. no highly paid of ficials, no complicated machinery oi courts and counsellors, ine iaw u forced itself automatically and of formally. Saint and sinner alike adopted the sacred crease. JJevout Christians, fixnuisite ' ireiitlemen, distinguisneu th.io-x. nrize fighters ana plug uglies all lell in line. Kicn ana poor accepted it as a belated sign oi hrotnernoocl ana inaeeu it 10 ed amone tnose wno profess to Know that tne ilawer a young man's purse is, the more carexuiiy ne creases mints. Wo one goes to church or . Sunday School or into any good society lack ing this outward and visabie sign ol An inward and spiritual submission to tne autnonty of some deity, un known but omnipotent and omnipres I mean no one of any account. Oi course there are many who do not tun conventional crease, out thov Hnn't annear in the best society The ara nnriBHirables or unbelievers. iMfcJ . A man with baggy pants is possible in a cheap bar-room, but let him try a high-toned salon or expensive bo toi .nd if t.hpv don't actually throw him out, at least he will encounter a stony stare that will make mm ieei so queer that he will sneak out very quietly. He will imagine mat eveiy hnrtu in Innkinc at his pants. Inloorl tho Siirn of the Crease is nntont. than the Siarn of the Cross, or the Square or any of the Jesus said: "Take up your cross and follow me," but no one understands tnat oraer. x, ia uto tnikinir Wekh to a Chinaman, but when the God of Cloth says "Grab a hot flatiron and do as you see me rin nvArvhodv obevs with alacrity. Indeed pressing pants, training for fnnthjill on il nrimDini? ud for dances is an essentiul part of the program in higher education, in tne Agncui-po-b thev can take a bull calf fresh from pasture and in two or three years transiorm mm mw a HnmoHtii't.eH lion with all the quali fications nf a dancintr master. If this is not magic, then let somebody toll mo what, ifl mflL'ic. What seems to be needed is for some enterprising person to start a correspondence school to teach magic. Then all the inexperienced legislators micrht. nilfll ifv themselves to introduce laws that the people would be willing to obey instead of passing measures so obnoxious that many folks threat en to go gunning for the officials who attempt to entorce tnem. Indeed all gvernment is a work of magic, but the performance is becom ing so rotten that the audience will some of these days be tempted to wreck the show and run the perform ers off the reservation. STATE TAKE IT OVER (Mt. Scott Herald) Thorn ara thousands of acres of wild land in this state that would be appreciated by the people. Some of this land has been taken up and lies idle. Other land has been despoiled of its forests and awaits a home mak er. It is considered good business policy for the state to appropriate money for irrigation purposes, taking a lien on the land for the money ex pended. Would it not be equally as jafe an investment for the state to buy up some of the stump land, plat it into small farms, twenty to forty acres, finance the settlers in a limit ed way and in a manner so that all funds advanced shall be expended on the land and its improvement, and ex empt those lands from taxation until deeds were issued? If that were done some thousands of people now residents of the stato. and utterly without hope of securing rural footing, would quickly become producers. They would soon become a state resource, and in a few years the present uncultivated areas would become a paying element when the annual tax collections were counted. What is tho sense of tho state's pol icy of waiting until some one comes along with sufficient cash to open up these vast tracts of idle acreage. Tho system mentioned above would materially aid in reducing land val ues. That ought to be no cause for objection on the part of the man who owns the land for the crop he can produce on it. llo can grow just as much on an acre whether that acre sells for $50 or $500, and the prob abilities are he can get about as much for his products. As to the fellow who is holding tho land for what he can get for it. let us forget him for awhilo. Moreover there is some complaint about the taxes. If land values come down, farmers will have less cause to complain about taxution. No More Fooling The Herald is making a tabulated record of the occasional dead bent who takes and reads a newspaper for a year or two and then tries to sneak out of paying for it by saying he never subscribed for it. In every state where it has been tried the courts have held that the fact that a person took a paper from the mails and read it became a subscriber by consent, and that the debt for the game could be collected by suit, the same as for other commodities con sumed in like manner. The Herald proposes to collect from