A4
East Oregonian
Friday, June 7, 2019
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
One more unneeded monument to fish
I
t appears the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers may
have seen the light. In its
preliminary environmental
impact statement, the agency
has recommended against
draining Detroit Lake. The
reservoir provides irrigation
water for 800 farmers and 6%
of Willamette Valley farm-
land, in addition to providing
drinking water for 175,000
Oregonians.
To many who live and work
near the North Santiam River,
this recommendation comes
as a relief. After all, using
hundreds of millions of fed-
eral tax dollars to intention-
ally damage the lives and live-
lihoods of so many people
made no sense.
The proposal to drain the
lake for up to two years was
part of a larger plan to modify
U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers Photo
The Detroit Dam on the North Santiam River near Detroit.
the temperature of the river
water to better accommodate
natural runs of salmon and
steelhead fish that have been
listed as endangered under the
federal Endangered Species
Act.
The plan is to build a con-
crete water-cooling tower
behind the Detroit Dam at a
cost estimated at $100 million
to $200 million.
When we think of all the
things that $200 million could
do these days, we have to
wonder about the federal gov-
ernment’s priorities — if it
has any.
First off, $200 million
could provide $167,000 to
each of Oregon’s 1,200 pub-
lic schools. Or it would pay
for building the new cancer
institute at the Oregon Health
& Science University — and
still have $10 million left over.
Or here’s a thought: The
money could be saved. The
federal budget is already more
than $700 billion in the red
this year.
Suffice it say, the con-
cept of spending hundreds of
millions of dollars on fish is
mind-boggling, particularly
when you consider that thou-
sands of hatchery fish already
thrive in the river, which
Detroit Lake feeds. The Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife last year counted
5,270 chinook salmon in that
river. Nearly 1,000 of them
were native run and the rest
were from a hatchery. Simi-
larly, there were 775 steelhead
— 185 of them native run.
And don’t forget about the 312
coho salmon.
That makes us highly
skeptical of plans to build a
water tower, but alas, under
the Endangered Species Act,
hatchery fish are invisible.
The Corps is only trying to
accommodate an ineffective
and poorly written law that
has cost the federal govern-
ment — and taxpayers — bil-
lions of dollars already in the
Northwest for the sake of fish.
The Corps now says it can
engineer a way to build the
300-foot-tall tower without
draining Detroit Lake. That
sounds better, but we have to
wonder about the need for a
tower at all.
The last thing we want, or
need, is a $200 million mon-
ument to fish. We certainly
can’t afford it.
OTHER VIEWS
Trump makes America
irresponsible again
D
YOUR VIEWS
Do pedestrians really have
the right of way?
What has happened to our laws regard-
ing pedestrians at crosswalks?
So being on foot and being nearly hit or
having a driver proceed forward has really
made me wonder what testing the drivers
took to get their license.
In Oregon we have ORS 811.028: Failure
to stop and remain stopped for pedestrian;
penalty. (1) The driver of a vehicle commits
the offense of failure to stop and remain
stopped for a pedestrian if the driver does
not stop and remainstopped for a pedes-
trian when the pedestrian is: (a) Proceeding
in accordance with a traffic control device
as provided under ORS 814.010 or crossing
the roadway in a crosswalk; and (b) In any
of the following locations: (A) In the lane in
which the driver’s vehicle is traveling; (B)
In a lane adjacent to the lane in which the
driver’s vehicle is traveling; (C) In the lane
into which the driver’s vehicle is turning;
(D) In a lane adjacent to the lane into which
the driver’s vehicle is turning, if the driver
is making a turn at an intersection that does
not have a traffic control device under which
a pedestrian may proceed as provided under
ORS 814.010; or (E) Less than six feet from
the lane into which the driver’s vehicle is
turning, if the driver is making a turn at an
intersection that has a traffic control device
under which a pedestrian may proceed as
provided under ORS 814.010.
Oregon pedestrian right-of-way laws are
not actually that complex. And the first
rule is that, under Oregon law, every inter-
section constitutes a pedestrian crosswalk,
whether or not it is marked or controlled by
a traffic device.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of
the East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
A Portland pedestrian attorney will often
hear the excuse from drivers that because
the pedestrian was in an uncontrolled inter-
section (no lights, orwalk/don’t walk con-
trols), the car should naturally have the right
of way. This is most definitely not the case!
This explains, however, why nearly 75%
of accidents between motor vehicles and
pedestrians are caused because the driver
failed (or refused) to yield the right of way
to the pedestrian. What’s more, a stagger-
ing 50% of all accidents between vehicles
and pedestrians in Oregon occur while the
pedestrian is in a crosswalk!
Pedestrians are not by any means totally
absolved of responsibility for road safety.
Oregon has a long list of statutes regarding
pedestrian right of way and drivers’ duties
of care when out on the roads. They include:
• Obeying the lights at a controlled inter-
section. If the pedestrian is facing a red
light, they do not have any right of way.
Similarly, if they are facing a steady yellow
light, they may not enter the roadway.
