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. Box 35 · Cottage Grove, OR 97424
ADMINISTRATION:
JOHN BARTLETT, Regional Publisher
GARY MANLY, General Manager...................541-942-
3325 Ext. 207 • publisher@cgsentinel.com
ROBIN REISER, Sales Representative.........541-942-
3325 Ext. 203 • robin@cgsentinel.com
PATRIC CARLILE, Sales Representative.........541-942-
3325 Ext. 213 • patric@cgsentinel.com
NEWS DEPARTMENT:
JON STINNETT, Editor..............................541-942-3325
Ext. 212 • cgnews@cgsentinel.com
SPORTS DEPARTMENT:
MATT HOLLANDER, Sports Editor............541-942-3325
Ext. 204 • sports@cgsentinel.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE
CARLA WILLIAMS, Office Manager..........541-942-3325
Ext. 201 • billing@cgsentinel.com
LEGALS......................................................541-942-3325
Ext. 200 • legals@cgsentinel.com
GRAPHICS:
(USP 133880)
The Cottage Grove Sentinel is published every Wednesday in Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Our offices are located at 116 N. Sixth St., P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424.
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.