The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1906-04-19
BOURNE CHAMPION
OF STATEMENT NO. |

The now famous Statement No. ] OF
the primary law makes 1t possible for
the people of Oregon to name the men
who shall hereafter be elected United
States Senators from this state. In
stead Of leaving that important matter
to forty-six or more members Of the
legislature to decide, influenced by
any old Influence, a Statement No. ],
legislature will be directed and COM
manded to elect the men who have
first passed muster by their party, and
then passed muster by the whole peo-
pie. And this is all there Is to State
ment No. |. 1t is now simply ques-
tion as to which method the people
prefer, and it Is for them to say 10
the present campaign. The law 10 not
what the bosses, who constitute the
machine, want. because with the sen
of the legislature the opportunity to
make money out Of the sale OF that
office Is taken out of their hands.
Therefore they and those great u on
eJ ed interests who are always in the
market to buy senatorship, had de-
termined to ignore the law and then
repeal it in 1901. This had fully been
determined on when Jonathan Bourne,
Jr., OF Portland, who for ten years
has been working to substitute the
new for the old method of electing U.
s. Senators from Oregon, undertook to
block this game OF the bosses and the
trust interests. 1t could be done only
by arousing the people to stand for
the law which they themselves had
passed in the election of June, 1904.
In December last he put out 5000 cir.
cular letters to the signers of the peti.
tions on which the law had been sub
mitted to popular vote, and warned
them Of the purpose of certain inter-
ested parties to nullify it. The re-
sponse showed that the people weIe
unsuspecting of danger, and In Janu-
airy he sent to every registered voter
in the state an appeal to stand by the
law, and inclosed return postal card
pledge, some 10000 of which were
signed and mailed back to him. Many
hundreds of letters were also sent to
him encouraging him to continue the
work to save the law, and urging him
to become candidate for United
States Senator, under its provisions,
az he had already become its cham.
pion. In February he announced his
candidacy followed by the platform
on which he is now seeking the nomi-
nation. To every registered Republic
can voter In the state one of these has
been sent, and Mr.. Bourne is now
putting out final appeal urging the
voters to support at the primary polls
only Statement No. l candidates for
the legislature.
This campaign to save the law from
being wrecked Ly the politicians he
haA conducted himself, and alone has
horne ali the expense incident thereto.
1t is estimated that he has sent
through the mails in'the neighborhood
Of half Ii illion letters.
In connection with this campaign
there are two significant facts. One Is
that the country press has not discuss
cd the law, Except in isolated cases,
and then generally to condemn with
out calculating 1t; the other Is that
all of the moneyed interests and the
class that enjoys special privileges un.
der special laws, have been and are
now opposed to the election of Sena-
tors by the direct vote OF the people.
OF all the wealthy men In the state,
Mr.. Bourne Is the only one who has
espoused the law and the peoples de-
mand for cleansing of Oregon's
political methods.