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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL January 21, 2015 O PINION Offbeat Oregon History Incompetent Portland opium-smuggling gang had friends in high places BY FINN J.D. JOHN For the Sentinel A s the new day dawned on the fi rst day of 1893, Cus- toms Collector Jim Lotan would have told you, had you asked, that life was good. The previous year had been good to him. After years of working his way up through the ranks in the Re- publican Party, he’d found himself its state party leader after Senator Joe Simon went to Washington, D.C., to join the Republican Na- tional Committee. He’d reached that position just in time to black- mail the City of Portland, which had come cap in hand asking the Legislature’s permission to borrow $200,000 for the Bull Run water project. Lotan wasn’t a Legislator himself, but he was in a position to set party priorities, and he told the city he’d be glad to put their request on the priority list … if they’d agree to buy the ramshackle, dilapidated, obsolete Stark Street Ferry from him for $50, 000. It was probably worth about $1,500 at the time. True, the city hadn’t leaped right on that generous offer, but Lotan knew it would eventually. It had no choice, unless it wanted to contin- ue drinking from the increasingly nasty Willamette River. The previous year had also been the year in which Lotan had landed, through his political maneuverings, a lucrative federal appointment. He’d been named customs collec- tor for the City of Portland. That meant his offi ce was in charge of inspecting incoming steamer traf- fi c, making sure nobody was smug- gling drugs or Chinese laborers into the city. Not only did the job pay a fi ne salary, but it had other benefi ts for the intrepid Mr. Lotan. It opened up, shall we say, certain extracurricular money-making op- portunities. After all, who was bet- ter positioned to smuggle opium into the port than the man whose job it was to prevent opium from being smuggled into port? Yes, 1893 was shaping up to be an excellent year for Jim Lotan. One imagines him sitting back with a fat cigar by the fi re at the ex- clusive plutocrats-only Arlington Club, of which he was a member, and relishing the prospect of the new year. With friends like these … It was not to be. The problem was, to really exploit the possibili- ties offered by his new position, he needed to fi nd partners who were discreet, trustworthy and compe- tent — partners who could keep their mouths shut. However, in- stead Lotan had ended up work- ing with the Merchants’ Steamship Company, owned by disreputable local wholesale grocer Nat Blum. As smugglers, Blum and his boys were stunningly incompetent. Many of their operations were so bumbling and panicky that they would have made good comedy sketches. Almost as soon as they began their operations, the names of the MSC’s ships, the Wilm- ington and the Haytian Republic, started appearing regularly in the news columns of the Portland pa- pers. Early in the year, the Portland Evening Telegram revealed that Merchants’ Steamship had been transferring Chinese immigrants at sea from one ship to another, a dangerous maneuver undertaken to avoid the expense of disinfecting the immigrants’ things on arrival — and, as it later turned out, to avoid also the customs inspection that would determine that the new- comers were illegal immigrants. Each man was paying the Blum gang $120 for this special service. How not to smuggle dope Word then started leaking out about the gang’s opium operations, something they undertook with a breathtaking level of ineptitude. Their scheme was this: The Wilm- ington or Haytian Republic would put into port in Portland. By now they were well known there, so they would be examined closely; Lotan might be a friend, but he could not be seen to be favoring people that everyone knew were smugglers. But that would be OK, because by the time they got inspected, the dope would be long gone: It would have been chucked overboard in barrels a couple miles downriver, for other members of the gang to retrieve. Now, this might sound like a fairly workable plan. But here’s the catch. Apparently Blum didn’t think it important to have a smug- gler stationed in the river to receive the “freight.” The same guy would load half a ton of opium in three or four hogshead barrels aboard the Haytian Republic in Victoria or Vancouver, then take the train to Portland, hoping to get there in time to retrieve the things from the drink. On several occasions this Please see OFFBEAT, Page 5A With School Choice Week approaching, tips for fi nding the right school for your child BY ANDREW CAMPANELLA For the Sentinel I f you’d like to send your child to a different school next year, now’s the time to start the process of research- ing your options. As Oregon prepares to com- memorate National School Choice Week later this month at 110 events across the state and nearly 11,000 events na- tionwide, many parents will begin evaluating the educa- tional opportunities that are available for their children. Believe it or not, seats in schools are already begin- ning to fi ll up for the 2015- 2016 school year. Interest in school choice – the process of actively choosing a public, charter, magnet, private or online school – is high. That means that waiting until the spring or the summer to begin researching schools for your children could restrict your options. No handbook or tip sheet can truly guide parents through the entire process of selecting a school, because choosing schools is an indi- vidual experience that will be unique to every family. However, parents can start by making a list of the attri- butes that they hope to fi nd in an ideal school. Ask yourself: what’s most important to you and to the academic, social and emotional well being of your child? Is it the academ- ic performance of a school, school safety, the instruc- tional methods, the qualifi ca- tions of teachers, the school’s educational theme, a school’s shared values, or other fac- tors? Once you’ve identifi ed what matters most, start look- ing into the options available to you. In addition to the lo- cal public school, you may be eligible to send your child to a school outside of your ZIP code, or in a different school district. Look into nearby charter schools and magnet schools. Don’t leave private and faith based schools off your list! You might be able to fi nd scholarships to cover the costs of tuition. And for some families, online learning and homeschooling work best. To fi nd the options available to you, look at information from the Oregon Department of Education, as well as infor- mation on state-based educa- tion reform or school choice organization websites. For a directory of most schools in your area, along with par- ent rankings and some per- formance metrics, parents can visit this website: great- schools.org. With your list of require- ments and your list of schools in hand, start making appoint- ments to visit the schools. Ask to sit in on classes, and make