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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1907)
9 UJKKENT lOPKS I5CUSSED! BY oooooooooo ADVERTISING IS COUNTRY'S GREATEST ASSET Tom Richardson Writes on "Community Advertis ing" and the Good It Docs. THE SUNDAY OKEGONIAN, PORTLAND, APRIL 21, 1907. P i i wn. - slt- BY TOM RICHARDSON. ADVERTISING has reached a high point in the United States and is today the greatest single item in the assets of our country. Neither the corn, cotton or wheat crop is comparable In Importance to the advertising .. crop. The money spent in the United States for advertising is greater than the com bined value of these three great staples in first hands. Seems as though we should sit up and take notice and give advertising serious attention under such conditions. Now cotton, corn and wheat have their season advertising Is a twelve-months harvest and no holidays. Necessity cre ates something of a market, while adver tising Intensities needs and daily adds more demands than mere dull and taste less necessity could invent, much less pay tor. Advertising supports more people di rectly than does the manufacture of shoes and clothing, and indirectly great armies of our population are dependent upon tt for the largest percentage of their income. Advertising is the greatest force in our modern civilisation and when not im posed upon never fails to bring returns. The article advertised must be forcefully and truthfully presented, and the truth is decidedly more essential . than the force. The advertiser, whether he pre sents a Btate. eity, town-lot. or cake of soap, must tell the truth or failure is certain. The liar In advertising is both knave and fool. The general belief that the success of the present National administration is due' to the strenuousness of the Chief Execu tive combined with a most convincing sin cerity and directness, is true, but it is uni versally authorized publlcitiy that is re sponsible for the almost unprecedented confidence in Roosevelt and publicity is but a synonym for advertising. Thirty years personal contact with ad vertising has given me great respect for Its rank among our assets, and I am NEED OF BY J. B. 7.IEGLER. N pursuance of my purpose to stim ulate the public conscience on the subject of good roads, I will at I tempt to show wherein a law like that defeated by Governor Chamberlain's veto of the Johnson bill would apply to remedy certain difficulties of pio neer roadbulldlng. The ordinary neighborhood road In well - settled places meets peremptory demands suf tlclently to lull to repose the average citizen. Their care and continuance Is spontaneous and unthrifty, but as sured. And as those who do not live in such situation are largely in the minority, they are accustomed to neg lect." Tt is the pioneer who must hew the first trail through the virgin for est and the thrifty neighborhood feel ing the first budding aspirations for paved- roadways, that most need the care of the state. As 1 have said, the natural condi tions of the upper California coast and the Oregon coast are much the same, yet In development the Oregon coast cannot compare with that of Its sister state. California has a good highway running from San Francisco to Eu reka. From Eureka to Astoria, a di rect and but little broken line, the nerd is as great and the difficulties no greater. State aid to the same extent as that granted the Lewis and Clark Fair would build such a road. Where are the able and public-spirited men who promoted the Fair? Did not Gov ernor Chamberlain sign the bill mak ing the appropriation for the Fair SEEK THE BY J. L. JONES. SOME twenty years ago I found in a theosophic book the sentence. "Seek only the unattainable." "Through the Gates of Gold" was the name of the "nook. I remember nothing about it but the title and the words of the strange commandment, "seek only the unattain able". That la enough. The words were impressed on my mind instantaneously and indelibly. That was Just my style. That was the kind of a proposition I liked to tackle. I always flt that way, but had never formulated the thought Into words. What Is the use of seeking the attain able? After you get it you don't want it. Only the unattainable Is worth attaining. What you can't have is the thing you su premely want. What you- can have speed ily becomes a weariness to the flesh. What Is the use of having a big palace or several of them and millions of acres of land? You can only occupy one room at a time, and six feet of dirt is all you will toe. allowed after you are mustered out of the service of mammon. What Is the use of having so many clothes? You can only wear one suit at once. What is the use of having so much to eat? You have only one stomach, and that won't hold as much as a nail keg, and when It la full It won't hold any more. The GOOD STREETS ARE (BY RALPH R. DUNIWAY.) En route to Tillamook to attend the Pprlng term of court, I read In this morning's Oregonlan the article headed "Easier to Improve Streets," and which Is a very persuasive argument for the property-owners of Portland to vote for certain charter amendments as to street Improvements. The article con tained extensive quotations from City Attorney McNary. Also a day or two before the Oregonlan had an editorial urging charter changes In Portland as