Vernonia Eagle
Entered as second class matter
August 4, 1922, at the post office
at Vernonia, Oregon, under the
act of March 3, 1879.
M E M b : ■
Issued every Friday. Temporary
subscription rate $1.50 a year.
Advertising rates on application.
RAY D. FISHER,
Editor and Publisher
Many a Vernonia fan has been
looking up his calendar lately to
see how many weeks it is to Ap­
ril 28.
•
«
•
Down in Lane county a legis­
lator was recalled because he
was alleged to have broken a pre­
election promise. Following up
that precedent vigorously would
not leave us with very maay of­
fice holders, we fear.
•
a a
The delightfully simple way of
financing the government’s con­
templated huge expenditures —
unemployment relief, the bonus,
old age pensions, etc.—by issuing
paper currency to foot the bills
appears to be intriguing congress.
Congress ought to know, however,
that cheap money is valueless
money. Just how much better off
will a man be a year or two from
now if he has a dollar instead of
a dime in his pocket, but the
dollar will buy him only what the
dime buys him now?
Life of a
' Legislator
By CLINTON P. HAIGHT
Editor, Blue Mountain Eagle,
Canyon City, Ore., Representative
Grant and Harney Counties
POST MORTEM ON
LEGISLATURE
CANYON CITY, Ore.,—After
we play a hand at pinochle or
bridge, we hold a post murtem,
and then play the hand over
again. We argue the rules of the
game and still no one is con­
vinced, and so, we play another
hand, and then, go into a oigger
and better argument than ever.
It is from the post mortems that
we hold over the hands, from
which we learn the technique and
the rules of the game.
For the past 60 days we have
been playing the game of law-
making; the cards have all been
dealt, the hands have been play­
ed, and now it is time for the
post mortem. We have the corpse
of the legislature before us. What
did it die of? What was the mal­
ady? Why are legislatures what
they are and will they ever be
better or worse and why does the
man down on the street say that
the legislature is all the bunk?
We are told that the legislature
does not do anything, and in the
same breath, condemn it for do­
ing too much.
We Sat in a swivel chair, in
the front row of the house of
representatives at Salem for the
past 60 days and watched the
parade of 1000 bills and laws
go by, and that will make a big
book for nobody to read and on
an infinite variety of subject« of
no particular consequence—just
laws, blundering confusion, cor­
recting,
amending,
repealing,
struggling with the imperfections
of government and trying to cor­
rect the inherent faults, evils, er­
rors and general cussidness of
man, who is the integral part of
the composite whole, which we
call government. Government is
an evil, reflecting all of the er­
rors oi us all. Perfect men would
need no government and no laws.
They would need no legislature;
no regulation, no courts, no po­
lice and no administrative direc­
tion.
But ah, there is the rub.
Men are not perfect; they must
be restrained and therefore we
have legislative bodies to blunder
and stumble along with the rest
of blundering humanity, and so
we would say that the chief value
of a legislature lies in its faults.
A perfect legislature to regulate
imperfect man would be a fail­
ure, for after all, it is only im­
perfect men who are capable of
regulating imperfect men, and so
let us repeat that the prime value
of a legislature lies in its faults.
It is men, humanity, democracy,
America.
If you believe in democracy
you will believe in the legislative
branch of democracy, which func­
tions just as well as the judicial
branch of a democracy and bet­
ter than the administrative or
executive departments.
The house of representatives at
Salem, composed of 60 members,
was a cross section of the men
and women who are in the last
analysis — America. They come
from the busy marts of men.
They bring into legislative halls
your ideas, your notions, your
likes and aislikes, your prejudi­
ces, your interests and they mix
them all up with selfish interests,
false reasoning, good intentions,
parliamentary trickery, cunning
lobbies with the commercial clubs
and all of the organizations and
varied interests back home, wir­
ing, writing, phoning and send­
ing delegations down, pleading,
demanding, threatening, promis­
ing, scheming, jobbing, planning
and that is America, Democracy,
legislatures. The legislature of
Oregon is no better and no worse
than you are—for it is you.
Out of the 60 members in the
house some 45 were never in a
legislature before. They did not
know whether Roberts’ Rules of
Order was a song or something
to eat. They were fresh from the
people; right from the soil—De­
mocracy.
They
stumbled and
blundered along just like a good
legislator should do, guided by
the notions of the people back
home, reflecting the farm, the
field, the office and the shop.