sure to ask as many questions as possible of teachers, the administration and support staff. You’ll want to fi nd out what motivates the adults in the building, while also seeing how the students in the classes respond to their teachers. Ask yourself: is this a place where I’d want to send my child for most of his or her weekday waking hours? Finally, make sure to talk with other parents – and to your own children. Ask par- ents how the schools’ admin- istrators treat parents, and whether they welcome, or discourage, parental involve- ment. And most importantly, ask your children about their perceptions of the schools that you’ve visited. Find out what excites and motivates your child at school, but also ask about their worries, con- cerns and apprehensions. Making the decision to change schools certainly isn’t easy. And switching schools isn’t a piece of cake, either. But if you start now, and plan out the journey, you’ll fi nd that the destination – a great school for your child – is well worth the diligence and ef- fort. Andrew R. Campanella is the president of National School Choice Week. Nation- al School Choice Week, which runs from Jan. 25-31, 2015, is America’s largest-ever celebration of opportunity in education. Campanella lives in Miramar Beach, Florida. Salt: more concerns than just high blood pressure BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD For the Sentinel S odium is an important mineral that is essential for proper functioning of the hu- man body – however, the Amer- ican diet contains dangerously high amounts of sodium, almost 80 percent of which comes from processed and restau- rant foods. For most of human history, our $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM 116 N. Sixth Street · P.O. 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Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: One Year (auto pay):............ $34.50 One Year (manual pay):....... $36.15 One Year (e-edition only):.... $33.55 10 Weeks (auto pay):...........$8.55 10 Weeks (manual pay):......$9.10 Subscription Mail Rates Out of County: One Year (auto pay):............ $44.25 One Year (manual pay):....... $46.35 One Year (e-edition only):.... $43.00 10 Weeks (auto pay):...........$11.00 10 Weeks (manual pay):......$11.70 In foreign countries, postage extra. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. Call 541-942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Advertising ownership: All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without explicit written prior approval. Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2014 Cottage Grove Sentinel. food did not contain any added salt – only the sodium present in natural foods, adding up to about 750 mg sodium per day. The dietary intake of sodium in the U.S. today is about 3500 mg/day – much more than the human body needs. Excess dietary salt is most notorious for increasing blood pressure. Americans have a 90 percent lifetime probability of developing high blood pressure – so even if your blood pressure is normal now, if you continue to eat the typical American diet, you will certainly be at risk. El- evated blood pressure accounts for 62 percent of strokes and 49 percent of coronary heart disease. Even if you eat an oth- erwise healthy diet, and your arteries are free of plaque, hy- pertension late in life damages the delicate blood vessels of the brain, increasing the risk of hemorrhagic stroke. The Ameri- can Heart Association, recogniz- ing the signifi cant risks of high blood pressure, has dropped its recommended maximum so- dium intake from 2300 mg to 1500 mg. Salt also has several poten- tially dangerous effects that are not related to blood pressure. Damage to the cardiovascu- lar system: In the 1990s, it was found that the relationship be- tween salt intake and death from stroke was stronger than the re- lationship between blood pres- sure and death from stroke; this suggested that salt had damag- ing effects on the cardiovascu- lar system other than elevating blood pressure. Further research confi rmed this observation, showing that long-term excess dietary sodium leads to stiffen- ing of the arteries. Also, more recent research found that blood vessel function is suppressed within a mere 30 minutes fol- lowing a high salt meal. Damage to the kidneys: Hy- pertension is an important risk factor for kidney disease, but dietary sodium has other dam- aging effects on the kidneys. High salt intake leads to oxida- tive stress in kidney tissue and is associated with a decline in kidney function. Calcium loss from bone. High salt intake is a risk factor for os- teoporosis because excess di- etary sodium promotes urinary calcium loss, leading to calcium loss from bone and therefore decreased bone density. Even in the presence of a high calcium diet, high salt intake results in net calcium loss from bone. Ulcers and stomach cancer: Salt is the strongest factor relat- ing to stomach cancer. A high salt diet also increases growth of the ulcer-promoting bacteria H. pylori in the stomach, which is also a risk factor for gastric cancer. Asthma. In asthma patients, high dietary sodium may in- crease severity of the disease. Avoid added salt! Reducing dietary salt is not only impor- tant for those who already have elevated blood pressure – limit- ing added salt is essential for all of us to remain in good health. It is also important to note that expensive and exotic sea salts are still salt. All salt originates from the sea – it contains over 98 percent sodium chloride, and it is not health-promoting. Sea salts may contain small amounts of trace minerals; the amounts are insignifi cant compared to those in natural plant foods. A high-nutrient, vegetable-based diet with plenty of G-BOMBS (greens, beans, onions, mush- rooms, berries and seeds) and little or no added salt is ideal. Dr. Fuhrman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat to Live and Super Immuni- ty, and a board certifi ed family physician specializing in life- style and nutritional medicine. Visit his informative website at DrFuhrman.com. Submit your questions and comments about this column directly to news- questions@drfuhrman.com. Letters to the Editor policy The Cottage Grove Sentinel receives many letters to the editor. In order to ensure that your letter will be printed, letters must be under 300 words and submitted by Friday at 5 p.m. Letters must be signed and must include an address, city and phone number or e-mail address for verifi cation purposes. No anonymous letters will be printed. Letters must be of interest to local readers. Personal attacks and name calling in response to letters are uncalled for and unnecessary. If you would like to submit an opinion piece, Another View must be no longer than 600 words. To avoid transcription errors, the Sentinel would prefer editorial and news content be sent electronically via email or electronic media. Hand written submissions will be accepted, but we may need to call to verify spelling, which could delay the publishing of the submission.