to street Improvements that was a very persuasive argument to Induce voters to vote the change. But, Mr. Editor, you have not accu rately published what the power to Im prove streets is now under the charter of the City of Portland. Mr. Kdltor. you ought to accurately publish the present charter powers as to street Improvements; then accurately publish the proposed changes. Mr. Kdltor. you ought not to publish general statements which are full of inaccurate statements of facts, and ad jectives, as mild, accurate statements of the facts, and above all, they should not be labeled as wise statements from impartial persons, and then give to the firmly convinced that its percentage of im provement during the past twenty years is greater than has been achieved by any other branch of human endeavor. Fifteen years ago the most commonplace and indifferent editor would have been offended had it been suggested to him that his advertising pages were more generally read than his editorial page. Today only a superlatively vam old bachelor editor, and a clubman at that, dreams that his audience compares with the S. R. O. multitude that pays tribute to the well written, carefully-edited, fact-containing announcements made by' the department stores. By comparison the newspaper stands first among advertising mediums and the local newspaper should be, and generally- is, the pulse of the community tt represents. You can judge a city by Its representative papers more accur ately than in any other way, and this is especially .true, of the advertising columns. But enough of generalissimo my subject is "Community Advertising," easily the highest type of publicity be cause it embodies the soul and spirit of the people for which it speaks. Com munity advertising is prima facie evi dence of community unity and or ganization, for one Is the natural se quence of the other. Our greatest efTort in the Pacific Northwest was the Lewis and Clark Exposition, and it was a success be cause It was given with an honest pur pose, and that purpose was the up building of a great section of our country. Communit advertising was the breakfast, lunch and dinner of that show, and It makes me proud of my home city every time I think of the devotion of itB citizenship to the real purposes of the exposition, rathet than to the sale of town lots or the localizing of - the benefits. The ex position opened our eyes to our oppor tunities and possibilities: it sharpened our wits in modern Ideas, and the friendly rivalry between the several communities in displaying to the best STATE AID without seeking excuses? Now, when it comes the 'turn of the rural com munity, the cold shoulder is turned. The Icy stare takes the place of the warm personal appeal to fraternal pa triotism. Gentlemen, if' you - cannot give us a reciprocal friendship, let us at least have the square deal. We ap peal to your honor and your business sense. In 1896 I located and took my family on a homestead near the mouth of the Siletz, In Lincoln County. There was a group of some 20 families in the neighborhood, absolutely without a road. A tugboat came Into the mouth of the river about twice a year. The nearest town was Newport, at the mouth of the Taquina, 25 miles away. Toledo, the county seat, was 30 miles away, while Sheridan, In POlk County, was 45 miles away, with a road part of the distance passable only In Sum mer. For two years I hewed away at my ranch awaiting developments as to roads. An application had been made to the county for the organization of a road district, a survey and county aid. but nothing was done.- I then took up the matter with the County Court, and found a condition like this: The court claimed that, as homestead ers, we paid no tax and were not en titled to an expenditure of county funds. Ignoring the fact that Lincoln County's share of the sale of the pub lic lands (and these homesteads were bought at so much per acre), 5 per cent of which is set apart by the Fed eral Government for internal Improve UNATTAINABLE; ATTEMPT THE tramp can see as much as the millionaire If his eyes are good. The pure in heart can-see the things that are Invisible and hear heavenly airs that are inaudible to those whose ears' are filled with the din of strife. What is the use of attempting the pos sible? Anyone can do the thing that is possible. The greatest glory and the finest entertainment is to accomplish the im possible. The whole life of Moses was a series of impossibilities. It was illegal that his life should be spared in the first place and impossible that he should be adopted by the Daughter of the King. It was Impossible for a single person with only a rod for a weapon, to rescue a whole tribe of unarmed slaves from the hostile territory of a great kingdom. When Moses went down to Egypt, he did not proceed to organise a labor union ana elect officers and collect dues and pass resolutions. He did not demand an Increase of 10 per cent in wages, nor petition the government not to allow any other foreigners except Israelites to work. He walked into the palace of the King and said: "See, here, old man, you have got to let these people go.. We are going to quit for good. We are not going to work any more at all. You will have to get along without us. You understand? We're going to go." And they did go, in spite of the