The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1893-03-04

lNVlS iclNlltk lO lut illdlNCEs
From the time my uamo was men.
toned rs candidate for tho legisla-
turc | have strictly and fparlcSSly MAIN
tanned that il the people Of any portion
of Wasco county deSE ed to he set OIL as
new county, It il certainly ne crime
for them to petition the Legislature,
refused to he considered rs Il candi-
date running for the purpose of cutting
OF Cascade county. accepted the
nomination expecting, ii elected, to do
my duty rs n representative of Wusco
county. The people within the limits
of the proposed Cascade county never
Sxacted any pledges from me. Neither
did the people in amy other portion OF
Wasco county, | told all alike that il
amy portion of the county petitioned to
be set oil, would consider it the duty
Of u representative not to HtjSyepreScut
those people, but to respect their right
of petition ana see that they have Il
fair hearing. Ii this bo not the correct
position, then there is no right position,
and the people have no rights that any
body is bound to respect
After | had taken my seat in the
legislature learned that Il large par,
of the people within the proposed Cas-
cade county were petitioning second
time to be set oil. | accordingly intro
duced Il bill TO create Cascade county.
! will say right here that | did not in
troduce this bill "by request l did
not wish to be clasSed with those who
introduce bills "by request" only to
kill them by moving to "Iudeinitely
postpone" or, more cowardly still,
either get some one else to act us eXecu-
toner or else see 10 it that they are
'smothered" in the COMMITTEES. This
is the fate of county bills introduced
"by request"
Three hundred and seventy-one
voters petitioned for the new county.
y very small portion of these were res
idents of the town of Hood River. 1t
was therefore unfortunate for the in
terests of the petitioners that the only
persons going before the committee on
behalf of the new county were residents
of the town of Hood River. On the
part Of the opposition there appeared Il
large number Of prominent gentlemen
from The Dalles These gentlemen
seemed to think that the Cascade coun-
ty people didn't know what they want
ed nearly so well AS did the people Of
The Dalles; that there was nice
smooth road "over the mountains" !"
and that it would be II whole lotn
better if Hood River would continue to
help keep up The Dalles and its offices
rather than to secure similar advan-
tages for Hood River and Cascade
county. The committee was also hon
ored by the presence of gentleman
from Dufur, who said that Tygh coun-
ty was the county of his choice. The
bill to create Tygh county was intro
duced "by request" The light of this
gentleman's testimony shone out flick
eringly, but despite the Pickering, cast
this shadow before it: Whereas, the
making Of new counties out Of Wasco
would be detrimental to the interests
of Wasco county Office seekers who pre-
fer fat offices to lean ones; therefore be
it resolved by the Tygh county man,
sundry politicians concurring, that as
long as Cascade county wants to get
off, just SO long does Tygh county want
to get off, and no longer.
After about two weeks the commit
tee concluded to make an adverse re-
port. AS q strong remonstrance was
said to be coming from the people on
the eastern side Of the proposed new
county, an amendment was proposed
changing the line so as to not include
those on that side. This proposition
was examined by the committee; this
time all being present. Both repre-
sentatives were also present and were
heard. The amendment was read and
the new line traced on the map in the
presence of both representatives. The
committee then reported favorably on
the bill with the amendment.
When the bill came up in the house
the opposing representative made a
bitter and unprovoked charge that de-
ception and trickery had been en-
ployed, that he had not been permitted
to gee the amendment, that he did not
know what it contained, etc, and posed
as very large lump of injured inno-
cence. He tried to have the bill re-
ferred to the engrossing committed
for what purpose he no doubt knew.
Another member succeeded in getting
it referred to the delegation from Wasco
and Sherman. | got the bill from the
chief clerk, took it to my desk, laid it
down and asked my colleague if we
could agree on any report. l told him
1 would report it back myself and that
he could make n report or not, as he
pleased. For this report I was de-
nounced severely, as he considered that
he was entitled to get possession Of that
bill as chairman of the delegation!