Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2015)
OPINION 6A T HE Famous visitors departed on Monday D AILY A STORIAN Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2005 ILWACO, Wash. — Efforts were being made today to salvage the barge Millicoma containing as much as 5,000 gallons of diesel that broke free from a tugboat and ran aground near the North Head Lighthouse north of the mouth of the Columbia River Saturday. OK, so maybe the plot was corny, as 12-year-old Helen John- son, an extra in The Ring Two, deemed it. And maybe the special effects were, well, amateurish. But Johnson and other locals who saw the sequel to the horror hit couldn’t argue with the setting: their very own Astoria. The Ring Two, starring Naomi Watts, opened Friday, and cu- rious Astorians turned out to see how their city would fare on the big screen. “I loved the shots of the city,” said Wendy Berezay, “It really shows the lovely place we live.” The family had just moved to Astoria from the Midwest. As they stood on the corner of Eighth and Commercial streets, they were stunned to see a huge log truck making the sharp turn, its giant tires nearly running up on the curb. +DGDQDFFLGHQWVRPHZKHUHGHWRXUHGWUXFNWUDI¿FRQWR$VWRULD¶VPDLQ downtown street, the wife wondered? No, she later learned, that was the normal way through town for trucks large and small. It still is. 50 years ago — 1965 The biggest hangar at Tongue Point housed a distinguished gathering of state, federal and educational dignitaries Saturday for the formal dedication of the new Job Corps Training Center. The coming summer should see a high peak of activity in construction of the Astoria interstate bridge. Five major contracts totaling $21 million will be in progress through all or most of the summer. Two of the biggest will be either completed or almost completed by next fall. Completion of the whole bridge is still more than a year away. Most ex- pert guesses among the bridge builders and engineers indicate August 1966, DVSUREDEOH¿QLVKLQJWLPHIRUWKHKXJHVSDQ Dismayed Coast Guardsmen at Tongue Point depot learned Wednesday morning they have an extremely unwelcome visi- tor, a dead whale that somehow has become soundly entangled DPRQJWKHSLOLQJRIRQHRIWKH¿QJHUSLHUVWKHUH Presence of the creature was discovered when crewmen of the cutter Mallow, moored beside the pier, began smelling something unpleasant. Looking over the side, they discovered the whale right beside the ship. With an east wind blowing, the whale was to windward. As the tide dropped, more whale was exposed and the smell be- came stronger. Apparently the whale had been there several days. How it got itself completely entangled with the piling was a mystery. Anoth- er, more crucial mystery was how on earth to get the creature out of there. 75 years ago — 1940 Those Astorians who have made it their pastime or even chief pursuit during the past week to watch the seaplanes from the Tongue Point air- base towing targets must have felt rewarded for their efforts this morn- ing. One of the planes returning home from sunrise exercises over the 3DFL¿FWRZHGLQDEDGO\FULSSOHGWDUJHW7KHVDXVDJHVKDSHG³EXOO¶VH\H´ for the airmen was also broken in two by what may have been bunched hits. Installation of 356 parking meters in the business section of Astoria will be completed within 30 days after the passage RIDQRUGLQDQFHLQWURGXFHGIRU¿UVWDQGVHFRQGUHDGLQJDWWKH regular meeting of the city council Monday night. :$6+,1*721 ² 2I¿FLDOV RI IRXU VWDWH PDULWLPH VFKRROV WRGD\ urged the house merchant marine committee to approve a bill by Rep. James E. Van Zandt, R., Pa., to provide them with modern training ships at a cost of $2,500,000 each. Rep. James W. Mott, R., Ore., also appeared in support of his own bill to make Astoria, Ore., one of the ports where a nautical school, which he said Oregon wanted to establish as part of the State university, would be eligible for the loan of a training vessel from the navy. 7KH ¿UVW LPSDFW RI DQ DFXWH VKRUWDJH LQ VKLSSLQJ VSDFH aboard inter-coastal vessels calling at the Columbia River was felt in Warrenton this week when the Warrenton Shingle Co., closed its mill, throwing 42 men out of work, because the mill could obtain no cargo space for its products. %DFNLQZKHQ-RKQ-DFRE$VWRU¶VSDUW\HVWDEOLVKHG)RUW$VWRULD furs were their main objective. But for many years after the