King and without the assistance of the govern public partisan and unfair arguments from City Attorney McNary. The simple facts are that the City of Portland in the present charter has very easy procedure and drastic pow ers over the Improvement of streets and collection of street assessments and the patient and much-abused property owners have very little opportunity to effectually remonstrate against street Improvements, or resist them. In the courts, or resist payment of street assessments. Let me state the powers under the present charter: The Council, of Its own motion, can order any street or any part of a street. Improved, or re Improved. The power of the Council is supreme In ordering the Improve ment and the kind of the Improvement by means of a simple resolution. With in 20 days from the first publication of the resolution the property-owners owning two-thirds of the property pro posed to be assessed for the Improve ment (and what property is to be assessed the Council can determine In any way that It deems wise and make It much property or little property, so long as the property is within the lim its of the city), must file a remon strance or be forever barred from re monstrating and objecting about the lack of wisdom of the Council's action- advantage our products - helped us all. The Tacoma audience is naturally pleased at mention of the Lewis and Clark Fair, for "Watch Tacoma Grow" has become a classic and Is easily' the best remembered and most frequently used expression growing out of 7ie fair I can make it stronger it's in a class by itself and no one can estimate Its value to this city never let It sleep, for It is community advertising in the highest sense. Abuse is sometimes the very best possible community advertising. I know of an Interesting case applying to Tacoma. which occurred on a train entering this city. A showman had been here on Saturday night, no other date was open, and as "he expressed It. "Being- a tin-bucket brigade town, and everybody out shopping, we got a frost." Well, when the conductor came in, three Easterners asked for stop over privileges, and they may be here tonight for all I know. Tou know all about the work of your incomparable secretary, L. W. Pratt, and in him you have a greater power for the good of Tacoma and Washing ton than a 20-story building. The Ta coma Chamber of Commerce lias ac complished a great work and its wheels are stlU grinding, but I do wish you had the combination of the social and business club, similar to the Portland Commercial Club. Now to illustrate, out of our 1010 members we have a daily meeting at luncheon of from 190 to 250 representa tive business men now stop and think what that means. Let me give you some of the benefits a prominent visi tor arrives, get him In the parlors, run him up against 75 to 150 of the members they have lost no time and he is honored. The, Portland business men will run in May an excursion through' Oregon and Idaho a joint committee from the three commercial bodies handle the details they all be long to the Commercial Club and meet at lunch, and they are not hurried. The club gives a monthly dinner at IN ESTABLISHING GOOD ROADS ments, had been used by the county to build a courthouse. Under pressure a road had been surveyed from Toledo to the head of tidewater, on the Si letz. This was, an impossible route, dictated by the 'political' influence of the agency Indians. When this had been catered to and the hunger of the County Surveyor and his gang for a job, the matter rested. The road has never been opened, and the $275 spent on the survey wasted. Sucty a fault the Johnson -bill would have remedied, first, because the or ganization of state and county for road improvements with funds would be so strong that subterfuge objections- to opening roads would disap pear, and when it came to a survey a competent engineer employed by the state would be qualified to select, and, being remote from the petty rivalries of county politics, would make such report as would minimize this diffi culty. The matter would gather suffi cient intelligent support and impor tance to prevent its becoming the prey of narrow, self-absorbed officials or factional opposition. 1 The territory between Siletz and Taquina Bays is very hilly and covered with a dense growth of heavy timber. In the course of the Summer of 1888, I cruised it very thoroughly. The hills slope lower to the ocean, giving way to a sandy fiat, for the whole distance except four or five miles at Cape Foulweather and northward arid are much lower there than further back. For a distance of a few hundred yards from the beach there Is no timber ment. Then he divided the sea. He made water gush from the solid rock. He brought down manna from heaven. He revealed the laws of God. He separ ated the evil from the good and dis tinguished between the curse and the blessing. All these things were impos sible, impracticable and unattainable. The history of Joshua and Samuel, of David, Elijah, Ellsha and Daniel, of Jesus and Paul and all the other apostles is a record of accomplishment of the im possible and the attainment of the un attainable. The modern church pretends to believe solemnly, seriously and devoutly in all these ancient impossibilities. But, at the same time, it is firmly anchored and safely settled down In