such dead Koot. hpsidpg nrintine their names so honest subscribers can see what they look like. A man who win swindle a newspaper will also swindle a mer chant. Houlton Herald. AS THE WHEELS TURN OVER Woo it ouor occurred to you that there is room in this world for all of us that there is food enough for all of us? Can you not comprenend mat that anv one need be short in the comforts of life in order for you to have plenty .' Do you not understand that no one need be in want? Under our present economic system wealth is acquired only by impoverishing a large num ber of your ieiiow men. is surfeited and many are urougu.. want. This idea that it is so natural ly is generally accepted as lnevitame, ,.,or,n,r tho strife after wealth WliSOHUSUUJ - by all the devious methods .legal or illegal, are resorted to. in us iram are all crimes and cruelties of which the victims suffer. This is all wrong and it also shows the stupidity oi our government in its attempt to abolish these wrongs by suppressing symp toms. It can't be done. Then as an anaesthetic we are insulted witn. charity, which only aggrevates the Bi-tnnt.jnn. Give us justice and then the symptoms will disappear. There should be work for all, leisure for all and plenty for all. This condition may not have Deen possible a few centuries ago, but now ,ith tho mechanical development un der reasonable rules it is not 'only possible but logical that the whole nu- man family shouia De nappy. This condition must De Drougm. about. The present government does not comprehend how to do it, so it must U nknlicliad find substituted by a theory of government working toward that ideal. Then we can nave a iu..u wherein thou shall eat bread without scarceness; thou shalt not lack any thing in it." Just imagine, that is if you are n-iftoH with an imagination, the legis lature putting in a full session re pealing the laws on tne statute uuima tv.io atoto Of course that will not Ul owwvw. happen, but just imagine if it would what the result would De. uni i am aware vou would quickly move out of fii-on-nn II n ( fro where there is Ul v,(,"" o - plenty of "law." Of course it is not necessary for you to know what laws are in vogue in the place or state you went, for you don't care a darn what laws are enacted in this state just so it is law, and plenty of it you will believe in it anyway. in triio rpsnp.pt vou are auite dif- from thin obscure scribe. He is doubtful of the benefits of most of the dream stuff labeled "law." ou may be sure I am no patriot toh arbor such ideas about our sacred laws. Happily I am not alone in that frame nf mini) T nViRprve "our most prom inent people" always weigh the stuff oovofnllir nnd if it is not to their lik ing will order thes upreme court to annul the law and you, u you nap nor. tn tnlre interest enough in public affairs to have noticed it, will be glad of it, for it was a "bad law anyway." See anything? Justf or the sake of a little mental ilnt.inn. rumination of the mind, as it were, let us think a little on the linn nf t.hot iust suggested. Just for the sake oi a little menuii volumes which are vaguely referred to as "law books" were instantly to disappear from human ken. Then of course no courts of law could cntinue in session. Just imagine what the result would be. Surely the mills would stop for want of power because the water could no longer flow over the falls or the power wheels until the law build ers at Salem would introduce a bill reading "be it so enacted by the leg islature of Oregon that water must hereafter flow down hill." This bill would have to be read upon three separate days and attach an emergency clause to it so it be came effective upon the signature of the governor, who might delay the bill long enough to answer all the weighty questions propounded by the alleged prohibitionists and all this time the waters of the Willamette standing as still as "Jordan's stream" was reported to have stood, until the governor signed it and the great seal of the state attached. Do you think so? Do you think the cold rain would cense falling alike on the ragged-bent buck of the worker and the silk um brella of the shirker? Would your flocks no longer in crease do you think, if those myster iously worded annotated statutes should be no more? Would the sons of God no longer make love to the daughters of men if Ballinger's code could no longer be found or a long piece of paper with an "infernal revenue" stamp stuck to it could not be "legally1' written, now would it be so? Oh, I am aware all this doesn't interest you and that is just what is pathetic about it. The season for loaves and fishes has opened in Salem. It must be fine sport with nearly a million suckers in tha state pond. Now that the law factories are in full operation