Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-02-06

mission. We have reached point that
if we are to have an open river and public
and general development it must come
largely from the individual and from our
individual efforts. Reasonably common
everyday intelligence can now see and
read the past-it is now an open hook
known to all. Our most sacred rights
have been sacrificed by those whom we
supposed would protect our interests
The general government, the state, in a
word, the Commonality, have been mule,
and rictimized by our public servants to
such an extent and in so many divers
ways. that in desperation the people. ON
the theory of the iniative, are assuming
to make their own laws
The beloved Absalom, for his own
overt acts, was deserted in the hour of
battle by his long cared hybrid and left
suspended by his flowing locks to the
limb of spreading oak; while We, with
out actual shortages by our individual
acts, are ignominiously held up in the air
by the slack of our breeches, veritable
objects of misplaced confidence. NV
comparison is imperfect-not even classi-
cal; but it fttingly represents the posi-
ton in which we have been left by legis-
lative Misrepresentation, and that in the
face OF an open river.
Mr.. Westgate, who has just preceded
me has playfully informed you that l
came from country that was high and
dry"-That is true. One thing, how
ever, you have always noted is, that
where it is high and dry" the climatic
conditions are invariably good, while
| where it is slow and wet" miasmatic in
tiuences oft times lurk. Therefore if my
atmospheric surroundings make me
wander widely from MY subject, you will
OF course excuse all departures.
As creature of the beautiful the Will
lamette, is at least, grand and open,
Nature extorts no toll, her gifts to man
are gratuitously given for free use.
Years ago, when Sam Simpson rode
the tripod Of the Corvallis Gazette. with
tired body, but vigorous brain, he
sought and found the balmy commune
with nature and natures God as the
curative of his ills. The vexations in
cident to making success of a country
paper seemed veritable burden to him.
He turned his back to his Office to reach
some vantage point where peace and
quietude reigned triumphant. There he
viewed the silent fow of Mary's river as
it entered the bosom of the Willamette
| to his left. He saw the Coast range to
the west" ard, with its shadowy color
ings of forest and the green sward oi
table land, while the billowly white
caps banked up one upon the other as
huge embellishments over it's crest. To
the eastward in bold relief ran the beau
| tiful Cascades with her minarets of snow
piercing the horizon. Over yonder, due
east, the Tree Sisters, clad in tapestries
of purest white, with clasped hands
greeted him; while to the north Mt.
Hood loomed up gradually as the chief
center of natures panorama of glory.
The nightmare of press work is now far
off in dreamland; while the soothing
sea breezs is waited through the gap at
the foot of Mary's peak, tanning his
brow with it's life-siving powers.
His heart is touched-his spirit thrilled
in the awe of his surroundings. He
seats himself on the mossy bank of the
river asd there pictured IN the living
water before his eyes is seen nature in
shallow duplicated. The rythm of the
running stresm-the eddies in ever chang
ing prisms as they fit beneath the sum
light ''calling to the sea- stir his soul.
The wand of the Muse touches him and
he sings in verse the song immortal:
"Onward ever, lovely river, softly call
ing to the sea;
Time that scars US, mains and mars
Leaves no track or trace on thee"
To the poet it was the open river call
ing to the sea-to US closed river call
ing for toll.
1t is not our province to deal with the
things of beauty, nor wing ourselves
on Imagination. We are confronted
with matters wholly material--that are
to do with development-in short, home
building, and the Willamette river as
one of the factors for the up-huildine of
the state. Our worthy president,
Brother Hofer, has advanced some
thoughts on home-b builders and his ideas
on inducements on the part of the state
to narriageable persons within his per-
View are largely on new lines. To abolish
the stipend of $3 90 for a marriage Ii
cense; to annul the poll tax on the head
of every man who has sufficient ambition
to stsrt parent plant" with few child
reu-to allow homesteaGers commuta
ton of time, or a fixed number of acres