• If the pedestrian is facing a sign that
says Don’t Walk or Wait, they do not have
the right of way. This becomes a bit tricky if
the pedestrian has entered a crosswalk when
the light says Walk, then changes to Don’t
Walk or Wait. In those cases, it is the pedes-
trian’s duty to move to a point of safety, like
a traffic island or footpath, and wait until
they once again have the right of way.
I don’t find it as all that much of a
shocker because I have even had two local
police officers fail to yield as well as pro-
ceed to move forward once I have gone past
their car.
So do we really have the right of way?
David Chamberlain
Pendleton
onald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs
It is, I believe, pretty widely known that
on Mexican exports unless our neigh-
America turned its back on the world after
bor does something — he hasn’t spec-
World War I: refusing to join the League of
ified what — to stop the flow of asylum-seek-
Nations, slamming the doors shut on most
ers is almost surely illegal: U.S. trade law gives immigration (fortunately a few years after my
presidents discretion to impose tariffs for a
grandparents got here).
number of reasons, but curbing immigration
What’s less known, I suspect, is that Amer-
ica also took a sharply protectionist turn long
isn’t one of them.
before the infamous 1930 Smoot Hawley Act.
It’s also a clear violation of U.S. interna-
tional agreements. And it will reduce the living In early 1921, Congress enacted the Emer-
gency Tariff Act, soon followed by the Ford-
standards of most Americans, destroy many
ney-McCumber Tariff of 1922. These actions
jobs in U.S. manufacturing, and hurt farmers.
more than doubled average tariffs on
But let’s put all of that to one side
dutiable imports. Like Trump, the
and talk about the really bad stuff.
advocates of these tariffs claimed
Trump says that “TARIFF is a
that they would bring prosperity to
beautiful word indeed,” but the actual
all Americans.
history of U.S. tariffs isn’t pretty —
They didn’t. There was indeed
and not just because tariffs, whatever
a manufacturing boom, driven not
the tweeter-in-chief says, are in prac-
tice taxes on Americans, not foreign-
by tariffs but by new products like
ers. In fact, it’s now a good bet that
affordable cars and new technolo-
P aul
gies like the assembly line. Farmers,
Trump’s tariffs will more than wipe
K rugman
however, spent the 1920s suffering
out whatever breaks middle-class
COMMENT
from low prices for their products
Americans got from the 2017 tax cut.
and high prices for farm equipment,
The more important fact is that
leading to a surge in foreclosures.
until the 1930s, tariff policy was a cesspool
Part of the problem was that U.S. tariffs
of corruption and special-interest politics.
were met with retaliation; even before the
One of the main purposes of the 1934 Recip-
Depression struck, the world was engaged in a
rocal Trade Agreements Act, which eventu-
ally became the template for the modern world gradually escalating trade war. Making things
even worse, U.S. tariffs put our World War I
trading system, was to drain that particular
swamp by removing the capriciousness of pre- allies in an impossible position: We expected
vious tariff policy.
them to repay their huge war debts, but our tar-
Trump’s erratic trade actions, unconstrained iffs made it impossible for them to earn the
dollars they needed to make those payments.
by what we used to think were the legal rules,
And the trade war/debt nexus created a cli-
have brought the capriciousness back, and
good old-fashioned corruption — if it isn’t hap- mate of international distrust and bitterness
pening already — won’t be far behind.
that contributed to the economic and political
Beyond that, tariff policy is inextricably
crises of the 1930s. This experience had a pro-
found effect on U.S. policy after World War II,
linked with the United States’ role as a global
which was based on the view that free trade
superpower. Central to that role is the expec-
tation that the U.S. will be both reliable and
and peace went hand in hand.
responsible — that it will honor whatever
So am I saying that Trump is repeating the
agreements it makes, and more broadly that it
policy errors America made a century ago?
will make policy with an eye to the effects of
No. This time it’s much worse.
its actions on the rest of the world.
After all, while Warren Harding wasn’t a
Trump is throwing all that away. His Mex-
very good president, he didn’t routinely abro-
gate international agreements in a fit of pique.
ican tariffs violate both NAFTA, which was
supposed to guarantee free movement of goods While America in the 1920s failed to help
build international institutions, it didn’t do a
within North America, and our obligations
Trump and actively try to undermine them.
under the World Trade Organization, which,
And while U.S. leaders between the wars may
like U.S. law, permits new tariffs only under
have turned a blind eye to the rise of racist dic-
certain specified conditions. So America has
become a lawless actor in world markets, a tar- tatorships, they generally didn’t praise those
iff-policy rogue state.
dictatorships and compare them favorably to
But there’s more. By deploying tariffs as
democratic regimes.
a bludgeon against whatever he doesn’t like,
There are, however, enough parallels
Trump is returning America to the kind of
between U.S. tariff policy in the 1920s and
irresponsibility it displayed after World War
Trumpism today for us to have a pretty good
picture of what happens when politicians think
I — irresponsibility that, while obviously not
that tariffs are “beautiful.” And it’s ugly.
the sole or even the main cause of the Great
———
Depression, the rise of fascism and the even-
Paul Krugman is a columnist for The New
tual coming of World War II, helped create the
York Times.
environment for these disasters.
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies
for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold
letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights
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Pendleton, OR 97801