The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1905-02-16
As a Farmer Sees the SltuatIOn.


As a Farmer Sees the Situation.
White Salman, Wash, Feb. 15.-Ed-
itor Glacier: l am not in position
to give much information about this
suit of the farmers VS.. the lumber
company, as / know little of the
merits of the case. We who reside
on this side of the little rill that sep
arates us from the goats over your
way, and who are not involved in the
controversy; those of us whose only
irrigating ditch begins at the neck of
the bottle and terminates in the gastric
juices, ETC., deplore the inability of
the parties to settle the differences
apart from the judicial buzz-saw
where the "remnants" are always pill
ing up in evidence and principals are
so frequently enveloped in the fog.
AS a reformed lawyer, it occurs to me
that if the plaintiff in any case could
be the grateful recipient Of swat on
the cerebellum with robust club
Just prior to the veriflcation of the
complaint and the defendant have
administered to him a sort of nunc
pro func installment of future retri-
button, such as the Almighty used to
dole out to those who expired in their
sins so years ago, both parties to the
litigation would be in better condi-
tion, say, "When the robins nest
again., )" and they then wouldn't have
to spend eternity ruminating over
the cost bill or looking around in
Heaven for a lawyer to explain chow
II hunpanad ~
This last sentence is what retori
clans would call "periodic. p" 1t be-
gins away back in the past and comes
ambling up to the present in a listless
and supine manner as if the future
had been delayed by wash-ou and
the present were in state of coma.
The Menominee Lumber company is
the largest employer in western Kick
itat. Its employees are many Of them
single men but in many cases families
are dependent on the earnings of the
sturdy men who do its work. The
closing down of its camps is public
misfortune, there's no doubt of that.
Whether the just claims Of the
Trout Lake farmers made the injunc-
tion suit necessary is a question l
do not care to guess at. If unneces-
sary, they have struck an unneces-
sary blow at the development of the
section where their homes are located.
If it had to be so in order to protect
their interests at the expense Of the
employees of the company in its camps
and those depending upon their labor,
the trial will develop the facts 80
that Justice loving public may for
mulate it's own verdict
Meanwhile industry along the river
languishes and the farmers along the
irrigating bitches with grim determi-
nation fix their ivory tusks into the
uuivering flesh of the Menominee
Lumber company. If they win it will
be - the corporation, and If they
lose, it will be - the court.
When the farmer finds himself hung
over clothes line exchanging chunks
of fur with corporation, the feath-
ers come out of the other fellow as an
act of Divine favor, but when he
comes to mediate on his own bedrab-
bled appearance at the end of the ju-
dicial fracas, he is prone to look upon
the dispensation of justice as the
medicine prescribed by corporation
ridden deity.
am a farmer. l am at present
wearing a pair of pantaloons donated
by benevolent relative in the city
whose wife had condemned them to
the junk heap, and digging around
for back taxes, but / II bet big bunch
of baling wire that before the case of
the Farmers of Klickitat County VS..
Menominee Lumber Co. is decided
finally by the federal courts, the
city of Hood River will reach from
Mosier to the Cascade Locks, and
White Salmon will be the county seat
of Kwis-whosky county an the new
state of Oh-sha-gonsky and the bones
of the present inhabitants will have
been thoroughly picked.
Government by injunction" when
set in motion by corporations is a
terrible jab at the very foundations
of our liberties, but in the hands of
the farmers is Every present help in
time of trouble, and many there be
that 90 in thereat. ." The real center
of the universe is Gus" God is with
us and the devil is always the bugler
on the other side. Why God created
the other fellow still remains mys-
terry.
Corporations have no soul and the
rest of us are lacking in good judg.
ment and so the courts continue tC
! do their stunt, and in the grist are
shreds of hair, long hair with timothy
, seed and clover seed entangled in II
and short silky locks smelling Of hail
> dressing; finger nails thick and horny
with dried milk in the corners anC
fingers manicured In this grim girls
lie withered hopes, tangled purposes
! and rat -eaten resolutions, eyes, noses
: ears, pieces of homespun and sill
| cravats, in short, everything that point
r to a genuine human catastrophe.
, Mr.. Editor, once l was young anC
now am old and somewhat emaciated
silver hairs are fast stealing into m!
struggling whiskers Listen to me
nv opportunity for observation ha
3 been exceptional If lawyer know
| the law of the case you are grittinl
your teeth about, he can show it Z
! YOU, read it to you and the knowledg
becomes your own. But if you go in
to court to confirm your judgemen
! and escape head-on collision, yol
I are likely to be run into an opel
I switch or jump trestle.
s Between the filing of complain
t and the final mandate there is cir
O cuitous route beset with the kind o
:. paraphernalia that oriental degrees ar
: conferred with in fraternal orders
The honest administration of law
; not SO bad as a corrupt one, and judi
IS cial corruption is rare, but it is eaise
e for a hyppopotamus to thread th
4 needles eye than for litigant t
o come out even or his adversary to &c
n within megaphone call Of the kingdoI
a of Heaven. S. w. G.
= 1t makes no difference how man
u medicines have failed to cure .yon,