Sfx
Fifty Years of
Oregon Newspapers
By Cwn Futoaae
(Read at th Golden Jubilee of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers
Association.)
' It Ii Just 60 years ago that the linotype, hitherto a lab
nratnrv xneriment. waa first sold commercially. The ma
chines were shipped over the protest of Ottmar Mergenthal
r, their inventor, who left the company to work out improve
ments, finally in 1890 bringing out a successful machine. It
to Just to years since Frederick e.
Ives, who died a lew days ago, in
vented half-tone engraving, en
abling tht prlntlnf of photograph,
now a main feature of all publica
tion. Later Mr. Ire Invented the
three-color printing procesi, en
abling tht printing of photograph,
recently the polychromlc process and
Btorles In natural color.
Mechanical Improvement
These Invention and many oth
er hava contributed vitally to the
perfection of production. Presses
have been constantly improved In
mechanism, as have trotyplng pro
cesses. Electricity, unknown to
the newspaper plant of 60 years
ago. now turns the countless
wheel a well aa lights the plants
The teletype ha replaced the tele"-
graph operator with hitherto un
attainable speed In the sending of
new, and the transmission or pho
tos by wire and radio has become
an actuality. In oner, au mecnan
teal processes have been speeded
up by science, for half a century
ago neither the auto, the airplane,
the radio, the movies nor countless
other Inventions that have trans
formed civilized life existed, save
In the vision of some dreamers,
Fifty years ago the type had to
be set by hand, the typewriter was
not In general use, the counting
machine not yet Invented, the tele-
shone was available to few, the In
candescent light Just coming Into
use. and the electrical age Just
dawning. The first newspaper
chain was still in It Infancy.
Hearst had but recently acquired
the Ban Francisco Examiner and
was busy experimenting with sen
cation. Pulitzer had but recently
launched his venture In popular
Journalism, the New York World.
Leased wire were few and press
association reports consisted most
ly of skeletonized pony services.
No Biz Limit
Fifty years ago even city news
papers consisted of four or eight
pages, with an occasional splurge
of U or IS. Now there Is no limit
to the size of the papers, for there
Is enough type, paper, press speed
and news available. Not so In 1887,
when there was neither sufficient
type nor the time for setting It,
even though printer averaged 12
hours and were paid by their
"strings." The then limited pro
duction ha been speeded up all
along the line.
Advertising In the modern tense
Was unknown then to the smaller
paper. It consisted principally of
display cards that ran along with
out change. National advertising
was mostly patent medicines and
quack cure-alls, though a few man
ufacturers of standardized merch
andise utilised the newspapers, In
creasing in volume through the
year since. But. we must remem
ber, modern merchandising meth
ods were comparatively unknown
then.
Basra Sense Lacking
Fifty years ago circulation rates
were higher than those of today.
Lack of business methods handi
capped many Journallstlo ventures.
Partisanship and politics, rather
than new, was the main objec
tive. Gradually this ha changed
and newspaper publishing has be
come a standardized business. If
Hot profession. The advertising
manager and the circulation man
ager have become skilled In their
line of merchandising.
Newspapers have become vast
business enterprises, requiring
capital In proportion to the com
munltle served. The business has
been standardized and aystema
Used. The fly-by-nlght adventur
er la definitely out of the picture.
The personal Journalism of 50
year ago ha been largely super
seded by the Impersonal one of the
corporation, but the opportunity
for the individual remains. A
higher standard of ethics obtains.
necessitated to maintain reader
confidence.
However, tome of the greatest
newspaper successes of this half
century have been built by viola
tion of every code of ethics,
through unscrupulous method!"
GOOD
FRIENDS
iajxuawai' mmmmiiuimmL!mmmtm.pmwmwmmmmmr,
verging on racketeering but the
proportion It probably lower than
In most businesses. It was the era
of the economic royalist and news
paperdom merely reflected the
timet In an age when corporations
dominated economle and political
life and the people worshipped the
golden calf.
Many Fluctuation
Fifty years' ago the west was In
the midst of a fevered land boom
that brought many people to the
coast, settler and speculators, an
era that saw the establishment of
many newspapers, mostly born to
die, created many millionaire of a
day and was followed by the col
lapse and panic of the early 90s
Periodically since then the boom
and depression cycle ha repeated
the performance to make the pub
lisher's game anything but Joy.
