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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2019)
BUSINESS Saturday, September 21, 2019 East Oregonian A7 Ku Klux Klan threatens Astoria paper and comes to Eastern Oregon Editor’s Note: In 2018, EO Media Group published an historical book by author William F. Willingham, “Grit and Ink: An Oregon Family’s Adventures in Newspapering, 1908-2018” (http://books. eomediagroup.com/grit-ink/) Since its publication, the family-owned media compa- ny that owns and operates the East Oregonian has dou- bled in size, having recently acquired newspapers in La Grande, Baker City, Bend and Redmond. The following story is excerpted from this book and is part four of a seven-part weekly series. EO Media Group B y the 1920s, the East Ore- gonian‘s owners looked for opportunities beyond Pendleton. They had the financial resources to buy two other daily newspapers — in Astoria, Oregon and Twin Falls, Idaho. Under the strong leadership of E.B. Aldrich at the EO and Merle Chessman at the Astoria Budget, those papers thrived financially; the venture with the Twin Falls Times did not turn out as well. The next big cause promoted by the EO under Aldrich’s editorship was the Pendleton Round-Up. The show the organizers had in mind would showcase horsemanship, cowboy skills, and Native Ameri- can pageantry and life ways. Par- ticipants would be actual working cowboys and Native Americans from reservations throughout the Pacific Northwest. It would have an authenticity that the typical Wild West shows of the era could not muster. Ironically, the Round-Up orga- nizers were portraying a way of EOMG file photo This Ku Klux Klan meeting took place in front of the stadium at Columbia Field, below J.J. Astor School. The sta- dium was constructed in 1922. life no longer typical of Umatilla County in 1910. Bronco-busting tournaments and Native Ameri- can war dances described a time in the 1870s and 1880s when cattle and cowboys dominated the range- land of Umatilla County and the Bannock War of 1878 caused tur- moil on the Umatilla Indian Res- ervation. Such scenes and events gradually were replaced by wheat farming and sheep raising in north- eastern Oregon. On the eve of the 1911 Round-Up, Aldrich admitted as much in an editorial when he wrote, “The show is not intended to depict the life in this country at this time, for the Round-Up is not typical of Pendleton and of eastern Oregon these days.” In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan bedeviled Oregon’s political and social life. The largely homog- enous population of Oregon fell prey to the racist and nativist pro- paganda of the KKK — which purported to be defending tradi- tional Protestant, white patriotic values from what they considered were the un-American beliefs of immigrants, Blacks, Jews, and Catholics. As the KKK developed a sizable following throughout the state, the editors of the Daily Asto- rian and the East Oregonian felt compelled to challenge the KKK’s discriminatory beliefs and actions in their communities. Both La Grande and Baker City also became hotbeds of Klan activity, with La Grande’s Klavern boasting over 300 members. On several occasions in 1923 and 1924, hundreds of white-robed and masked Klansmen paraded through downtown La Grande and Baker City and lit fiery crosses on the edge of town. The meeting records of the La Grande Klavern, published in “Inside the Klavern” (1999), reveal the depth of the Klan’s antipathy towards Catholics, Jews, Blacks, and Asians and recount the push- back the Klan received when it attempted to enforce its beliefs on the larger community. The La Grande Klan, for example, met resistance when trying to get the school board to hire only Protes- tant teachers and employees and when they sought the firing of a local banker who was Catholic. Walter Pierce of La Grande was elected governor of Oregon in 1922 with Klan help. Amidst this highly charged environment, Chessman made his position clear. While he could accept some of the candidates that had Klan support and the general patriotic values of the organiza- tion, he editorially denounced the Klan’s political agenda and its bla- tant falsehoods. In response to Chessman’s edi- torials, the Klan sought to under- mine Chessman by calling for boy- cotts and bans on the Budget and by demanding that Aldrich remove Chessman or sell the paper. In response, Aldrich made it clear that he supported the edito- rial independence of Chessman. He wrote: “No true newspaper wants to make any promise of edi- torial action in advance of an event because it is impossible to foresee what may develop and to make a pledge of that sort would mean to sacrifice a paper’s independence. That would not be good journal- ism and it should not be expected of us. ... We wish to remain free to praise or criticize as conditions may demand and we would not give up that right even for the pres- ident of the United States.” The Klan was also active in Pendleton, as the East Orego- nian reported. “Under the light shed by a fiery cross in the arena at Round-Up park a class of more than 100 candidates were initi- ated in to the Pendleton branch of the Ku Klux Klan last night in the first public ceremonial ever held here. The grand stand was packed with people who attended to see the ceremony. Preceding the cer- emony, klansmen to the number of approximately 275 in costume, paraded from the hall on Main street to the Round-Up grounds. ... Fiery crosses on both the north and south hills burned during the eve- ning for several hours.” Oregon employers to receive Outdoors RV celebrates $160 million from SAIF production of 20,000th unit SAIF declares two dividends, one based on premium and one tied to safety performance East Oregonian SALEM — Policyhold- ers with the State Accident Insurance Fund Corp. in Oregon will receive $160 million in dividends this year, the nonprofit work- ers compensation insurer announced Wednesday. The SAIF Board of Directors declared a $120 million primary dividend to be paid to policyholders based on their premium, and a $40 million safety performance dividend to be paid based on each policy- holder’s safety results. This is the 10th year in a row SAIF has been able to offer dividends, and the 22nd dividend in the past 30 years. “As a not-for-profit with a public mission to make workers’ comp available and affordable, paying