PAGE SIX
Member of Oregon State Editorial Association.
her house for a filling station site by
daubing and misadorning the structure
till it became the ugliest house in the
world. The council stood pat, and the
house burned down in a couple of years.
Another instance of the nose and the face.
Entered as second class matter August 4, 1922, at
the post office at Vernonia, Oregon, under the
act of March 3, 1879.
What Other Editors Say
VERNONIA EAGLE
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Temporary rate ................................. $1.50 a year
Six months ____ 75c
Two years ......... $2.50
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28c per inch; legal notices, 10c per line first in­
sertion, 5c per line succeeding insertions; classi­
fied lc per word, minimum 25c first insertion,
15c succeeding insertions; readers, 10c per line.
RAY D. FISHER, Editor and Publisher
Abandoning a
Futile Penalty
The occupation license ordinance now
under consideration by the council wisely
abandons a penalty which has proved in­
effective—that of fine or imprisonment
or both for failure to pay the required
license.
Because of economic conditions during
the past three years many who are subject
to the license have been unable to pay.
If they could not raise the money to
pay their licenses, to impose fines would
be futile. The only alternative, if the law
were complied with, would be imprison­
ment—and who has cared to send a busi­
ness man to jail because he did not have
the money to pay his occupation license?
The procedure would have been as much
of a “flop” as the attempt to send two
unemployed men in Portland to jail the
other day for failure to license their dogs.
Some could not pay, and nothing could
be done about it. Others would not pay
unless the ordinance were enforced im­
partially against all. There was no penal­
ty, therefore, despite the text of the
existing ordinance to the contrary.
The new ordinance, if passed, will avoid
this element of weakness by making de­
linquent licenses collectible in a court of
competent jurisdiction. An unpaid license
is a debt owed to the city, and it should
be treated as are other debts. Under the
proposed measure there will be no occa­
sion to neglect enforcement because of
the inadvisability of feeding hard-pressed
or recalcitrant merchants for a month or
so at public expense.
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An Appalling Apathy
The appalling apathy of the public and
the courts towards the menace of drunken
driving is evidenced in the disclosure that
in Portland during the months of July to
December, 1933, about one-half of the mo­
torists arrested for driving while under
the influence of liquor did not even appear
for trial, the charges having been dropped
because of failure of the complaining wit­
ness to put his signature to the complaint,
or feebleness in prosecution. Sixty-six
persons were accused of drunken driving
during the six months period, ano only
34 of them were tried.
It is easy to place the blame on wit­
nesses and courts. They deserve plenty of
it—but not all of it, by any means. Public
opinion which tolerates such laxness is
in no slight degree responsible. It has been
numb and inert when for self-protection
it should be alive to the dangers of un­
restrained drunken driving.
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A U. S. senate committee is industrious­
ly probing tne awarding of mail contracts
under former Postmaster General Walter
F. Brown. Like many investigations it
comes four years too late to do any good.
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A woman back in New Jersey tried to
spite a city council that blocked a sale of
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1934.
VERNONIA EAGLE, VERNONIA, OREGON
FULL SPEED AHEAD
SUPPORT OF THE SCHOOLS
It appears to be generally admitted that
the cash money which supports the public
schools of Oregon has been in the past and
is now being paid in taxes by property
owners who constitute only about forty
per cent of the people of the state, while
the other sixty per cent, though enjoying
all the benefits of the schools contribute
nothing to the funds necessary for their
maintenance. Undoubtedly it is for the
benefit of all the people of the state that
every Oregon child be given the benefit
of at least a good elementary education,
regardless of whether or not its parents
are property owners, for as someone has
aptly and truly said “Out of the homes of
the humblest the mightiest souls have
come,” and the state, the nation and the
world would have failed to benefit through
the mightiness of those great souls had
they been uneducated.
That it is the duty of the rich and well
to do much more than of the non-property
owners to give support to the schools is
not questioned by anyone as the property
of the rich needs the protection that is
certain to be afforded by an enlightened
citizenship. Realizing these facts, the pro­
perty owners of Oregon throughout its
history have cheerfully and unquestion­
ingly paid all school expenses, but now
many of them find themselves unable for
the present to pay the entire cost of con­
tinued school maintenance and relief for
two years from a part of the burden by
means of a sales tax is asked.
