Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 1949)
Heppner Gazette Times, Thursday, December 8, 1949 Page 3 CHURCHES CHUHCH Episcopal Holy communion, 8 a. m. Church school, 9:45 a. m. Morning prayer and sermon, 11. Junior Y. P. F.p 6:30 p, m. Week day services: Holy com munion Wednesday at 10: Friday at 7:30. ALL SAINTS MEMORIAL Choir practices: Girls choir, Wednesday at 4 p. m. Adult choir, Thursday at 8 p. m. Boy Scouts, Wednesday evening from 7:30 to 9. b Archery classes on Saturday. BOV Scouts. 9: fjirl Krviiifo in. r..w Scouts, 11. METHODIST CHURCH Palmer Sorlien, Minister Morning worship and sermon at 11. Special music by the choir, Paul McCoy, director Sunday churcn school at 9:45, Oliver Creswick, superintendent. Youth Fellowship class, Adult Bi ble class and a class for every age. The young people of the church will attend a youth rally at the First Methodist church at Pendle ton Sunday afternoon. We will leave the church here at 1:30 p. m. Wednesday, mid-week prayer service at 7:30 p. m. Thursday, choir practice at 7:30 p. m. The Woman's Society of Chris tian Service meets first Wednes day of each month. Suzanna Wes ley circle of the W.S.C.S. meets third Wednesday of each month. LEXINGTON LUTHERAN There will be no Lutheran ser vice in Lexington Sunday, Dec. 11. Next Lutheran service will be at 3 p. m. Sunday, Dec. 18. Rev. A. Rietz. LEXINGTON CHURCH Your Community Church Z. Franklin Cantrell, Minister Christians are photographs of Christ, and in the dark room of sorrow and affliction, God Is de veloping some of His loveliest characters. Church school 10 a. m. Worship and preaching 11 a. m. Singing and preaching 7:30 p. m. HEPPNER CHURCH OF CHRIST Glenn Warner, Minister 9:45 a. m. Bible school, C. W. Barlow, superintendent. 11 a. m. Morning worship and communion service. Special music by the choir. Sermon theme, "The Continued on paga six 9 'Vf- - P9 12050 up It's time to doll up the din ing room. You will find it an easy matter to make your selection from our ex tensive stock. I LANE . CEDAR CHESTS Fully-lined with inch aromatic, red ce. dar moths are kept out! Beautifully grain ed veneers take high polish. Telephone Desk-Chair What a nice surprise for Her on Christmas moral The whole family will be proud to own a new refrig erator especially at this price. 17 95 49 0 199 95 There's nothing like tables to give a room that extra touch! V I; You will find the "new look" in one of our mirrors. An excellent gift 50 up $8.95 up , , . and whether you choose the handy walnut-finished end tables, the drum table, the attractive magazine ta ble, or any of the others In our wide selection, you will be choosing a gift sure to delight any homemakerl It I ia " JL i i. , art:! fa, 1 ...i,?. ....io,r, Divans Sofa Beds 50 up Comfort and cheer for the entire family ... If you have been putting off getting that new liv ing room suite, do so no longer . . . We have just the furnishings to convert a house into a home. We are proud of our line 3f dishes. A housewife al ways finds a new set acceptable. 95 up How about a dinette set in the popular chrome tu bular style? 13 i9 ill teta'iHoI A handy piece of furniture for any household) From 44 Lamps make appropriate and acceptable gifts 50 up From 15 75 An acceptable gift for the home ... A nice gift number! From 2 9 30 r.rgiawnr 51 rra OiSrllswif ' Case Furniture Company Rep, French Outlines Plan For Reapportioning Membership of State Senate in Speech Before Oregon Wheat League Convention in Heppner EDITOR'S NOTE: Rep. Giles L. French delivered the following address before the state conven tion of Oregon Association of Counties, and was published in The Oregon Voter. He address ed the Oregon Wheat League convention in Heppner Satur day morning, using substan tlally the same language thru out. We publish the text by courtesy of Mr. French. I am here to talk about reap portionment of the Oregon legis lature. In this discussion there are three methods to keep in mind. The first is the present method of apportionment estab lished by the Oregon constitution back in 1857. We now elect 30 senators from 24 districts and 60 representatives from 33 districts. These districts are not equal In either area or population. No gen eral apportionment has been made since 1911 except a partial reapportionment in 1931 and ac cording to the constitution this must be done after each decen nial census which means in 1951 in the next session of the legis lature if not done previously by initiative petition. Second method to keep In mind is the one proposed by the Oregon American Federation of Labor at its June convention in Eugene. The AFofL has been joined by the CIO and some young Republicans and some young Democrats. The Farmers Union and the Grange are expected to follow because of the strange alignment that has made them bedfellows with labor. This proposal would redistrict the state by strict apportionment by population and would give not more than a third of senators and representatives to one county. This is a restriction of little value for I doubt if Portland is now, or will be, a third of Oregon. This proposal gives more power to the city and less to rural Oregon, the producing area. I hereby propose another plan. A bill is now in process of being written that will give to each county a senator and apportion the representatives on a popula tion basis. This plan follows closely that followed by the mak ers of the American constitution and is the American plan. Benjamin Franklin's Wording Back in 1789 when the constitu tional convention met in Phila delphia to draw up the document we know as our American consti tution there was a great struggle over this very problem. They met in May and it was late in that month before all the delegates had arrived. They argued all through the month of June over the problem of how the delegates to the congress were to be appor. tioned. First proposal made was the Virginia plan, brought to the convention by the delegates from that state, then the largest in America. The Virginia plan would have apportioned the congress accord ing to population and given to the large states much more pow er than they now have. It would have kept the power among the planters of the south and prevent ed smaller states and rural areas from achieving the development they later made. This plan was opposed by the smaller states, particularly by New Jersey which had the sup port of Delaware and Connecticut, then a sizeable state itself. It was not until July 8 that a compro mise was reached. It was suggest ed by Roger Sherman of Conr.ec ticut, a man of humble birth who had attained his position by working up from the ranks. Ben jamin Franklin, himself, wrote