the guessing contests will follow later. John F. Stark. Education is by no means con fined to the schools. Daily life is a school, college and university rolled into one, and in one way and another it offers more courses than any uni versity can give. POTATOES! If you have any to sell get my price before you sell W. 11. LUCKE PHONE Home A-72. Pac. Main 448 Warehouses at Canby and Oregon City FARMERS' UNION DEPARTMENT Co-Operation, Hang-together and Stay With it Will Win I CRv P W Meredith') ! Cliy I . v. wtrcaim; l'ir.l.M.n I Ima rrnr id a Ifnnfl TYl H r M f I. for western Oregon. The Equity and Farmers' just made that discovery. Union Farmers can find marktes when they organize to help each other to live. David T. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture, said at Columbia, Mis souri the 13th. "The indivual farm er acting alone is practically help pless. Is there any stronger argu ment for organization? Secretary Houston also advocated rural credit legislation both on the part of the nation and the states. Secretary Houston said there were 7,500 co-operative institutions of farmers in the United btates tnat marketed last year one billion dol lars' worth of products. It is probable, that there will be established quite a lot of trade be tween the farmers of eastern and western Oregon when the Willamette vallev farmers are organized a little more and arrange the necessary ma chinery. Pinrone has war and in addition she has disease, poverty, famine, and last very destructive earthquakes. Oregon has only poverty and a legis lature, but we think we will not feel Myers ow about your B&rnDoors H Do they stick- Jump the track or pull harder than they should We have the remedy 'n MYERS DOOR HUNGERS. Ttibclar and Stay-on Styles. Get them now and put them on while the weather mates it bad to work outside. WHEN WE SAY We carry everything in 7arm Supplies WE MEAN IT We Want if our Trade on Gasoline Engine Engine Oil; Cream Separator Oil; Axle Creese; Wire Fencing; Post Hole Diggers; Oil Cans; Grind Stones; Single Trees; Hitches; Pitcher Pumps; Pipe and Fittings. Everything in Implements and Vehicles,--and at right prices w. J. Wilson & Co. Oregon City, Oregon Canby H'dware & Imp. Co. CANBY, " i ,,. nf Fnrono bv the time our smaller barrel than one containing ' move to strike out thew ord independ joauloua of Euiopo by the tune sma, .fc unanimousyi legislature adjourns The State of Washington has is sued county school and municipal bonds to the amount of $100,000,000. Tha irnvpi-Moi- doubts if they can ever II kiwi ... ,.u. Uni) but thcro is no telling what a legislature will do. The United States has exported fifty million bushels of wheat MORE than last year. 70 percent of the 191-1 crop has been sold. The farm iivo not holdim? the wheat. The high price is not due to the millers. IHIl ' III I'"' v"- They make only 8 cents on a barrel f .Tl -. nf flour The high price of wheat is due to the speculators who are organized in to boards of trade and chambers of commerce. The United States govern ment has investigated the wheat busi ness in Chicago and will probe still deeper. The price of wheat in Italy is $1.99 per. bushel. t nna di-a mnfio hlMipr nnd if middlemen' profits are allowed to, go higher and freight rates go high- er nnd everything goes on as it is now going the people who raise the : wheat and the people who build the mills will be forced to go without hrP.-iH. rharitv soud without bread would be spoiled water. The Farmers' Union are to have n hnnk in SDoknne to be known as the Farmers' Bank and Trust Co. They, OREGON CITY COURIER, OREGON CITY, wish to be open for business by April first. John C. Lawrence of Spokane, will no doubt be its president. He was at 'one time president of the Garfield bank. nurDoae and 0biect of this bank is to help the several co-operative enterprises of the Farmers' Union. The Grange is going to assist and has taken stock in this bank. Oregon needs just such an in stitution. I . Pmf TTpntnr MacDherson of the Oregon Agricultural College, has drafted a state rural credit law tnat will be introduced into this term of the legislature. Now if the legisla ture was composed of farmers the bill would become a law. The Portland retail grocers are planning to buy direct from produc ers and eliminate the middlemen. An ice-making firm has agreed to sell to them direct. They may take the entire output of the Albany creamery and in time no telling where co-operation will stop. Senator Borah said on the floor of the senate the 13th that the new banking organization was a "sort of antedeluvian mastodon too dead for a menagerie and too much alive for the operating table designed for the treasury but seemingly on its way to the Smithsonian institution." We refer this to Mr. Mills