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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL August 3, 2016 O PINION Offbeat Oregon History One man’s cheating heart likely cost Portland its local newspaper BY FINN J.D. JOHN For the Sentinel I t may be true that the movement of a butterfl y’s wings can seed a hurricane thousands of miles away, or it may be hyperbole. But minor events sure can lead to big things — as was the case with a Portland man who, back in the early 1960s, got into a little affair with a married woman. This fellow’s infi delity led directly to a shooting, and that shooting led to the complete takeover of Portland’s metro newspaper market by the New York mogul whose company still owns the Oregonian today. An amateurish duo of car bombers with a box of dynamite also played a key role in the outcome — and it could never have happened at all had not several hundred Portlanders had their inheritance stolen from them, a few years before that, by the crafty attorneys in charge of a deceased widow’s estate. All in all, it was a bad few years for Portland. Now, before we get into the story, it has to be said that the “unfaithful husband” narrative is a theory, not a proven fact. Despite a generous re- ward offered for his arrest, the man who shot and wounded Donald New- house through his basement window on Oct. 16, 1960, as he stood at his workbench, has never been identi- fi ed, so the shooter’s motives can’t really be known. What is known that Newhouse had just moved into the house; the pre- vious resident had a reputation as a womanizer; and the gunman, from the position the shot was fi red, had not been able to see (or shoot) his face and head. Hence, the theory goes, he took the shot thinking he was blasting the philandering former owner of the house, not realizing he had the wrong man. But Donald Newhouse wasn’t just any innocent bystander. He was the production manager at the Portland Oregonian, the nephew of the New York mogul who owned it. He was the man in charge of defeating the various newspaper unions that had been on strike there for nearly a year. That union had already shown itself willing to get heavy — one member had threatened to shoot Newhouse as he crossed a picket line, and another had been caught bombing company vehicles. So the competing theory — that the shooter was a thug sent by the union — is far more often heard today. It’s certainly what Newhouse and his wife believed, and when Newhouse died in surgery 12 years later — from complications he might have sur- vived if not for the damage the gun- man infl icted — his widow publicly blamed the union for his death. The fact that Newhouse’s inju- ries came from a shotgun blast to the pelvis — not the usual target for an assassin, but a very popular one among vengeful cuckolded husbands — suggests she may have been mis- taken. But it scarcely mattered. In the minds of most Portlanders, the union now had the moral taint of attempted murder upon it. It would take several more years to play out, but for the union, the battle was already lost — and with it Portland’s only remaining independent daily, and the city’s sta- tus as a true two-newspaper town. The events that led up to this fate- ful shooting were complicated and controversial, and involved some of Oregon’s most powerful people; this is most likely why the story has been so little told or studied. Until recently (with the work of historians like Caleb Diehl), information about it came generally from two sources: The newspaper itself, and its former union members. Obviously, both these sources are at pains to present themselves in the best possible light at all times, so the real story can be hard to pick out. What follows is my best shot at doing just that: Late in 1959, the Stereotypers Union No. 49 at the Oregonian voted to walk off the job, thereby — accord- ing to union historians’ interpretation — taking the bait in a cunningly laid trap. From a public-relations stand- point, their position was terrible: Samuel I. Newhouse, the owner, had installed new technology that would automate the expensive, labor-inten- sive stereotyping process, eliminat- ing their positions. To the public, it looked like they were going on strike to force the company to stick with in- ferior technology just so they could keep their jobs. Union sources said it was more complicated than that — that they’d been willing to work with Newhouse, but Newhouse had wanted a fi ght and liked how it would look to have the strike break out over this particular issue. Union sources also claimed it was all part of a complicated and cunning plot to take over the compet- ing newspaper, the