the conservative belief that nothing impossible can ever be accomplished any more. Man's en ergy must hereafter be strictly confined within the .barren limits of the prosaic and the practicable. There can be no pillar of fire nor cloud. No more water can pour from the rock nor manna descend from heaven. So they open gaping mouths for gifts from Rockefeller. The lightning that strikes them is not the Are from heaven but slag from the bottom of the smelter. The age of miracles is at an end. Here after we may behold only the mean and the matter-of-fact. We are limited to the purely materialistic. To work In a mill. OBTAINABLE UNDER It is very difficult to get two-thirds of the property In the assessment district to remonstrate within 20 days. Much property is owned outside of the state. Property-owners are very slow to cir culate remonstrances and are very loth to sign remonstrances. The Oregonlan should publish a list of the improve ments that have been remonstrated, but under the two-thirds rule and the kind of Improvements, that have been re monstrated out, and then It would be demonstrated how few are the im provements that are defeated by re monstrance and how foolish were the said proposed Improvements. The simple truth about the proposed dis trict assessment and making many Im provements In one proceeding, is the city, officials want this gTeat grant of power so they can combine a number of Im provements in one proceeding and the property-owners will not so easily learn of and understand what sort of a job is being worked dn them, and when they do learn that they are being jobbed In street assessments, cannot get the very large remonstrance required In the very short time allowed, of only 30 days- from the first publication. The only thing that Is necessary to be done under -the present charter in order to Improve many streets in one part of the city or all over the city, at the same 91 per plate and It always . commands the capacity of the dining-room. We have a home for the interior merchant and editor, the representatives of other commercial bodies, and a home for the visitor. Remember that all the time, business extension and community adver tising must be of first Importance, and the social side of the organization is heightened rather than otherwise when the chief purpose' of the club is under stood your visitor has a right to accept hospitality -without incurring obligation it's a business club. 'Now to details... I am sure that you desire the beYieflt of our experience in Portland, and for that reason will make no apology for talking shop. The 1010 members pay an initiation fee of $25 and dues of $2.50 per month; non resident members pay the same Initiation fee and $30 a year. dues. This fund is controlled by a Board of Governors of 15. who are responsible 'for the social part of the club and Its entertainments, and from this fund the club pays $100 per month and furnishes offices for the publicity and correspondence department, which is under the adimntstration of an executive committee of nine. The social end of the club has been in existence for many years. The execu tive committee began Its work in May, 1304, and until everything was in abso lute running order and their ideas and plans had been matured, this committee met every: week, and during all this time each and every - one was present unless absent from the city or detained by sick ness. The board of governors meet every Monday at luncheon, and they have never missed a quorum. In fact, all our meet ings are at luncheon. The executive committee handles, the community advertising, and community advertising with Portland means the Pa cific VNorthwest. and especially the State of Oregon, and it may surprise you some what to learn that in beginning their duties and making their subscriptions, five different interests paid $100 per month and have paid that sum since the work except a short space at Cape Foulweather, and another at Depot Bay. At the mouths of numerous small streams coming out of the hills, the little marshy bottoms are terminated by a sea wall of pebbles brought down by the streams, making a natural ford. Shortly all doubt as to the most available route for a road being close to the beach was removed- The only serious obstacles were Cape Foulweather promontory, about 1000 feet ' high, and Rocky Creek about two miles north of the cape. The creek had to be crossed at the mouth. The two miles between the creek and Foulweather Hill is a ridge about 1000 feet high, parallel with the ocean line, sloping rather steeply down to It and ter minating in a rock bluff. The ocean side is grass land and being exposed to the sun and well drained, is dry and solid, while the top of the ridge andthe eastern slope is covered with timber and to soft and damp. Considering these circumstances. I uti lized tho whole two miles between Foul water Hill and the mouth of Rocky Creek in making the descent, thereby securing an easy, even grade. I established the grade and staked and blazed the line as well' as I could without instruments, which was fairly well, and expect the County Surveyor to correct and even up the grade with his Instrument. I obtained and pre sented to the court a petition containing practically every resident Interested, and the court very reluctantly granted a sur vey. They