Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1909-05-01
LITTLE TALKS WITH
men IN OREGON WHO
ARE DOING THINGS

In Portland the other day called on ChaS, B. Menck,
In the Commercial Club Building
Meuick is the organizer and practically the whole push OF
the Retail Merchants Association Of Oregon,
He has state organization and state organ
He goes into town and gets the retailers together has
a banquet, and teaches them 10 become civilized,
He nStrUCtS them in the gentle art OF cutting out de-
structiye competition, and howl bury the hatChet
The retailer is at bottom human being he has heart
and when he IS organized It beats in unison even with the
man who is his keeneSt competitor
So Menick radIates lots OF genuine good will OF the Big
Bill Taft stripe.
The retailers in many towns meet once month al a
beeSteak dinner discuss points OF common interest anG cUSS
the common enemy who is after all an elusive, disappear
ing, unknown quantity,
incidentally Merck is one of the best informed politicians
in Oregon
Theie IS not a particle Of reogeSSwe or eactonaN,
baCk-track blood in his veins,
He fairly tnges with the red corpusCes Of progressive
policies.
Cha8 g. Menick is a fine ype Of western business man.
That means progress along right lines OF intelligence lines
Of the least waste least friction and least resistance
am glad for one that Wm B. Aver threw down the
gauntlet to the politicians who are taking the back track in
Portland
He tells them feaeSSy that il is a mistake to put the Re-
publican party in an attitude Of hostility to the primary law
Aver does not take to public speaking, but when he writes
a letter or talks to committee there something doing,
Out Of bunch OF thirty OF the abeSt lawyers and buSi-
men OF Portland who ca ne before the legislature Aver
made the talk that cut the ice for the state-but railroad
proposition.
"
like talk for the Socaed SocaiStc railroad amendment that
was heard before the house committee
Ayers talk carried the amendment before the senate.
He now hits right out from the shoulder for the direct
primary law
Il shall not be smOthered Il shall have fair play.
he way to secure party harmony IS tor the dominant
party TO quit wagng wal on the peoples law
What some OF the old convention bosses cannot GET
through their heads that Republicans people, citizens
first and partlsans aiterWard
The professional machine politician is a partisan first
citizen patriot 1teWad,
Hear Aver "let us have an united pary but united in
uphodlng the law, not in destroying it,
That sounds pretty GOOD from a man who is a business
man, citizen neither partisan on SentmentalSt neither
CeSSl0nlSt nor eal tighter
And Vim. B. Aver is business man in the seven figure
class. He is not sidewalk chasing ar-SqIlrt politician
OF the little BOSSES
The trouble with Aver seems 10 be that his views are en-
irey beyond the Portland shop size,
That kind OF men arc instncilvey dreaded by the old
Portland machine.
The principal business of that machine for forty years
has been TO magnify pgmieS into statesmen
lis ohet chei industry has been TO keep men OF the
Aver ca'be out OF politics
has been successful to the extent Of keeping Portland
In the hands OF mediocre class OF gratterS.
The same policy has kept e state of0r6eon tom Sesu-
og Tie services OF It's really be men, 9.
once heard a negro reyya'st describe the birth Of the
Savior
N MS esOrdlum he shoutet An dar Jay de uby in
ant Jesus the mange and nobody present but de horned
OK" tie even forgot the mother
AZ the La 6Iande Development Congress Tod Rnehad the
county assessor OF Union county, made one OF the best
booster speeches ever heard
II was tul or ginger, optimism and the real wine Of
thuSaSm.
II pictured Union county as the Paradise Of the present.
the Heaven OF the future