Astor enterprise folded up meager mar- NHWLQJIDFLOLWLHVPDGHWKHIXUEXVLQHVVXQSUR¿WDEOHDQGUHVLGHQWVRIWKLV lower Columbia district turned to other means of livelihood. But today the fur trade is making a revival in Astoria and its tributary area, and amounts to an estimated $60,000 annually from sale of mink furs alone, in addition to some $15,000 a year paid out to trappers for wild furs. Today the fur business is a renovated industry, with the vast ma- jority of furs produced on scientifically managed fur farms where the fur bearing animals are raised in captivity. THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 O N MONDAY, 209 years ago, Lewis and Clark left our region. They had intended to leave on March 22, but heavy winds prevented the departure. 2QO\ RQH GD\¶V SURYLVLRQV remained, so the 23rd was their drop-dead date. Two members of the Corps of Discovery were ill or in pain, but there was no emergency room. Leaving them behind was out of the question. So at 1 p.m., the party brought cargo from Fort Clatsop to the Netul River (now named Lewis and Clark River). Canoes were loaded and the party left for a ren- dezvous with elk hunters who had been sent ahead to what we call Tongue Point. They had named it Point William. /LNHWKHH[SHGLWLRQ¶VDUULYDOLQ late November, the March depar- WXUHLVRQHRIWKHPRVWVLJQL¿FDQW anniversaries in the Columbia-Pa- FL¿F UHJLRQ 1R PRUH FHOHEUDWHG visitors have come our way and no such consequential mission has visited us. źźź LAST FRIDAY AT NOON, IT was brisk under the picnic shelter at Fort Clatsop National Memorial. Superintendent Scott Tucker and I chided ourselves for noticing the chill in the air as we pored over the record of that day in 1805. The ex- plorers were wearing buckskin and not much more. And here we were with modern outerwear — feeling the weather. Over 26 years I have enjoyed the custom of marking Lewis and &ODUN¶V GHSDUWXUH ZLWK YDULRXV Fort Clatsop superintendents. My ¿UVWVXFKRFFDVLRQZDVZLWK)UDQN Walker. He and I sat on tree stumps in the sunlight. The weather mark- LQJWKLV\HDU¶VGHSDUWXUHZDVPRUH authentic. ‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘To talk of many things; Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax — Of cabbages —and kings —’ Through the Looking-glass of Cabbages and Kings minder — by Pvt. Joseph White- house — is that the expedition will ³PDNHDVWDUWWRWKH8QLWHG6WDWHV´ They had journeyed far beyond the boundary of their nation — to a region inhabited by the Chinooks and other tribes — Sgt. Patrick *DVV LGHQWL¿HV WKHP DV ³&ODWVRS Chin-ook, Cath-la-mas, Cal-a-mex and Chiltz — nations who inhabit the seacoast, all dress in the same PDQQHU´ The Corps left with enough salt for the long walk to the Missouri River and 383 pairs of mocca- VLQV WR JHW WKHP WKHUH ³WKH PRVW of them good Elk Skins Mocka- VRQV´ źźź The three- month stay at Fort Clatsop yielded enough salt for the trip home and 383 pairs of moccasins. A NUMBER OF ARCHAEO- logical digs have failed to yield HYLGHQFH RI /HZLV DQG &ODUN¶V three-month residence. To a wall they nailed a proclamation of their time at Fort Clatsop and their gift of it to Coboway. It disappeared in the mist of time. — S.A.F. course and headed east. :URWH/HZLV³$OWKR¶ZHKDYH not fared sumptuously this win- ter and spring at Fort Clatsop, we have lived quite as comfortably as we had any reason to expect we VKRXOG´ On the day prior to leaving, źźź /HZLV UHSRUWV ³:H ZHUH YLVLWHG by Comowooll (Coboway) and 3 THE LANGUAGE OF LEWIS of the Clatsops. To this Chief we DQG &ODUN¶V MRXUQDOV JLYHV XV D OHIWRXUKRXVHVDQGIXUQLWXUH´ picture of that moment when the To the ear of a 21st century westbound travelers reversed American, the most startling re- Media and the snookered Isle years, is now growing are at their lowest level in history. Even debt-crisis quite quickly. countries like Italy and Simon Wren-Lewis Spain can borrow at lower he 2016 election is still 19 of Oxford University has rates than Britain pays. GXEEHGWKLVQDUUDWLYH³PH- mind-numbing, soul-killing What about growth? GLDPDFUR´$VKLVFRLQDJH months away. When the current British suggests, this is what you There is, however, another im- hear all the time on TV government came to power in 2010, it imposed harsh portant election in just six weeks, as and read in British news- austerity — and the British Britain goes to the