locally owned Or- egon Journal — thereby establishing a local newspaper monopoly — and to break all the newspaper unions, in one fell swoop. The level of pre- science Newhouse would have had to show for this to be true makes it seem pretty unlikely. But everyone agrees that, whether that was the plan or not, it’s basically what happened. It didn’t look like it was going that way at fi rst, though. After the stereo- typers walked out, they threw a pick- et line up around the building, and a picket line was not something one lightly crossed back in ’59. Hundreds of other employees stayed away from work, effectively swelling the num- Please see OFFBEAT, Page 5A LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Festival fl ummoxed I have been looking for- ward to the Festival of Eugene 2016 at the end of August because I was not just performing at the Poetry Stage but had taken a class in TV production with CTV 29 Lane Community Public Access TV. I was eager to make a TV show of the Po- etry Stage too. Then yesterday I got an e-mail saying that it’d been canceled because the woman behind the Festival of Eu- gene had used the N-Word. There was no way to know who was attacking her due to Internet anonymity. But the mystery deepened in the white clouds of electrons of social media where she had used the N-word and turned the World against her. Racism is unacceptable. But how could one use of the N-word destroy something I have been looking forward to and working on for months? Who was she, and who were her accusers? I will never know. You see, all of this has the substance of ghosts and rumors to me. There was a rumor/hearsay she used the N-word, and the hearsay that her Internet Facebook site Please see FESTIVAL, Page 7A Summer harvest affects farmers and motorists Drivers cautioned to be alert as farm machinery is likely to be on the road in Oregon A release from the Oregon Department of Agriculture M otorists in Oregon this sum- mer are likely to face heavier traffi c due to vacation travel and road construction. Add in slow moving farm machinery during harvest and it’s a recipe that calls for ultra awareness and extra caution. From the busy and crowded traffi c lanes of the more con- gested Willamette Valley to the wide open spaces east of the Cascades, the general advice is the same– be on the alert, slow down, and have patience. “There are more drivers on the road this time of year and there is more road construction,” says Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture. “The constant message is slow down. That’s the exact same message we want to get across when it comes to the summer harvest season. If you see farm equipment on the road, please slow down.” Farmers can legally drive trucks, tractors, combines, and other equip- ment on public roads. Sometimes this requires a tractor, combine, or farm truck to be out on the road, driving between 10 and 25 miles per hour to get from farm to fi eld. This is perfectly lawful as long as the equipment has a clearly visible triangular, orange-and- red Slow Moving Vehicle (SMV) sign on its back end. That sign is a warning for drivers to slow down immediately. Farmers normally try to avoid using high traffi c roads as much as possible, but sometimes that just can’t hap- pen. Urban development has moved closer to agricultural operations, which increases the risk of motor vehicle accidents involving farmers and non- farmers. Amity farmer Bruce Ruddenklau was involved in an accident on Highway 99E just before the Fourth of July. His wife Helle says it was a miracle there were no injuries. “Bruce was bringing the windrower home at 5:30 in the morning,” says Helle. “It was reasonably light out, all the road lights were on, including the fl ashing orange lights, and the SMV sign was clean and visible. [The driver of a car] approached from the back and ran straight into the left rear wheel of the windrower. The wheel snapped off, the windrower was pushed along at a higher speed than the 14 miles per hour it normally can go, and the car fl ipped over, grazed the side of the windrower and landed upside down on the roadway." Not all accidents involving farm ma- chinery and motorists are so fortunate. Statistics provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation indicate 25 traffi c accidents involving farm vehicles and equipment in 2015 and 40 in 2014, including three fatal crashes. Education and awareness campaigns seem to be helping. In 2011, there were 235 motor vehicle accidents in- volving farm vehicles and equipment, resulting in eight fatalities. Just as more urban motorists are on rural roads, farmers are busy planting, cultivating, and