The house of representatives
should be kept close to the peo­
ple, and elected every two years,
and it is our opinion that more
than half of the membership
should be new or raw hands each
session. Don’t let them stay too
long or long enough to become
sophisticated and so smart that
they become adept at parliamen­
tary trickery and legislative leg­
erdemain, and with too long a
service, the tendency is to lose
the common touch. Keep them
fresh from the soil and they will
reflect Democracy, with all of its
errors, evils and blundering and
vain efforts to restrain the strong
and protect the weak. If legisla­
tures are a failure it is because
men are a failure and if men are
a failure, then Democracy is fu­
tile, and what you need is a T)ic-
tator— a Hitler, a Mussolini, a
master or an overlord.
But we love humanity; we be­
lieve in man and in him is our
faith, and upon this faith we
base democracy with its blunder­
ing, struggling, struggling, striv­
ing legislative bodies, whose life
impulse is to restrain the strong
and protect the weak. Don’t take
your legislative bodies too lightly
for when you accept them as an
evil or a joke, you are indicting
Portland—Banks Stage Line
TELEPHONE 131
Leaves from Vernonia Hotel for Portland via
Buxton and Banks, 8:00 a. m., daily.
Sundays and Holidays, 8 a. m., and 4:45 p. m.
Leave Portland from Central Stage depot at
5:00 p. m. daily, except Sundays and Holidays.
Sundays and Holidays, 10:30 a. m. and 8:00 p. m.
ASK FOR PORTLAND BANKS
FAKE: $1.30 ™EV
4
PAGE THRE1
VERNONIA EAGLE, VBRNONIA, OREGON
FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1935.
STAGE
LINE
$2.10 T"0
yourselves, and you are confes­ thought upon legislative commit-1 by, he has no place in legislative
sing that you are incapable of tees; the members, tired, worn, 1 halls. One must do his own think­
ing and be able to value and in­
self-government and that you are weary, staggering through a day terpret
demands, the inter­
by nature, a slave, seeking some that would start at 8 o’clock a. ests, the the
ways, the means and the
master, whom you would adorn m. and maybe end at midnight. methods of
the
lobby which meets
with a jeweled crown the symbol All milling around and about, ar­
of sovereignty.
You are king guing, talking, and that is demo­ one in the halls of the state
and extends out into th*
and the legislature is your fing­ cracy; with its faults, which are capitol
countryside and to the commer­
ers and toes.
its virtues, and which make Amer­ cial clubs at* home, and to the
In this post mortem we shall ica, where the sovereignty, or farmers, the soldiers, the rich, the
not attempt to analyze any of the right to rule, was taken from poor man, beggar man and In­
self-appointed few, and with dian chiei, for each and all, are
the 1000 bills that passed into the
1____1 in »U..
„.J. of
legislative review. But we will ; xL,.
the ballot „ placed
the L,.,
hands
a group and that group want*
show you how royalty still aspires a 126 million people who elect to whisper in the legislator’s ear.
and how the fundamentals of a 1 legislators to stumble and blunder And we say that the legislature
democracy are in constant danger I along with them, and as the sym- does
UUBO not
I|vv do
uu anything, or that —
it
from sinister, cunning and design- j bol of the sovereignty, we chose does too mucb( and it ought to
ing influences that lie dormant,; the red, white and blue, the stars;
bonlej and mind its own busi-
slumbering in the legend of petit j and stripes, which mean that men n(JSS but’ j,]ess your heart, it has
princes
and
bejeweled grand j shall rule through themselves, in no business
’ -
■
of - its
own, and • the -
uames ever eager to ascend the■ legislative sessions, and in the( 1000 bills that pass in parade
dais of a royal throne. In this' Congress of the United States came from the people with hun­
session there was an attempt to; assembled.
dreds of groups demanding that*
place qualifications upon the vo-1 But groups are selfish. They they do pass.
ter. Make property rights a quali-| make a strong lobby. They hit
But we would not change it.
fication. That strikes at Democ-i you hard. They are hard to resist Let us blunder along, just like
racy. The jury system was at-' an.t lheyi, uneVeri
the.uu..mu
-------
human beings, correcting today
tacked, free press, free speech, folks back home lobby their legis-,the errors 0I yesterday. That is
elections, circulating petitions, lator,' they wire him, they write (what a democracy does and it
the right to organize, the use of him, they phone him to put overjdoes ¡t through its legislature,
the police, which in a degree is this, or stop that—one group,
j am that coyote fellow. I am
part of the military branch of the against the other group, the peo-, that fellow who wanted to go
government, so closely and so pie, democracy, America. When back to Grant county the first
carefully guarded in our consti­ the legislature meets all of Ore-, .
ot the session. Back to where
tution. Don’t be alarmed. These gon is a lobby. Letters pour in I- I could
•• • hear the coyote
----- -
• howl.