the amendment which is incorpor ated in our constitution. It gives to each state two senators and ap portions representatives accord ing to population. George Wash ington presided at those meetings, meetings of perhaps the wisest group of men ever brought to gether in this country. Mort Than One Basis By that compromise these men decided that in representative government it was necessary to elect delegates upon more than one basis; that other things must be taken into consideration than mere population. That system of electing delegates in democratic nations has been used in nearly every nation with a democratic government since that time. It has never been challenged. Those nations that deviate from it are those that have seen their democ racy slip into some other form, and a review of recent history will prove that statement. It is used in France to a great extent and Switzerland has a de mocracy almost identical with that chosen by our patriotic fore fathers in that great constitution al convention. Every canton has its senator. Applied in Other States There are many methods of ap portioning legislatures used by the states of the United States. Twenty eight states give each county at least one representative and at least 10 give each county a senator. Large numbers of coun ties is the reason why It is not louowed generally. States that endeavor to amior- tion their legislators according to population have more inequities in inem man do those that have two methods of apportionment one for the senate and one for the house. Regardless of what the laws and the constitutions sav, the people do not permit too much power to get into the hands of the cities and in this the people are wiser man those who wrote some of the state constitutions. What California Voters Did In Oregon we have a very fine example of this in the Oregon senatorial district composed of Lake, Klamath, Deschutes, Jeffer son and Crook counties. It takes 72,000 persons to elect a senator from that district and only 52,000 from Portland. This came about some years ago when some fine political finagling was done re sulting in Josephine county, then with some 10,000 persons, getting a senator all by itself while five counties have to share a senator. That is typical of what happens when the population method alone is used. It happens every place. Much is being made oi the ex ample of New York which has a restriction of the number ol sena tors so that no one county can have more than a third of the total. The rest of the story is that in New York every county but one, Hamilton, has a representa tive. And in New York the pne third is a real restriction. In California, the city of Los Angeles has but one state senator and the city of San Francisco has but one senator. That law rather recently passed by the California voters, too. Problems of Areas, Production In the Oregon legislature many of the problems are not about people at all, but about areas, about production, about taxes. The seriousness of a problem cannot be always indicated by the number of people involved. If a proposal is fair, it is fair for a hundred or ten thousand. Two Choices of Highways Recently I attended the formal opening of the Warm Springs cut. off which shortened the distance from central Oregon to Portland. It is a fine road, built at the soli citation of residents of that rap idly growing area. It may be re called that a few years ago, when Portland had an opportunity to choose the location of a new road, it was built to the coast so that city dwellers could get to the sea. That is a fine thing, for recreation is necessary. But it is pertinent to consider that when central Ore gon had its choice of a road it was built to Portland. Rural Oregon Interested in Portland It cannot be successfully con troverted that rural Oregon and the legislators rural Oregon has sent to Salem have done more for the city of Portland that that city has done for itself. Rural Oregon is interested in the city, too. Another thing that this one senator from each county would do is to help strengthen local gov ernment. If each county had a senator that man could speak for a county with no divided loyalty and thus county interest and strength in state affairs would be promoted. Keep Government With People We need stronger local govern ments. We need to keep govern ment close to the people. Propos als to remove county seats to far off places, if approved, would weaken our democratic govern ment. It is true we have better roads and faster cars and that people can get from here to there more rapidly than before. That is an advantage that local govern ment should retain and use, not throw away in an effort to keep government as far from the peo ple as it was in grandfather's day. Counties Are Real Units Our counties are political units established by the legislature or by vote of the people. They are recognized as economic and po litical entities and many are geo graphical entities as well. The comment is made that they are not sovereign as are the states. They are not, but centralization is taking away the sovereignty of the states which now pay only about 60r of their bills, leaving the remainder to the federal gov ernment. This plan would stren gthen counties and we need something to strengthen states, too. Economy Close to Home There is cost to be considered in speaking of strong local gov ernments. A dollar paid in county taxes is a pretty good Investment. The taxpayer probably receives 90 cents of it back in services. A dol lar sent to the state perhaps re turns 60 to 70 cents in value. 3ut a dollar sent to the federal government is a thin and weary dime before it returns to the tax. payer. Local government is the most economical government. We do not have small counties in Oregon although some are smaller than others. Lavin coun. ty, Texas has 2S5 citizens and Al pine county, California has 323. The average population of coun ties in the United States is around 1500 people. We are fortunate in that we have so few counties. Not all are represented. Harney and Lake counties are each larger than either of the states of Mass achusetts, Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey. Yet, neither has any direct representation in Ore gon's house or senate. The men who lepresent them are consci entious and able, but they do not live among the people of Harney or Lake. Jefferson county, the fastest growing county in Oregon, a county that is rapidly changing from range and wheat to irrigated fields, has no direct representa tion in either house and Its prob lems certainly entitle Jefferson county to have some one dlrectlly represent her and speak for her problems, i t'onUnmd on p !