of Portland. There is a freak bill before con gress to establish a standard barrel for all fruits, vegetables or other dry commodities, and if a farmer or any one else sells or offers for sale any produce except cranberries in a OREGON 7056 cubic inches can be jailed six months or fined $500. The staves must be exactly 28 Va inches long and the barrel must have n head of 17 and one-eight incnes. a reader Now if the Courier has i'U" - 4-i,4- can urur npnPTir. to ine t iu ducers m this bill et him arise and explain. If there is any benefit to the consumer we would like to know it. It is a great benefit to commission merchants and dealers and they can have what few farmers we have left on the farms put in jail. In recard to this barrel bill I - ---- - . quote from congressional record of Jm'marv fith. naee 1160: Mr. Floyd of Arkansas: "Suppose a barrel had the capacity of 1 bushel." Mr. Ashbrook: "He has the right under this bill to sell one-third, one half, three-quarters or one barrel." Mr. Floyd of Arkansas: "I under stand that; but suppose it was of less quantity and not the exact propor tion described in the bill? You are imposing all kinds of difticulties upon the fruit producers, xou are giving the fruit buyer and the men in control of the fruit market the advantage in this proposition. It is a barrel maker's bill and a vegetable and fruit buyers' bill, not a fruit ii-vowers' bill in mv iudement" Mr. Ashbrook: "If your content ion is right the fact remains that we must always legislate in the interests of the majority and a majority of the people are consumers and not I'M . I iff T msmgm OBEGON producers." Mr. Ashbrook is from Ohio and voices the sentiment of congress for the last 50 years and if the farmers or other producers of wealth ever ex pect to have fair treatment at the hands of congress they must organize and adopt better ways of electing their representatives in congress. In proof of what we have just said we quote from the congressional record of Jan. 2, page 910, from a atntpmpnt bv Senator Bristow of Kansas, where he told the U. S. Sen ate that the farmers were not pros perous. "I know that tne American farmers are not organized into a concrete organization to have repre sentatives in the National capital, who can go to committee rooms of conotnrs and make certain demands, and if those demands are not met, enforce them by votes cast in mass at the doIIs. The farmer is an in dependent, hard-working citizen, the bone and sinew ot American me, wno has been the butt of legislation by special interests from the beginning, and it seems never too late for the American congress to go directly after him in any effort they make to reduce the cost of living. They try to reduce the price of toW. Vie nroduces but do not attack the influences and the combinations that exploit him and multiply the price of his product after it leaves the farm. That, is the sDirit which permeates and controls in the legislation, that i nnw nrnnnsed and I denounce it j r as unjust." All the comment we wish to make on Senator Bristow's remarks is to Myers OUR WINNER ent ana pass it unanimously How to Cure a Lagripp Cough Lagrippe coughs demand instant treatment, xney snow a ssnuus wu- on 0f the system and are weaken- ing. Postmaster Collins, carnegat, N. J., says: "I took Foley's Honey & Tar Compound for a violent lagrippe cough that completely exhausted me, and less than half a bottle stopped the cough." Try it. Jones Drug Co. Proposals Invited Sealed proposals will be received at the office of the undersigned in Oregon City, Oregon, on or before Thursday, February 4, 1915, at 6 o'clock p. m. for 250 cords of good, first growth, large body fir wood, four feet long and split suitable for furnace burning, de livery to be made between June 1, and September 15, 1915, at the Eastham, Barclay and High School buildings, in Oregon City, Oregon, as the School District may desig nate. Payment for said wood to be made in 50 cord lots as fast as delivered and accepted. The right to reject any and all bids is reserved. By order of the Board of Director of School Dis- trict No. 62, Clackamas County, Oregon. Clerk. E. E. Brodie, District In the Debt! midst of Life we are in if A OLD MAN DONNELLY A Story of the Shadow of a Wooden Image, by J. L. Jones Old man Donnelly was a tenant farmer. He had cleared a farm worth ten thousand dollars for Squire Tottenham, and had paid him rent all u na fnr fVio nrivilep-e of doing it. HI""? AVi X' O , The Squire had the farm and all the money and Donnelly in his old age was a pauper. Not a pauper in the sense in whicn that word is understood here. I he terms pauper and beggar are com monly applied in literature to folks who are deprived of wealth. A gentleman who has lost his fortune is said