polls. And many papers, presented not as economy, which had been the view of one side of the of the same issues are on the table. Paul recovering from the 2008 political debate but as sim- Krugman Unfortunately, economic dis- ple fact. slump, soon began slump- course in Britain is dominated by a ing again. In response, Yet none of it is true. PLVOHDGLQJ ¿[DWLRQ RQ EXGJHW GH¿- Was the Labour government that 3ULPH 0LQLVWHU 'DYLG &DPHURQ¶V cits. Worse, this bogus narrative ruled Britain before the crisis prof- government backed off, putting plans has infected supposedly objective ligate? Nobody thought so at the for further austerity on hold (but with- reporting; media organizations rou- time. In 2007, government debt as a out admitting that it was doing any tinely present as fact propositions percentage of GDP was close to its such thing). And growth resumed. If this counts as a policy success, that are contentious if not just plain lowest level in a century (and well wrong. below the level in the United States), why not try repeatedly hitting yourself 1HHGOHVVWRVD\%ULWDLQLVQ¶WWKH ZKLOH WKH EXGJHW GH¿FLW ZDV TXLWH in the face for a few minutes? After all, only place where things like this hap- small. The only way to make those it will feel great when you stop. Given all this, you might wonder pen. A few years ago, at the height of numbers look bad is to claim that the RXU RZQ GH¿FLW IH- British economy how mediamacro gained such a hold tishism, the Amer- in 2007 was oper- RQ %ULWLVK GLVFRXUVH 'RQ¶W EODPH ican news media ating far above ca- economists. As Wren-Lewis points Economic showed some of SDFLW\LQÀDWLQJWD[ out, very few British academics (as discourse the same vices. Al- receipts. But if that opposed to economists employed legedly factual arti- had been true, Brit- E\WKH¿QDQFLDOLQGXVWU\DFFHSWWKH in Britain is cles would declare ain should have proposition that austerity has been that debt fears were dominated by been experienc- vindicated. This media orthodoxy driving up interest LQJ KLJK LQÀDWLRQ has become entrenched despite, not because of, what serious economists rates with zero ev- a misleading ZKLFKLWZDVQ¶W idence to support 6WLOO ZDVQ¶W had to say. fixation Still, you can say the same of such claims. Re- Britain at risk of a porters would drop Greek-style crisis, Bowles-Simpsonism in the United on budget all pretense of neu- in which investors States, and we know how that doc- trality and cheer on FRXOG ORVH FRQ¿- trine temporarily came to hold so deficits. proposals for enti- dence in its bonds much sway. It was all about postur- tlement cuts. and send interest LQJDERXWLQÀXHQWLDOSHRSOHEHOLHY- In the United States, however, we UDWHV VRDULQJ" 7KHUH¶V QR UHDVRQ LQJWKDWSRQWL¿FDWLQJDERXWWKHQHHG seem to have gotten past that. Britain to think so. Unlike Greece, Britain WRPDNHVDFUL¿FHV²RUDFWXDOO\IRU KDVQ¶W has retained its own currency and RWKHU SHRSOH WR PDNH VDFUL¿FHV ² 7KH QDUUDWLYH ,¶P WDONLQJ DERXW borrows in that currency — and no is how you sound wise and serious. goes like this: In the years before FRXQWU\ ¿WWLQJ WKLV GHVFULSWLRQ KDV Hence the preference for a narrative WKH ¿QDQFLDO FULVLV WKH %ULWLVK JRY- experienced that kind of crisis. Con- SULRULWL]LQJWRXJKWDONDERXWGH¿FLWV ernment borrowed irresponsibly, so sider the case of Japan, which has far not hard thinking about job creation. As I said, in the United States we that the country was living far be- ELJJHUGHEWDQGGH¿FLWVWKDQ%ULWDLQ yond its means. As a result, by 2010 ever did yet can currently borrow have mainly gotten past that, for a Britain was at imminent risk of a long-term at an interest rate of just variety of reasons — among them, I suspect, the rise of analytical jour- Greek-style crisis; austerity policies, 0.32 percent. slashing spending in particular, were Which brings me to claims that QDOLVP LQ SODFHV OLNH 7KH 7LPHV¶ essential. And this turn to austerity austerity has been vindicated. Yes, 7KH 8SVKRW %XW %ULWDLQ KDVQ¶W DQ LV YLQGLFDWHG E\ %ULWDLQ¶V ORZ ERU- British interest rates have stayed low. election that should be about real rowing costs, coupled with the fact 6RKDYHDOPRVWHYHU\RQHHOVH¶V)RU problems will, all too likely, be dom- that the economy, after several rough example, French borrowing costs inated by mediamacro fantasies. By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times News Service T