harvesting the many crops of the season. That makes the brochure’s information more timely than ever. “If you’re driving 55 miles per hour on a highway and come upon a tractor that’s moving at only 25 miles per hour, it takes only 8 seconds to close a gap the length of a football fi eld be- tween you and the tractor,” says Rigor. Chocolate: Heart-healthy? BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD For the Sentinel W here does chocolate come from? A darkly colored bean – so of course, unprocessed cacao beans are brimming with antioxidant nu- trients. Accordingly, chocolate consumption has been associ- ated with reduced risk of heart disease and stroke. Cocoa and $ 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................942-3325 Ext. 207 • publisher@cgsentinel.com ROBIN REISER, Sales Repersentative...............942-3325 Ext. 203 • robin@cgsentinel.com TAMMY SAYRE, Sales Repersentative......... 942-3325 Ext. 213 • tsayre@cgsentinel.com SPORTS DEPARTMENT: SAM WRIGHT, Sports Editor...................942-3325 Ext. 204 • sports@cgsentinel.com CUSTOMER SERVICE CARLA WILLIAMS, Office Manager.................942-3325 Ext. 201 • billing@cgsentinel.com LEGALS.............................................................942-3325 Ext. 200 • legals@cgsentinel.com NEWS DEPARTMENT: JON STINNETT, Editor......................................942-3325 Ext. 212 • cgnews@cgsentinel.com GRAPHICS: RON ANNIS, Graphics Manager (USP 133880) Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: Ten Weeks ............................................. $9.10 One year ..............................................$36.15 e-Edition year .......................................$36.00 Rates in all other areas of United States: Ten Weeks $11.70; one year, $46.35, e-Edition $43.00. In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. 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 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 ©2015 Cottage Grove Sentinel. dark choco- late have been inves- tigated as a treatment option for elevated blood pres- sure, but only small decreases in blood pressure were reported. Similarly, regu- lar dark chocolate consumption results in small decreases in cholesterol levels. Flavonoids (antioxidants present in choco- late and many other plant foods) do indeed provide cardiovascu- lar protection - high fl avonoid intake is associated with consid- erable reductions (up to 45 per- cent) in the risk of heart disease. The main point to remember is that when you eat healthfully you are eating a large variety of fl avonoid-rich foods, berries for example. Certainly, you can enjoy some chocolate as a part of a healthful eating style – but how you enjoy your chocolate is important. A milk chocolate bar is roughly only one-third chocolate and two-thirds added fat and sugar. Dark chocolate bars have a higher cocoa content and less added sugar, but they also de- liver a signifi cant load of calo- ries and saturated fat. A great way to enjoy chocolate is by using unsweetened cocoa pow- der. Most of the fat has been re- moved, but the chocolate fl avor and the fl avonoids remain. Add cocoa powder to smoothies (like the chocolate cherry smoothie below), or to blended frozen ba- nanas or cherries for a healthy chocolate “ice cream”. Or try making black bean brownies or muffi ns sweetened with dates or a healthy chocolate cake with hidden shredded vegetables. You can fi nd recipes like these on the DrFuhrman.com Mem- ber Center or in my books. Keep in mind, when you fol- low a high nutrient eating style of vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds, the polyphenols in cocoa are only a trivial amount of the loads of phytochemicals provided by your overall health- promoting diet. Enjoy your chocolate by mak- ing delicious treats without add- ed fats and sugars! Chocolate Cherry Smoothie (serves 2) 4 ounces organic baby spinach 1/2 cup unsweetened soy, hemp or almond milk 1/2 cup pomegranate juice, cherry juice or cherry pome- granate juice 1 tablespoon Dr. Fuhrman’s Cocoa Powder or other natural cocoa powder, not Dutch pro- cessed 1 cup frozen cherries 1 banana 1 cup frozen blueberries 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 tablespoons ground fl ax seeds Instructions: If using a regu- lar blender, liquefy the spinach with non-dairy milk and juice. Add remaining ingredients and blend about 2 minutes until very smooth. If using a high powered blender, blend all at once. Dr. Fuhrman is a New York Times best-selling author and board certifi ed family physi- cian specializing in lifestyle and nutritional medicine. Vis- it 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.