to be reduced to Deggary, wn.u. moans. I suDnose. the condition of those who never had any fortune. Donnelly was deprived of his wealth as fast as he made it. He had fait.hfnllv all his life produc ing wealth for the squire, and as ne had accumulated nothing for himself Via Vian to pnntinue to work in his old it. nf his strength. The story was told that in the beginning ed the 200 acre farm from V - the Squire on a contract for $200, but being young and honest and simpie minded, he feared that his credit was not good for such a vast sum, and surrendered the contract, borne 01 his friends, hearing of this, offered to iJinnn Viim mnnev but the Squire would not return the contract. He would, not sell at all so Donnelly remained a renter. TVio SmiirA was a ei-eat, clumsy, Vioovu man with immense hands. A massive nose extended along the mid riu nf n flat, exnansive. expression oca face. Kves like Drown gia marbles, were set close in by the up per corners of the nose. The strange picture was framed in a setting 01 thin atraicrht. black hair. Altogether he did not give one the impression of belonging to any known race 01 nu- man beings but reminded one 01 an nnimatprl wooden imace. moving about mechanically in slouchy, ill-fit ting clothes. But thanKs to nis wealth, he was the most important person in the community. He owned a saw mill and, a flour mm in tne village of Stanhope, and many farms in tho vicinitv. Many others beside old man Donnelly were making money for him, which would have been mucn more profitably spent upon their own families. Some twenty or thirty miles away was an Indian village. Thirty miles was a long distance in those days. I had never been so far from home, but it happened in the course of time that I was on a trapping expedition along some lakes not far from there We met an Indian from that place. His name was Tottenham. He was formed after the image of the old Squire, only he was not so heavy. The man who was trapping with me knew about him. It was well known in the Indian village that he was a son of the old squire and there were others. And then I learned that Squire Tottenham, like the elder Astor, had laid the foundation of his fortune by trading with the Indians, buying furs. This was after I had left Stan hope. During my time there old Tottenham was the chief pillar of the church. There were several church buildings in Stanhope but the one called "THE" church was the Angli can or English. The others were only Methodist or Presbyterian "meetin' houses." The church stood near the center of a tract of about an acre, covered with cheap monuments and grave stones and surrounded by a tumble down picket fence. I belong ed to the church and used to sit in the front seat in the crallerv besides the pastor's son, a mischievous youth who was my boon companion, ine old squire and his family occupied a pew close up to the pulpit. It was boxed up high and square and com- X "c V-U.1"" , . , , The Squire always fell asleep dur-1 ine the sermon. His head would go' bobbing forward and presently he would recover himself with a gasp and snort. Just then my companion would stuff a handkerchief in his mouth with one hand and make a punch for my ribs with the other. Sometimes he would try to kick my shins. These were my first exper iences of the consolations of religion. He dared not do it outside but we could not fight much up there be cause we were exposed to a cross fire from the other end of the gallery, which was occupied by the choir. Otherwise our position was an ideal one we could see without being seen. In the summer the flies used to disturb the slumbers of the old Squire but some of his children generally kept them off. He had a second wife and several fat moon-faced children like Eskimos, and one that was slim and pretty like her mother. He had also a daughter by his first wife, an old maid, nearly as big as her father and every feature like him, though her figure was shapely. She used to sing in the choir and she practised Christianity a great deal because she had not anything else to do. I don't think she ever danced. It would have been interesting to see her if she did. I never knew whether she was acquainted with her relative in the Indian village and never heard of them visiting at the Squire's man sion in Stanhope. Indeed, I did not know of the relationship till after I left there, but the family resemblance was so striking, there could be no mis take about it. Our family lived next to old man Donnelly, and I was intimately ac quainted with him and his boys. He was the best educated man in the neighborhood and an universal favor ite on account of his good nature and sturdy honesty. No one ever heard him curse or swear when he was sober and he never at any time used filthy