Those who favor the tax are well aware
that the only hope of its approval in the
referendum to which it is sure to be sub­
mitted lies in the trust that a consider­
able proportion of the non-taxpaying sixty
per cent of the voters will realize its jus­
tice, will appreciate the dangers of many
schools being closed and will unselfishly
and
*’nte to approve it, for
with the sixty per cent lies the power to
approve or defeat, with the property own­
ing forty per cent divided. — Tillamook
Headlight.
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Governor Meier’s support of three years
ago is responsible for his indecision to­
day.—Albany Democrat Herald.
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“What kind of a funeral sermon do you
have a right to expect” was the subject
of a revival talk by a Dallas preacher at
the Monmouth Christian church. For the
sake of the mourners let it be brief.—Mc­
Minnville News-Reporter.
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President Roosevelt says in effect that
wars are started by political leaders and
not by the people. To which might well
be added that it is always up to the people
to finish what the politicians start.—Du­
fur Dispatch.
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A socialist is a man who is willing to
share anything he hasn’t got, even his
brains.—Weston Leader.
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The decision of the presidential family
to confine the serving of alcoholic drinks
to the milder wines of the country is a
wise one. The White House is the center
of too much serious thought and too grave
a responsibility these days for the nation
to approve of too free an entrance of John
Barleycorn in his stronger roles. — As-
torian-Budget.
Among Our
Neighbors •
Ten Years
Ago * * * «
About 75 men and 30 days
time will be needed for construct­
Attorney Gressman arrived ing the St. Helens airport, ac­
from Portland this week to en- cording to preliminary plans. It
was expected that work would be­
gage in the practice of law.
gin about Feb. 1.
The new Standard Oil station
The St. Helens chamber of
on Rose avenue is nearly com­
commerce is trying to secure a
pleted.
federal psychiatric hospital. It
Mr. Stankey is building a new would require 750 acres, prac-
house on Rose avnue and' expects tically all of the land between
to move in a couple of months. St. Helens and Columbia City,
donated to the government. The
•
Saturday evening the Grand hospital will be built somewhere
Lodge of Oregon, A. F. and A. in the northwest to house insane
M., granted a dispensation to Indians, soldiers and sailors not
Vernonia lodge. The following of­ cared for in other government
ficers were installed: C. Lintner, institutions.
worshipful master; William Fol-
Tests at the Goble quarry have
ger, senior warden; W. H. Hur­
ley, junior warden; William proved the rock not to be up
Pringle, treasurer; J. C. Lindley, to specifications for jetty work
secretary; W. A. Arnold, senior at the mouth of the Columbia
deacon; E. Jory, junior deacon; and the quarry will be abandon­
ed.
Bruce McDonald, tiler.
•
The DuBois-Kettenring mill at
Repass Brothers have bought
the old church property and will Rainier resumed January 25 af­
make it into a large rooming ter a shutdown since Christmas.
house.
38,000 bushels of wheat have
been allotted Columbia county
The Hall and Mills store has for the destitute dairymen in the
been bought by L. R. Gillchrest flooded area.
and L. H. Detrow, who will take
charge next week.
The Columbia County Farmers’
•
union elected the following offi­
“Wink” Parker, Forrest Elliott cers at a meeting in Alder Grove
and a Clark boy had a narrow Jan. 20: O. E. Larson, president;
escape Tuesday night when one R. E. Stratton, vice-pr esiaent;
of them struck a match too near Art Thompson, conductor; Bob
a carbide tank that furnishes McAdam, door-keeper; Addie Mc­
lights for the George Parker Adam, secretary; Henry Thomp­
home. The boys were crippled up son, Fred Lewison and Theo Fink,
slightly.
executive committee.
•
Emil Messing is building an
W. T. Evenson has been chosen
addition to his residence proper­ president of the First National
ty on Third street.
bank in Clatskanie, which is in
i process of reorganization. It is
Les and B. Rose and Walt Par­ i reported that rapid progress is
ker have returned from a beaver [ i being made toward reopening the
hunt up Rock creek, where they ' institution.
lived on beans and beaveT tail
for a week.
The proposed federal building
in Hillsboro will be located at
Mr. Drorbaugh has been hired Fourth and Main streets.
by the city council as pump man
and day marshal.
Work is the world’s richest
gold mine.
Common sense in an uncom­
mon degree is what the world
Legislation cannot make pros­
calls wisdom.
perity.
Vernonia Eagle, Feb.
1,
1924.
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