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About The Athena press. (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 1905)
jMmm gross AN, INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER. Twiob-a-Wbek TOESDAT and Fbidat K.B. BOT0, PCBLIBHia. Entered an necond.claM matter, March 1, luot, at the portofflee at Athena, Oregon, uuderan Actot Congress of March 3, 1879, Subscription Hataai - I'or year, In advanot I2.U0 Blngleooplea In wrapp.'(,6o. Advertising Hates: liocai reading notlcei, first Iniertloo.lOc per rt 'i inh subsequent Insertion, 6c. II commnntcatlons should be addressed to i " I'llKSS Athena, Oregon ATHENA, OCTOBER 10. 1905 Iu the Friday edition of the Press oditorial mention was made concern ing the proposition to reduce the O. B. & N. company's assessment from $12,000 to $10,000 per mile in this comity. A statement was made in which the word "valuation" made the article in question misleading and we stand corrected by the Tribune, for the reason that the courts did not jjhhs on the valuation of the railroad proporty, but decided against tbe com pany aud in favor of the county whol ly on teohnical points which were brought into the courts by the com pany. The Press has no desire to be misleading or unfair in the matter, but iu all candor, it cannot sny as much of its Pendleton contemporary. In tbe Sunday edition of the Tribune iu the first column on page one, in an article headed "Question ' of Ex pediency," the paper inflates its favor itism to such an extent that the body of the article does not conform to the head in the least. The article deals with interviews with four prominent men of Pendleton. Ouly one, Walter M. Pierce, favors the compromise, and bis ron hods alone are planted out to the publio in the bold headlines. Mr. Pierce's prime reason for setting a baleful precedent by a compromise, is that the money is needed for school purposes. The other three men inter viewed were W. S. Thompson, buuk er,. who opposes the compromise be cause he thinks the assessment reason able and just. Lee Teutsoh, mer chant, thinks the county court would do the right thing in refusing the pro position made by tbe railroad com pany, for in the company's "eagerness for a compromise. Rt $10,000, shows conclusively that it fools that it will ultimately lose its case in the courts for any cause." Charles Browufleld, capitalist, suid : "By all means stick to the original assessment which, to my mind, is plenty low euough." The Press knows of no school that is closed because of the tie-up of the O. B. & N. tax niouey, aud to intimate that the districts ouuuot stand the pressure until tbe matter is properly settled is ridioulous in the extreme. There is just this about it: The assessment placed on railroad proporty is not any higher, relatively speuking, thnii has beoii plaood on oilier proporty, Bud if the assessment is out down by the proposed compromise, tho'conuty court can prepare itself te eternally sit as a referee bourd of equalization, for owners of all other classes of proporty will t-ue to it that assessment on their A fortunate By buying an extra large stock of Clothes Baskets this fall we were able to get them at an exceedingly low price. But as we were obliged to buy more tlum was required for our fall trade, we will have to reduce our surplus by having a Clothes Basket Sale for Two Weeks, Beginning October 9th. These Baskets are all made of clean round willow (not split willow) and are all very well made and a good bargain at regular prices. No. 1 Basket, size 10x23, 12 in. high, regular 81.00, sale price ..$ 67 No. 2 " 20x29,13" " " 81.10, " 73 No. 3 " " 21x3i,13" ' " 81.25, " 83 No. 4 " " 22x32,14" " " 81.50, " . , 1.00 Remember we pay the freight where bill of goods amounts to 810.00 Mail Orders a Specialty TIIEDAVIS-KASERCO. Everything to Furnish the Home. 12-14-16-18 20-22 Alder Street, WALLA WALLA, WASH. property is no higher than ia that of the railroad. If tbe county court compromises with one it must expect to compromise with all, for Assessor Strain is not the man to go on record with tbe brand of diicriitiuating in favor of any class of property owners. I. H. McLaughlin is the owner of a sawmill in the southwest corner of Umatilla county, and has title to 1300 acres of land that lies in the Morrow county coalfields. Some time ago a 100 foot shaft was sunk on his placo and tbe findings are said to have been very favorable. However, no work has been done lately, as it is useless to do anything with the property ontil a railroad line can be ran to the coal field so as to provide transportation. On be ground that no meeting notice was placed on the place of meeting of the school electors lor the purpose of contracting for tbe issuance of $1050 school bonds, Attorney Geueral Craw ford is of the opinion that the letter and spirit of the law was violated and that tbe bond issue of school dis trict No. 28, Klamath county. was irregular and void, and be advised the state land board not to purchase said bonds on that account The atmosphere of tbe state of Ore gon is-uow full of railroad talk now that the building of tbe Portland and Seattle road along the north bank of the Columbia