did not, however, cease their opposition, but refused any aid in building the road, and left the few settlers on Siletz Bay to do all the work alone. They proclaimed that the road could not to wait on a master, "to chronicle small beer and suckle fools," to raise .more corn to feed more hogs, to increase the volume of exports, to live in sodden sa tiety, to die in stolid contentment and be buried in a hundred-dollar coffin these -are the purposes of life. To seek for more is sin. To attempt the impos sible 48 agitation or anarchy. Some time ago I published and circulat ed the new dispensation programme, de manding the demonetization of gold and silver, the abolition of all laws for the creation and collection of debt; that all titles to land be conditioned on actual residence and personal use. and that all lots and lands not so held should be thrown open unconditionally to free oc cupancy and use by actual settlers. I knew quite well' that this was Im possible and impracticable. I knew the people would say I was crazy. And they said so, but they neglected to appoint a lunacy commission to sit on nie, so I am still at large, circulating the same literature, proclaiming the same gospel of universal emancipation from all the er rors of .the mortal mind, from the cus toms, beliefs, traditions and habits of thought inherited from barbarous ances tors, deliverance from debts, bonds and bondage, from sin, sickness and death, from sedition, privy conspiracy and re bellion and from the assaults of the world, the flesh and the devil. time, is for the Council to pass the reso lutions, publish them and take the simple steps provided by the charter. City Attorney McNary states in said in terview: "Each act of the Council, Executive Board, Engineer and Auditor. In the per formance of their respective duties In the matter of an improvement prescribed by the charter from the resolution calling upon the engineer to submit plans and specifications for such Improvement down to the final docketing of the assessment is jurisdictional, and must be performed as provided by charter, or if not, then the way is open for contest and litigation." That is simply not true, and it Is so clearly wrong that the learned City At torney with his five years of experience as city Attorney must know It is not true. The only basts for litigation under the present city charter in street assess ments Is found In the city officials neglect ing to comply with the simple provisions of the charter and placing heavy and un just assessments against property for poor street Improvements at very high prices. The chance of the property-owners to pro tect themselves In the courts has been so far taken away by the present charter that the courts of Oregon have decided that the property-owners have no remedy when the City Engineer, the City Inspect ors and the contractor fraudulently fail to improve a street In compliance with was begun, while others pay $50 per month, and others $25. $15 down to $10 and $5 per month. The money has ail been used in advertising the resources of this section, paying special attention to farm possibilities of the State of Oregon, and little or no notice has been taken of Porthland as a city because from the be ginning we have felt that the develop ment of the interior meant the better ment of Portland, and I feel that without detracting from the efficacy of any other state organization in the union, the Ore gon Development league, with its 67 different bodies is the best and most suc cessful state development organization ever perfected in the United States, and that it is doing more and better work than any of them. The gratest accomplishment of the Port land Commercial Club has been the or ganization of this state body, and it has been a success because Portland, in tak ing the initiative, has told the plain, un varnished truth to each and every sec tion of the State of Oregon. People In other cities and towns wanted to know why we were helping them to organize, and to this we replied: "We want you to get a dollar so we can take 75 cents away from you." That was the truth, and the average citizen in any interior town in Oregon, is Just as smart as the average citizen' in Portland, and upon this under standing they joined hands' and went to work. - . The several meetings of the league held in Portland and In other cities have been splendidly attended, and to give you some idea of their efficacy, we know that they have circulated between the first day of November of last year and the first day of April over 1,000,000 pieces of advertising matter. With a portion of this Commercial Club advertising fund an advertisement was Inserted In many of the best established agricultural papers throughout the United States: some dailies and their weekly edi tions were also used; the total circulation of the papers amounted to something like 20.000,000; 11.365 inquiries were received from November 20 to February 23. and be built. They extended the Newport dis trict eight miles further up the beach than I It had before existed, as far as Otter Rock, and appointed an overseer, who re fused to open up the road. For the new district, containing the rest of the road, they appointed John Afolter overseer, a man living four miles north of Siletz Bay and on the Sheridan road, instead of