Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-05-22
cHAMBERLAIN's HISTORY.
The Oregonian of Friday Talks
on The Governor.

under the stunning blows OF two
roorbacks which they unwisely
sprung, the democratic cam
paign managers made one more
effort yesterday, as 1utile as the
others. Their first exhibition
of folly was their denunciation of
DR.. James Withycombe, the re-
publican nominee for governor,
because he was born in England.
This attack was so utterly un-
American that not even the
democrats would stand for it.,
and the vigorous expressions OF
of disapproval which were heard
from various sources caused a
hasty sidestepping and backing
and filling that made the man
ayers appear ridiculous. The
next break was an attack upon
Withycombe because he has
drawn $I2, 600 from the treasury
of the state and $Io, 900 from the
United States for services as a
public officer. The purpose was
to brand Withycombe as recip-
lent of public favor, but this
line OF attack was abruptly aban-
andoned when it was shown that
the democratic nominee, George
E. Chamberlain, had drawn over
$40, 900 from the state treasury
and had been such a persistent
Office seeker that a leading demo-
crat, Napoleon Davis, remarked
that the democrats of Oregon had
been supporting him for office
almost continuously for 20 years.
The latest move, as absurd
as others, is claim that
Chamberlain saved the initiative
and referendum to the people of
Oregon by notifying the legisla-
ture that he would veto bills
to which emergency clauses
were attached, if the emergencies
did not in fact exist. This
claim seems we'll founded at first
glance, but an investigation
shows that if the legislature
'conspired'' to defeat the refer
endum, as alleged, Chamberlain
himself was one of the arch-con-
spirators.
The initiative and referendum
section of the constitution pro-
vides that act of the legislature
shall not go into effect tor 90 days
after the adjournment of the legis-
lature, unless necessary for the
preservation of the public health,
peace and safety. This section
of the constitution was in effect
in 1903, when the legislative ses-
sion of that year passed innumer-
able acts with emergency clauses
attached, even upon the most
trivial matters, and Chamberlain
never vetoed one OF them for that
reason. More than that, Cham
berlain was one OF the attorneys
of record upon the brief in the
trial of the Kadderly case in the
supreme court, in which it was
argued that the legislature was
the sole judge of when an emer-
gency existed, and that if the
legislature declared an emer-
gency the court could not in
vestigate the question whether an
emergency existed in fact.
The point was carried upon the
arguments thus produced, and
with Chamberlain's help and
approval, abuse of the emer-
gency clause was made possible.
1t was not until the session of
1905 that the Governor suddenly
becarue alarmed for the welfare
VI tAC 4CIClSAOu uuks w uCluS1 dS
had repented of tine wrongs he
had been a party to in the session
of 1903 or could see the posi-
bilities of a graudstand play as a
votegetter in 1906 may always
be a question. But it was not
until then that he raised the ob-
lection to the emergency clauses.
And even then he was not con-
sistent, for the records of that ses-
sion of the legislature show that
he approved charter bills con-
tanning emergency clauses when
the only purpose Of the bills was
to prevent, if possible, the en-.
forcement of the local option
liquor law, by giving the City
Councils exclusive control of the
sale Of liquor. He approved