is an assured fact Naturally such an atmosphere that has been so long looked for in the great Inland Empire has reached us and there are all kinds of rumors afloat, some of them having tbe ring of busiuess. Tbe Idaho Woolgrowers' association has just made the final payment of $10,000 on the salt plant it has pur chased with which to fight tbe salt trust and has reduced tbe , price of salt from $2.50 to $1.75 per ton. This is the lowest rate that has ever been mude on salt anywhere in the west Commissioner Bicbards, of the general land office, has forwarded to the secretary of the interior bis auuual report covering tbe fiscal year ending June 30, last. It shows that during the year 16,979,500 acres of public lands and 77,518 acres of Indian lands were disposed of, the total exceeding that for 1901 by 650,000 acres. . The first issue of the Lexington Wheatfleld has appeared under tbe management of S. A. Thomas. The paper looks bright and makes a good showing. Tbe Wheatfleld ought to succeed. MECHANICAL SKILL. (Paoiflo Monthly.) "The Portloud Concession Com pany" is the uninspiring name tinder which Cuptun C. S. Baldwin holds a plot of ground at the Lewis and Clark exposition over by tbe American Inn, under a big bom upon which he has two airships. One of these, the "City of Portland," he built in two weeks to meet tho popular demand for some thing that could fly aud incidentally to capture the $10,000 prize the expo sition oliered. He took to the exposi tion tbe "Angel us," his latest experi ment, but found that he had advanced too far iu his leading ideas without workiug out the detail, and built bis second airship as an improvement on tho "Arrow," the airship whioh made several successful flights at St. Louis. The goal of these aerouauts is an Purchase Mail Orders a Specialty airship which will stand any ordinary wind. They do not hope to make mechanical birds, and expect to need as much care in landing as a ship coming to its moorings. What they are building now are models, upon which they improve constantly with the rltimate purpose of securing an airsl ip of such proportions that tbe model can be enlarged to any size. They dream of a day when tbe cur rents of tbe air will be as definitely mapped as those of the ocean, and aerial navigation will be tbe ordi nary method of rapid transit They see the time coming, but they know it will take the lives and devotions of a hundred men working on the one line of development Airship building has reached the stage where a mechanic can do more than any one. Lincoln Beecbey is the mechanic in this partnership. He and Captain Baldwin work band in glove, tbe one furnishing the tech nical skill and the other the experi ence and the imagination. The com bination has produced the "City of Portland." Captain Baldwin calls this model a digression, but said he had to advance by slow degrees. "We are confronted with this con dition always," said Captain Bald win, standing in the shadow of the gas bag, "that we are pioneers. We have no drawings to go to ; we must figure out every line for ourselves. Conse quently in such a complicated and del icate matter as this, where we make everything as light as possible, we are constantly making failures. But we profit from our failures and always advance. But no other man can be gin where we leave oft. He must make bis own failures first That is why there is no secrets. It is all a matter of mechanical skill. 8TBAIN WINS OUT. ( Spokesman-Be vie w. ) Assessor Strain of Umatilla county, Oregon, has demonstrated that it is possible to acquire the railroads to pay taxes, on the same basis as other property holders pays taxes, when the effort is backed by an intelligent, courageous, honest county assessor. The assessment valuation of the Ore gon Bailroad & Navigation company was formerly placed at $5700 per mile in Umatilla county. Assessor Strain saw that this was grossly inadequate and raised the railroad assessment to $12,000 per mile. Assessor Strain's reason for assessing at that figure was that under the Oregon custom prop erty was assessed generally at about one fourth of its true value. He reasoned that since farmers and other property holders were assessed at one fourth of the true value of their prop erty, there was no reason, in law or justioe, why the railroad should not be assessed at one fourth of its true value. . Assessor Strain made a careful in vestigation of railroad values and found that as a matter of fact tbe O. B. & N. was worth more than $48, 000 per mile, but to be on the safe side and not to do the railroad com pany any possible injustice, he con ceded that their true valuation was only $48,000 per mile, and, there fore, they should be assessed at one fourth of that sum as other property was assessed. The railroad company resisted tbe new assessment and carried the con test into the courts. The state cirouit court having decided iu favor of Assessor Strain, appeal was taken by the railroad to the state supreme court That high tribunal has also sustained the assessor, aud the railroad company is now seeking a comprom ise before the board of county com missioners. , ' ' In other words, the principle has been established iu