the man petitioned for. I have always thought they did this under the presumption that he. as he himself stated, not being in a position to use the new road, would neg lect either partly or wholly the opening up of the road. If so, they missed. Mr. Afolter. as I was perfectly aware when the appointment was made, is one of those noble men who in a matter of duty does his level best, whether It's for himself or his neighbor. So we all got together and built a good horse trail as far as Otter Rock, the limit of our district. One who has never lived in such a situa tion cannot know how valuable even so poor a road as a horse trail is. At this juncture I moved out of the Siletz country. Since doing so the county officials of Lin coln County have experienced a change of heart, and let a contract for completing this road so as to make It practicable for wagons, paying half the cost, the settlers the other half. As soon as the timber exploiters began to get busy putting homesteaders on that fine timber, the public-spirited officials of Lincoln County be came convinced that this road should be completed. But they could not confess that they were wrong altogether in their opposition, and ordered a resurvey of the road, changing It from the top of Foulweather Hill to Rocky Creek, ' so IMPOSSIBLE I make these demands In perfect con fidence that they must be allowed. I pro claim this gospel In the fullest assurance that it is absolutely true. What did Christ die for? Was it to establish the kingdom of Carnegie and Rockefeller, or to establish the kingdom of righteous ness? Why de we keep saying the prayer with endless repetitions, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?" Has this kingdom come? If it has, why continue to pray for it? Is It' the kingdom of God we have on earth now, or la It the kingdom of grafters and parasites? Where is the seat of God's kingdom? Is it at Lon don or St. Petersburg or Washington? Suppose an embassy should arrive at Washington from the interior of dark est Africa. Inquiring for the kingdom of God. What could the officials In form them? Where would they direct them? When the Coxey army marched to Washington to plead for better condi tions of life, it was attacked and lgno mlnlously routed by the forces of Gro ver Cleveland. When the wise men from the East came to Jerusalem In quiring for the new born King, they had to sneak out by the back alley. The new born King had to take a sneak, too, but he appeared again to the great CHARTER the contract and make a poor Job of It, and Induce the Executive Board to ac cept it; that the property-owners must prove that the Executive Board has also been corrupted and guilty of fraud in or der to get relief from poor work and ma terials at high prices. The Executive Board relies upon the City Engineer and City Inspectors, who are paid a salary to look after the interests of the city and the property-owners, and the fraud of the City Engineer and City Inspectors Is not a defense to street assessments. Property owners have great difficulty In convinc ing the Executive Board that their trusted City Engineer and City Inspectors are not doing their duty in rejecting poor work and material, when the City Engineer, City Inspectors and contractor are all making vigorous claims that the work and material are good. There ought to be an appeal from the decisions of the Executive Board, but there Is none, nor is there any other remedy. - The present charter allows a reas sessment to be made when an assess ment has been defeated upon any ground other than that a valid re monstrance has been Ignored by the city officials. Thus any technical de fense to a street assessment is useless. The only street assessments that are litigated are those high and unjust street assessments which will not be approved by an lmnartlal jury. One all of these were answered from the office of the Portland Commercial Club with from three to Ave different pieces of advertising matter, and the names and addresses were furnished to all of the different bodies throughout the state be longing to the Oregon - Development League, and I personally know that more than 30 of them have supplied advertis ing matter to each inquirer, and we feel that this had something to do with the great colonist travel to our state and to the Northwest. Quite recently we used 16,000 copies of local newspapers in answering inquiries, and 2000 German papers were necessary to reply to the inquiries in that language alone during a period of three months. ,We have also used about 30.000 copies of various Portland publications which is sue special editions devoted to the de velopment of the city and the state. In order to test the enthusiasm at home we Issued a leaflet on light paper so that It would add little or nothing to the postage of a letter and distributed 327,000 of these within three "weeks, with no cost except that of printing and for carriers to see that everybody's orders were satis fied. Many of the larger stores put them in each and every bundle going out of the store, and on this leaflet we had at the top, 'Put me in your letter." so that thousands of them were used by the ladies of the city in their personal letters to friends at a distance, and all of the leading commercial houses, manufactur ers, bankers, etc., had them put in each