One of the chief development!
of the half century ha been the
newspaper chain. They made pos
sible economies tne Individual pub'
Usher could not materialise. At
the start, like other chains, they
cut costs to the limit, paid the
lowest possible wage and put out
the cheapest possible paper. Bright
and hopeful young men were hired
for a pittance on the promise of
future promotion, which either
never materialized or, if It occa.
tlonally did, along came a shake-
up that eliminated all those with
living wages and replaced them
with young hopefuls. Those who
rose to key positions frequently
found the office boy supplanting
them without notice. But at the
paper grew In circulation and the
publisher In wealth, publishers
were forced to adopt better stand
ards. Nowadays they hire "effi
ciency experts" to do the dirty
work.
"One Born Every Mburter
It was along about 60 years ago
that some smart publishers discov
ered the moron, long before he re
ceived the title. They realized that
a large percentage of humanity had
low I. Q.'s, that the public schools
were teaching these masses to read,
If not to think, and that they want
ed entertainment and amusement,
and proceeded to cash In on the
discovery. The "popular' papers
with mass appeal rapidly attained
great circulations and mad their
owners millionaires. News was
minimized, sensation, scandal and
crime capitalized, frivolities re
placed the important, the serial at
tained prominence, the comic strip
had a mushroom growth and a mul
titude of feature unrelated to new
filled the expanding column. The
editorial decayed, but sports flour
ished. Big type and words of one
syllable added readers of the primer
class. The auto and the radio be
came new.
Then in fevered pursuit of the
moron, came the tabloid and the
picture paper, attaining even larger
circulations for the lack of Intellect
required to understand. And now
color It spreading It rainbow hues
to attract the dullard. Quantity has
replaced quality, as most newspap
ers followed the popular trend,
many forced to by competition,
"What though the judicious grieve.
the public like It and pay the
freight-
First 'Gay Divorcee'
Scandalizes in 1846
Divorce reared Its ugly head In
Oregon as early aa 1840, a WPA sur
vey reveal. At that time, one
Mary Ann Smith obtained a decree
in provisional court, November S.
The Jury turned a heeding ear to
Mary's pleas, found "the allegations
as set forth In the petition substan
tiated" and gave to the supplicant
"all the rights and Immunities of a
slate of celibacy
To Mrs. Smith went the dubious
distinction of receiving the first
divorce granted to a woman In Ore
gon. Sale of radio set in France are
about half those of a year ago and
radio manufacturer are dismissing
employes.
GOOD
FOOD J
AvjT- GOOD
"Tosi a Coin, Boys"
Founder of Portland Flip
For Naming of City
If K had been "heads" in
stead of "tall" Oregon's lar
gest city would today be re
ferred to as "Boston, Oregon."
For it was by the flip of a
cola m 146 that A. L. Love
Joy, a native of Massachusetts,
and F. W. Pettygrove, a na
tive of Maine, settled the pri
vilege of naming a city at the
conduction of the Willamette
and Columbia river.
Pettygrove, the mas from
Maine, won the flip and Im
mediately christened the vil
lage "Portland." after the
metropolis of hi bom state.
"Uncle Billy" Brooks, early settler
m the Waldo Hill country, amassed
a fortune of $50,000 and at his death
bequeathed it all to foreign mis
sions. His property he gave to the
Methodist church, alto for foreign
missionary work.
2040
Heating Technique Develops
With Growth of Northwest
From primitive times, home life has centered about the
hearth. Savages wanted protection from wind, ice and rain;
they built rude huts and roasted themselves in front of the
fire.
Pioneers came west, and with them they carried a fun
damental desire for homes warm homes, protected from
the elements.
In 1837 a pioneer cabin was fortunate if it possessed a
smoldering fireplace and a stone bake-oven.
Many were the trials and tribulations of housewives in
those days. Their day was full, and cooking remained a deli
cate and harassing art. Stone ovens supplied both heat for
cooking and for warmth, for early settlers were economical.