tbe courts of Ore gon that railroad property ought to pay tuxes ou the same basis that other property pays taxes. This principle of justice would have been establish ed long ago iu these western states if railroads had not enjoyed favored treatment from weak or corrupt pub lio officials. ' r TOO MITCH ONE-MAN POWER. ( Watchman, Boston. ) The life insuiance investigations have made it plain that in spite of boards of directors and other officers the great life insurance companies are one-man affairs. The want of good faith in the reorganization of the Equitable Life Assurance Society was made clear when Paul Morton was made president with plenary powers, before Grover Clevelaud and his two associates to look out for the inter ests of the policy holders. The ap pointment of these commissioners was evidently a blind for the purpose of leading the publio to believe an houest reorganization had teen effected. Tbe full power is, however, in the hands of Mr. Morton, over whom they have no control. They can neither curb hint nor displace him. 'His power over the affairs of the society is abso lute. The testimony of John A. MoCall, president of the New York Life insurance company, before the committee of the legislature, shows that the same state of things exists in that company. There has been some' talk about dummy directors. Ap parently all the directors of these companies are dummies. It is diffi cult to see how the administration of these and other corporations similarly Conducted wonld be changed if they were simply the persoual property of the presidents. Iu tbe case of tbe Equitable, this absolute power was used for the Iwnefit of tbe president and family aud bis frieuds; in the New York Life there does not appear any evidence of a tun of tho power for persoual gaiu. My Staple Lines of Jewelry are BROOCHES SCARF PINS CUFF LINKS NECK CHAINS GUARD CHAINS VEST CHAINS LOCKETS RINGS FOBS I have many pretty things arriv ing to make up my fall stock. Watch my window displays. ROYAL M. SAWTELL Jeweler : Athena PETERSON & PETERSON. Attorneys-at-Law A1HENA, OREGON. J. D. PLAMONDON PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON, Office in -Barrett Building, Athena, Oregon Dr. A. B. Stone, PHYSICIAN & SURGEON Calls answered promptly day or night Office in Post Building, Athena, Oregon S. P. Sharp I PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON Special attention given to Female Diseases. Calls promptly answered. Office on Third Street, Athena. Oregor JOHN T. WOOD, M. D, Graduate Detroit Col lege of'Mediuine : : : Office Opposite McBride's Drug Store. THE PALACE DRUGSTORE VM. M'BRIDE, Proprietor. South Side Main Street, Athena, Ore. You know your doctor is all right, but how about the tilling of prescriptions? Our Prescriptions are precisely as " the doctor ordered nothing more, nothing less and -.V: always exactly right. Troy Laundry Walla Walla, Wash" Elmer Lino, AgAnt in Ailii'im Work Guaranteed Washings are califi for each Toes day and are returr.nl Friday morning BLACKSMITH AND :-l REPAIRING SHOP A. II. LUNA, Proprietor. Shop West of King's Barn, Athena. v - THE ' Si ST. lilCHOLS HOTEL : J. E. FROOME, prop. Only First-class Hotel in tne city. 5 f w ! : THE ST. NICHOLS f X U lh only on that can accommodate ooromereial traveler. T t Can b teoomended for Us clean and well ventilated rooms. CO. MAIM AKBTHIBD, ATVKMA.Or. I Each WSoming J When you dress think about the self if your linen work is as it should be. A man who wears good clothes cannot afford to wear "fairly good" laundry work. If you find your collars are poorly turned, if you find they have saw edges, if you find them specked, remember that these faults have been overcome at the PENDLETON STEAM LAUNDYR, and that only high grade work is allowed to leave our laundry. Every day brings new custome rs who are highly pleased with our work. May we expect a trial pack age from you? Pendleton Steam . The Up-to-Date - . LAUNDRY FISHMAN & PETERS, Proprietors CHARLES GAY, ATHENA AGENT CONTRACTING Hereafter I will engage. in Contracting and building in. all its branches. I am in a position to carry on tlii line of bniness in a thorough and satisfactory manner, in ' connection with my Lumber Yard.; I will employ the best workmen money can secure, and before you let your' V contract it will pay you to get my figures. - - A. M. CILLIS, i the gillis Peebler & Chamberlain Successors to the Umatilla Implement Co. "' ' ' . Agricultural Implements WAGONS,' CARRIAGES, ENGINES, MACHINERY, THRESHERS ETC. ATHENA. 1: ' CHARLES GAY - , " ' ..'.Dealer in... . v Candies, Nuts, Fruits, Tobaccos, Cigars WRRSH BHHAD. PIES'CAKKSiTtTP.' Umatilla Lumber Yard Ed Barrett Manager Building Material Lumber, Shingles, Sash, Doors, Paints, Oils, Glass, Wall Paper, Building Paper. Brick, etc. Special inducements ou orders for carload lots. Fence posts in quantities to suit. : : : : : Roslyn Coal, Puget Sound Wood CONTRACTING. ESTIMATES FURNISED ON ALL KINDS OF BUILDING ON SHORT NOTIFICATION Pendleton Steam Laundry. Ask your Laundry AND BUILDING! PROPRIETOR, ll Lumber yard i .' - I OREGON. PARKER & LANE'S OP Kverythhig Klri-I CIhuk Io d r and ITp-tu -ilalr SOUTH SID MAIN STREET ATHENA. a 0