and every letter that went out. Of course we had to have an especially in teresting subject for the central feature of this leaflet, and attention was directed to the rapid building progress in Port land. We have advertised the colonist rates to all Oregon points and recently used a large advertisement reaching 7,000, 000 of readers, .and' with not a line relating to the city, we gave briefly the facts as to agriculture, dairying, logged-off lands, fruits, wheat, irri gation, reclamation service. timber. An Object Lesson Showing What the Johnson Bill, If It Had Not Been Vetoed Would Have Done. that It runs along the top of the ridge through the timber to a point immediate ly above Rocky Creek, and then zigzags down the precipitous side of the canyon some 800 feet to .the bottom; instead of utilizing the whole two miles to get down on a good grade with the further ad vantage of being in open ground with a drier soil, as the original survey had done. Now under the plan contemplated by the Johnson bill all these errors of establishment - and construction would have been avoided because under the management of an experienced road engineer whose tenure of office would depend on his ability to exhibit good work, and not on his affiliations with the little coterie of politicians around a county courthouse. In the case of this road, wherein these poor settlers must, to secure their outlet, make the most of every available ounce of ef fort, the money expended by the coun ty on these three surveys, probably $500 In all. would have gone far in actual construction towards their aim. The surveying of a county highway as it is done, at least in this case, is only a legal necessity,- not of any actual benefit. The surveyor had no level on his instrument and ran no grade. He merely marked the road as we had already blazed It out, platted and recorded it. All of which is neces sary legal technique, but should be minimized, and no expense wasted on errors. It is hard to find a county the offi cials of which are competent to have full charge, of so important a matter With Illustrations by Well Known Historical Persons Who Put Into Practice These Teachings. embarrassment of the ruling classes. Then they killed him. but he promised to appear again to their final discom fiture. . Will he do this? Why do the churches pray for it? Will the prayers of all these good, pious people be of no avail? Will they never be answered or hardly ever? Suppose they should be answered unexpectedly. What If he has come already in disguise like the priest in the play, "Measure for Meas ure." and that he is secretly spying out the country and finding out the games of the grafters so as to convict them out of their own mouths? What is the use of making the prayer, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," if we won't forgive our debt ors, if we uphold a system of law that exists for the purpose of keeping the people continually in bondage? Will Christ come to confirm the bondage or to cancel the bonds and set the cap tives free? It Is well to consider these questions. .They are not above the capa bility of human reason. When the human reason becomes emancipated from Ig norance and superstition, then look out for miracles. Knowledge is really power. I would like to Impress on Christian people the thought that the prayers they repeat either mean something or they mean nothing. If they mean nothing Ralph R. Dunniway Says Proposed Amendments as to Street Improvements Are Unnecessary. of the strong reasons for this news paper agitation over contested street assessments and charter changes to make street Improvements easier Is to prejudice future Juries to be called in reassessment cases to stand in with the city officials, and tho street con tractors, and decide against the con testing property-owners as a matter of course. In order to build up the city. This Is shown by this paragraph from the interview with City Attorney McNary: "It may be s'ald, however, that the manner in which street Improvements are inaugurated Is only Incidental, and the principal question Is the engender ing of public sentiment favorable to street improvements and the payment thereof as opposed to the sentiment of the past on the part of many property owners antagonistic to and causing contesting payments therefor." The partisan argument . of City At torney McNary Is well shown where he argues that if the proposed charter changes are adopted ."bidding upon im provement contracts should be lower on account of the contractor not being subjected to delay In realizing upon their warrants or having to discount them." Our local history is full of con tractor pools to raise bids without regard to manner of their pay. To any one with a memory and a knowledge mines, hops, nurseries, livestock and poultry, and this and other advertise ing has caused many of our sub-organizations to receive exceeding 1000 in quiries. The best ' and most effective work we have done in community advertis ing has been to interest the County School Superintendents, teachers and pupils In attendance upon the schools, and the school children are ail busy writing to their old home papers, and to friends at a distance, and in many of the Oregon cities and towns to per cent of the high school children have come into the state within the past five