language. But twice or three times every month he would get load ed up with fireworks at the village tavern and come home late. Then he would swear and curse at everything. One night he started to curse the old Squire and he kept that up, a steady string of it, till finally he turned it I into a maudlin, sing-song and went to sleep cursing. Another night, one of his boys told me, he ran out without his boots thru the deep snow to a barn about half n mile off. where he naa some i-atv.o and a yoke of oxen. The boy follow ed him. Donnelly lonu.eu 6 j tua nr old oxen and blubbered and cried over them for a long time. Then he went home in a pemuMu, frame of mind and got up early and went to work as usual tne next mui.. ing. He always took his jags on his own time and at his own expense. The profits of the Squire were not diminished. He was not working by the day. He had a steaay jou iur life that he could not get away from. When drunk enough he usually act ed like an insane person, but no one could tell how much of it was just act ing. Sometimes he was violent and pretended to be dangerous, nv- drive the boys out of the house and fire off the gun at the wall. This did not do any damage because the cedar logs were solid, but it scared his old wife so that she could not scold any more that night. But next day she would start wicn iresii " forcements. Looking back at it now I can see exactly what was the matter with Donnelly. He was worked to death and could see and feel that his work was useless and that everything was slipping away from hi. His neigh bors who owned their own land, were getting comfortably fixed. He could not build a new house for himself nor even a barn fit to shelter his cattle. If he did the landlord would raise his rent. . , . This feeling was restrained and im prisoned within him when he was working and he hardly did anything but work. But when he was drunk it broke out in what the lawyers call "emotional insanity." It was the shadow of the Wooden Image that was resting on him, strangling his soul, smothering his aspirations and sapping his lite. H was as u to the devil by a se cret contract, and held under a wither ing curse. Donnelly's wife was a cripple. ev fnn worked far beyond her strength and constantly scolded and complained. She nagged mm ever lnstWlv because he had failed and let things slip through his fingers. How could he help ltY His linger joints were big. His heart was big too, but it was broken. His life was a long drawn tragedy. For lack of a few miserable dollars when he needed it most for yielding to an impulse that was honest rather than evil he was caught in the grip of an intangible enemy; he was con victed without a trial and sentenced to life-long servitude. He was a man of great strength and violent passion. The blood of the Norsemen was in his veins. . His pride rebelled against such a stupid fate. Is it any wonder he cursed? And his curses were aimed more ac curately than fool's prayers. They struck the target. It was told that the Tottenham fortunes was dissipat ed and that his family (the whole branch of it) had ceased to prpsper. It is not a pleasant reflection that the sins of the parents are visited on innocent children, but such things happen. The shadow of the Wooden Image never yet has been lifted from Donnelly's sons. They are scattered abroad among strangers, no two of them together. Donnelly and his sons are .types of a class. Their individual cases are insignificant items in a world tragedy. Millions, yes hundreds of millions of lives are withered and shrivelled by the same deadly blight. Our Agri cultural collges are not making any progress in discovering a spray that will cure it. The professors in these institutions are more interested in tho nnimal anA vegetable kingdoms than in the world of humanity. This disease of land lordism, complicated with lendlordism is a thousand times worse than the WMte n ig the essence i j ., . ... ... plagues and all slaveries, but the Hiirh PHpstS nf this Plllt. hnhl tho toira n v.. ....jo of the House of Mammon and like the Pharisees and hypocrites at the end of the last dispensation, they will neither enter the kingdom of Heaven themselves nor suffer others to enter. J. L. Jones. Sowing wild oats is necessary to most young fellows but don't mix in any rye. Residence 6 1 2 Phones: Main 1101 Center St. . m. i 72 Dr. A. McDonald Veterinary Surgeon Office, Red Front Barn Phones: Main 1 16 B-9 OREGON CITY C. SCHllEBEj LAWYER DEUTCHER ADVAKAT Oregon City Bank Bldg. Oregon City OREGON FIRE RELIEF ASSN, Strongest Mutual in the West GEO. W. H. MILLER., Agen 216 ?th St., Oregon City. H. M. THOMAS VETERINARY SURGEON DENTIST Call Elkhorn Livery Barn Oregon City Oregon Geo. C. Brownell LAWYER Caufield Bldg. Oregon City Oregon