According to R. C. Clark's "History of the Willamette
Valley," a visitor to the valley in 1845 could say: "With the
box or frame house comes the In-
evltabl stove. Th cooking and
eating of the family go on In a
lean-to room. . .
Even In that day, notes the visi
tor, th fir and stove was a warm
and ingratiating influence. To my
eye,' he writes, "there 1 some
thing rarfly comfortable In the
Enjoy Year 'Round Comfort
Winter or Summer
Economically
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'lwsaH'artWlaaMBJM
CASPAR and CUTLER
North Capital
Capital
low, solid, rugged walls of gray
logs, with overhanging shingled
roof; th open hearth, too, -with Its
great smoldering back-log and wide
chimney, invites you to sit down
before it and rest."
They Had Their Trouble
The picture was Idyllic. But
v .; A a, ' l '"' 1 ' " 1 -'. . , j.
,v ... , ....
Location Of One Of Salem's
Winter or Summer, You Will Have That Same
Uniform Temperature All Over the House
Cool in Summer .... Warm in Winter.
Call Us and Let Us Explain How Reasonably This Plant Can be
Installed
Journal Golden Anniversary and Capitol Dedication
there are many references to the
fireplaces that "went wrong" oc
casionally, driving out occupant of
the house in uncontrolled haste.
"If people of today could go back
to the pioneer days, they'd find It
pretty hard to adjust themselves,"
asserted Herman Cutler, of the
Caspar and Cutler heating firm.
"Maybe it's Just because people are
getting lazy I"
Cutler, who ha viewed the pro
gress In heating equipment dur
ing the past two decades, insisted
that the predominant demand is
for comfort in heating.
After pioneer days cam the
Round Oak coal stove, the "trash
burners" and wood grates. It al
ways remained for soma member of
the household to carry out ashes,
and the draft into a room was end
less. The only way in which radia
tion of heat could be approximated
was by placing the stove in the
middle of the room.
(I
f.1Sii
Most Important Industries
Salem, Oregon
Oraduallv. a a farmer or merch
ant prospered, he Installed more
elaborate heating facilities. That
tendency has accounted I or ins
larm huftiniu now being served by
heating companies. Cutler aald.
Caspar and culler, in inree yca
of existence, hss built itself up as
the second largest heating firm In
the state, with a valuation of $J0,-
000
When the firm started la 1M6, It
was valued at $2500.
Caspar and Cutler doe an an
nual business of $76,000. In com
parison to the modest 18000 total it
met In Its first year. Th number
of employes has Jumped from one
to 14.
Oil and Ca Popular
Oil and gas heating systems have
been subjected to a large Increase In
rntir stated. He esti
mated that In 1937. the demand for
gas and oil systems together, ac-
innntA for sit ner cent Of th to
tal, indicating a departure from the
request for wood nesting.
In addition, he said, 61 per cent
of the heating systems Installed
were accompanied by air -conditioning
process.
Caspar and Cutler now boasts the
orilv "elbow machine" In the Wil-
1
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Dial
Edition
lamett. guaranteeing a large out
put. The firm alto has a 300 too
press. Seven truck and three ear
ar now employed, contrasted to
the aingl automobll that the com
psny started out with In 1(36.
The company ha also purchased
a new set of roll and shear for
one-half inch boilerplate. Cutler
disclosed. It also possesses the
only spot-welder In the valley,
which can be used in place of riv
eting. Caspar and Cutler I agent
for th Frailer gas furnace, which
ha shown wide popularity here la
the past year.
Nicholas Caspar went Into th
furnace business In 193. at the
present location. Herman Cutler
entered in 135.
Although the partnership of Ca.
par and Cutler extends only over
the past three years, the firm had
It root In th effort of Dave
Stelner over 60 years ago. Stelner
was assisted In his development of
furnaces by F. H. Berger, his son-in-law.
In 1931. Caspar, who had
worked with th company, bought
an Interest,
Brazil wants It foreign debt
based on its "economic capacity to
pay."
7419
And when It's over, more than one I sure to say: "The best
meal I aver had." W are certain you will say the same
after eating at THE OOLDEN PHEASANT. The foods
are tht finest, freshest obtainable, price are pleating,
too,
AT THB BION OF
JHE GOLDEN PHEASANT
14S NORTH LIBERTY