----- •
attacks were of minor
conse­ by the thousands, and when some And now, after 60 days listening
quence, but enough tp emphasize large group-measure is up for to the arguments and the demands
the fact that you and your legis­ passage, the telegrams will come of groups of overorganized Amer­
lators, must guard by day, aiyd in from the four corners of the ica, I am returning to my home
in the vigil of the night be ever state, and maybe just as many in Canyon City, Grant county, to
supersensitive at the slightest in­ telegrams on one side as there hear my constituency howl.
fringement of any of the God­ are on the other. And the com­
I enjoyed serving the legisla­
given rights, that are vouchsafed mittee has to grind it out, and
to men in our bill of rights, our amend to suit this group, to alter ture. I enjoyed it, because I love
constitution, the framework of in order to satisfy another group, humanity; man, democracy, Am­
democracy, which is you, repre­ and then after the bill runs the erica, and long may it blunder
sented at Salem, in your legisla­ parliamentary gauntlet, it finally along, striving, struggling, seek­
ture.
reaches the floor of the house, ing to restrain the strong and
In the last few years there has where it is a target for every oth­
(Continued on Page 5)
been a new problem that legisla­ er group and there it is amend­
tors have had to face. That is ed some more, and then is sent
group interests. And this was to the senate where
it goes
most manifest at Salem. It pre­ through the same course of pub­
dominated the session. Group le­ lic hearings, committees, and then
gislation. Men group themselves out into the senate and amended
for their demands and seek to do again, and sent back to the house,
collectively what they can not do and maybe amended again, and
individually. A few years back in the last act, just before the
the legislature would enact a law. curtain goes down, it reaches the
They now enact a code, and that governor and if he feels a little
is wholesaling legislation—mass grouchy, he vetoes it, and back
production of laws. In the admin­ it comes into the house and then
istration of a code, there may another battle, and they pass it
be 500 regulations, and each of over his head or it goes to the
these regulations have the force graveyard and sleeps for two
and eflect of a law. With the years, and then gets up out of
adoption of about 50 state codes its grave and comes walking into
and the NRA, by the house, the next legislative session, back­
there were approximately 600 ed by a vigorous and better
codes approved, and if they only group. That is democracy, that
averaged 200 regulations each, is you; that is your legislature.
that would amount to 120,000
When we think of the lobby,
laws, or regulations—wholesaled, we think of the boys who infest
which leads us to the statement the legislative halls—lots of them
that this country is overorganized and yet not so many, compared
and no one is more appreciative with the folks back home; for
Pasteurized milk is just
of this fact than legislators who remember, when the Oregon le­ *
as
essential to the safe­
were
besieged
with
groups gislature meets, all of Oregon is
throughout the session. There was a lobby. If a member lacks the
ty of your health as is
the fish men, the milk men*, booze courage, lacks the intelligence,
pure and protected wa­
men, the egg men, the plumbers, lacks the tact, lacks the ability
doctors,
cosmeticians,
barbers, to withstand this state-wide lob-
ter.
lawyers, electricians, hop men,
bankers, railroaders, the old, the
Scientific pasteuriza­
young, and say, we shall never
forget the night that 400 or 500
tion does not change the
cosmeticians,
beauty
doctors,
food value or taste of
stormed the capitol. How would
you like to go against 500 beauty
milk, but does destroy
doctors, the sweet lassies, who
the
disease bacteria of­
demanded their code in a public
hearing before
a
committee?
ten found therein.
The government is behind
Would you have the heart to re­
sist them? And nearly every night
every deposit you havi
there were public hearings in
up to $5000. That is the
nearly every room of the capitol,
SCIENTIFICALLY
and by the hundreds, they would
the
in
finest guarantee
come,
urging
their
demands
PASTEURIZED MILK
t
through lawyers and organizers
world—as certain as the
AND CREAM SOLD
and men and women, humanity,
stumblinp1 blundering, seeking,
very existence of our gov-
IN STERILIZED
striving,
urging
their
group
ernment! Make your de­
Pasteurized
Milk . . .
essential
to safety
and health
Guaranteed!
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posits with confidence —
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FLOUR
they
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“THE ROLL OF
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Trading Co.
PHONE 681
£55 If everyone spends
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