years. What is true of the pub lic schools is also true of the State University, the State Agricultural Col lege and other educational Institutions. The business men go out and talk to ,the pupils, and this habit is becoming general throughout the entire state. Many of the commercial bodies in Ore gon are offering prizes for the best article that appears in a paper printed outside Oregon and Washington; in fact, we have reached a high point In community advertising, and the results have been beyond our expectations. The best, evidence that the business men. capitalists and good citizens of Portland appreciate the Joint work- of the Commercial Club and Oregon- De velopment League is the fact that they subscribed $350,000 for stock bearing S per cent, and we are now building an eight-story steel home, with roof garden. The club will occupy the top four floors and roof garden, each 100 by 100. making it the largest popular commercial club west of the Missouri River It not In the United States. The rental from the basement and other four floors will pay a large percentage of oul interest, taxes and other expenses, and within a few years the club can own ill building free from debt of any kind, and It will certainly be a monument to th success of community advertising ol which the entire Pacitic Northwest can be proud. as roadbulldlng. Often they are the cheapest men of the community mere place-hunters, owing their election to the .meaner, rather than the better side of their constituency. To combine with the state increases the chances of get ting good men, gives them more to do and a greater reliance on the charac ter of their work, as well as experi ence. A building is rendered safer by being braced in more than one direc tion. The ..matter of the Siletz road be came a contention between me, whom chance had made its only aggressive advocate, and the four men of the County Court. I was amazed by the filibustering retorted to to defeat the project after It had been on the rec ords, granted, and often felt that had there been an appeal to the state or any influential, intelligent, impartial authority, a needless lot of trouble would have been avoided. In breadth there Is strength; diverse interests and factions correct each other. Oregon never was able to clear herself of certain corrupt practices, but the Federal Government, backed by influences outside the state and the right men In charge, found abundant means to set things In order. From any reflections this letter makes upon the then County Court of Lincoln, I wish to except Mr. Robert Wakefield, of Alsea. then, perhaps now, a Commissioner, and whom I always found to be an Intelligent, broad-minded man, ready to weigh a proposition on its merits in the light of the largest interest of the county. there is no use to make them. If they mean what they say then it Is better to beware lest the answer come unexpected ly like a thief in the night. It would be a terrible disappointment to the Chris tians if their prayers should be granted before they were ready. Once on a time a small boy was fish ing on the bank of a stream. He was . dreaming and dawdling and not paying attention to his business. Suddenly a fish snatched his hook. He was so sur prised and excited that he fell in the river. Let the thoughtless prayer-makers beware. To t "make prayers" that you do not mean is taking the name of the IjOrd in vain, and the Lord will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain. On all sides 1 hear the sound of ob jection. Oh, you can't, can't can't. Tou can't. Indeed you can't. It Is not use you can't It can't be done,, it is impos sible. In reply to this chorus I say there is no can't in my creed. I don't believe a thing unless I know it is true. Can la only another form of the old Scotch or Saxon ken. I ken means I know. The kenning one is the cunning one the King the one who knows. This is the King who rules by divine Tight. His will is law. Inexorable "Thy will be done on earth as It Is In heaven." Corvallis, Or., April 12. of. the arts of contractors, the above argument of City Attorney McNary is very humorous. Let the city offlctala obey the law; let the contractors do honest work and their pay will not bo delayed under the present charter. It wilt be hard to frame a charter that can compel property-owners ' to pay when city officials violate the charter and contractors do not lay streets ac cording to contract and that will wear. In conclusion, let me suggest that the property-owners of Portland have paid out money enough for poor pav- ing materials and workmanship to have provided Portland with good streets. So long as city officials allow poor streets to be made and collect pay enough for good streets from the property-owners, so long will the problem remain with us unsolved. Let us re member our experience with and the price paid for and the promises made for these pavements in Portland: vitri fied brick, bituminous asphalt, - asphalt, wooden planks In all sorts of shapes and sizes, wood blocks, treated and un treated; rotten rock for macadam, boul ders for gravel, etc.. etc. Let us have the present charter en forced, and then we won't need so many amendments. If the charter is not en forced the amendments will only bene fit the man who Is selling the city poor material and workmanship.