div- idends is an important part of the value we offer Ore- gon employers,” said Kerry Barnett, president and CEO of SAIF. “SAIF is the only insurance carrier in Oregon that regularly returns div- idends to policyholders at this level.” Policyholders in Uma- tilla County will receive more than $2.9 million and Union County policyhold- ers will receive more than $1.1 million. Those figures do not include state agen- cies or public universities. “Our vision is to make Oregon the safest and healthiest place to work,” Barnett said. “We appre- ciate our policyholders’ efforts to ensure their work- ers go home safely at the end of each day.” SAIF determines whether a policyholder div- idend is appropriate based on capital levels, claim trends, and the overall eco- nomic environment. This year SAIF has seen strong investment returns and favorable trends in injury prevention and claim cost containment. The safety performance dividend rewards policy- holders for their claims experience for policies whose annual term ended in 2018, based on a scale ranging from zero to 10.6% of their standard premium. More than 48,500 pol- icyholders are eligible for SAIF’s primary dividend. Of those, about 93.9% are also eligible to receive all or a portion of the addi- tional safety performance dividend. “In addition to divi- dends, we are proud to offer our customers some of the lowest rates, best-in-class service, and the largest net- work of workplace safety professionals of any insur- ance carrier in Oregon,” said Barnett. “Our goal is to deliver workers’ comp that really works.” Checks will be mailed in October to eligible employers. BRIEFLY Business workshops offer new tools PENDLETON — The Small Business Develop- ment Center at Blue Moun- tain Community College is kicking off its fall work- shop series with a pair of classes in Pendleton. Both workshops are led by Michael Mettler of MCM Strategic + Com- munications. The first is Wednesday, Oct. 9 and will focus on integrat- ing Google Business into your communications arse- nal and why the platform is becoming increasingly more important. The other, which is Wednesday, Oct. 23, focuses on promoting and growing your business digitally, including how to create two-way communi- cation channels and calen- daring your content. The workshop sessions run from from 9 a.m. to noon at BMCC, 2411 N.W. Carden Ave., Pendleton. It includes light refreshments and a follow-up session to evaluate progress sev- eral weeks following. Each workshop costs $39. For more information or to register, contact Andrea Fowler at 541-278-5833. Pamplin Media cuts pay, hours PORTLAND — Pam- plin Media, publisher of the Portland Tribune and several community papers, notified employ- ees this week that the com- pany is cutting their hours and pay. It’s the latest in a series of cutbacks in Ore- gon media organizations amid an economic crisis in the news industry, but Pamplin said it expects the cuts will be temporary. The company is reduc- ing full-time staff to 38 hours per week, according to Publisher Mark Garber. That’s a 5% cut in hours, and Pamplin is making a corresponding cut in pay. In an email to The Ore- gonian, Garber said rev- enues have been consis- tently stable since the Great Recession. But he said this year the company has experienced revenue “softness,” an issue com- pounded by rising news- print prices associated with federal tariffs imposed last year. “We have committed to reviewing the temporary reduction in hours every three months and commu- nicating with employees about our progress toward restoring the week from 38 hours to 40,” Garber wrote. — EO Media Group and East Oregonian staff Courtesy photo Outdoors RV, based in La Grande, celebrates the production of its 20,000th unit with its local Outdoors RV dealer, Thompson RV of Pendleton. Thompson RV was one of the first RV dealers to sign up to be a part of the Outdoors RV family. The focus of Outdoors RV is to design and build recreational vehicles for the customers who enjoy “Mountain Tough Four Seasons Camping.” U.S. hop supply, demand balanced By DAN WHEAT Capital Press YAKIMA, Wash. — A 2% increase in inven- tory of U.S. hops since last September shows con- tinued reasonable bal- ance between supply and demand despite a continu- ing but slowing acreage increase in recent years, a leading producer says. Crop production in 2018 increased just 1% over 2017, “so a 2% increase in hop stocks 12 months later is relatively in line with the production increase,” says Pete Mahony, vice president of supply chain and purchasing for John I. Haas Inc. in Yakima. Haas is a leader in production, processing and research and development of hops. USDA’s National Agri- cultural Statistics Ser- vice released its Sept. 1 hop stock report on Sept. 18 showing hop inven- tory by growers, dealers and brewers at 115 million pounds, up 2% from the 113 million-pound inven- tory a year earlier. Stocks held at dealer and grower locations totaled 78 million pounds and brewers held 37 mil- lion pounds. The previous two Sept. 1 hop stock reports showed annual increases of about 15%, which was expected as production in those years increased at nearly the same rate, Mahony said. In June, USDA NASS estimated 57,339 acres of hops for 2019, up 4% from the record high of 55,035 in 2018. Of that, 72% is in Washington, 15% in Idaho and 13% in Oregon. For many years, hop growth has been fueled by the rapid increase of craft breweries, but their rate of growth is now slowing. “While we’ve certainly seen some slowdown in the U.S. craft indus- try from the double-digit growth rates of only a few years ago, the indus- try still continues to grow although at a more moder- ate and hopefully sustain- able rate,” Mahony said. A positive sign is strong growth in the long tail of craft, which are the smaller, more local craft brewers, he said. Long tail growth has pushed the total U.S. brewery count beyond 7,000, he said. Another positive sign is continued craft growth in overseas markets, which need U.S. hops to replicate popular beer styles of the U.S., Mahony said. “So as the market con- ditions have been evolv- ing and changing recently, it is reassuring to see how well the hop industry has been able to keep supply reasonably in balance with demand over the past year, as is evident in a hop stock increase of only 2%,” he said. 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