The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-04-27
MASON GRILLS BOOK
BEHIND THE SCENES

Hood River, Ore, April 25, 1911.
Editor Glacier--I have before me a
copy of booklet entitled, Behind
The Scenes" at Salem, Ore, during
the Legislature of 1911.
This booklet is being distributed all
over the state (for the profit in it) and
were 1t not for the fact that it so mis-
represents the work done by the Ex-
Gcutive body of the State Grange and
that it makes personal attack upon
myself, | would not waste valuable
time in answering it, In the preamble
of this booklet, the following language
is used. ut has been the aim of the
authors to follow facts. If their aim
was such, they surely had very poor
gun or it was loaded with treacherous
ammunition. For they have positively
missed the mark. Their title lines on
Good Road Legislation says, Rural
Suspicion Kills Good Roads" This
assertion will certainly bear inspection
for truthfuIness. The last Legislature
passed four Good Road Bills; of these,
two were very important viz, the
state highway commission bill and the
County bonding bill. The latter stand
ing paramount to them all. | only
wish that every voter in Oregon could
have a copy of each of them to read
and study. But who killed these Good
Road bills? None other than "The dog
in-the -manger" fellows of Portland
who masquerade under the title of the
Good Roads Association.
1t was through their efforts in mis-
representing these bills to Gov. West,
that they were vetoed. We could give
testimony favorable to these bills from
hundreds of prominent taxpayers in
Oregon, besides the majority of the 90
Legislators who voted for them, but
at this time we desire to call to the
witness stand some members of the
State Good Roads Association who
were on the ground and assisted
materially in bringing about the com
promise which gave us the four Good
Road Bills that passed both houses of
our last Legislature. Judge Lionel r.
Webster, the man who has done more
to educate the people of Oregon on the
necessity of better highways than any
other man in the state: The man who
has been the paid representative as
we'll as Gen. Manager of the Good
Roads Association since its organiZa-
ton The man who represented the
Association at the last Legislature
more than any other member, and the
man to whom the Good Roads Associa-
tion of Portland entrusted the fate of
their five Good Road Bills, recently
said at a Portland banquet: "The
Good Roads Association made the
greatest possible mistake, when its
members urged upon Gov. West the
veto of the Highway Bills, and the
Governor made a great mistake when
he vetoed those bills. The gentlemen
destroyed the finest piece of legisla-
tion we have had in this state for
years and gave nothing to take its
place. Banker J. II. Albert of
Salem, Ore, man who was identified
with the Good Roads movement and in
whom the supposed good roads people
of Portland placed the utmost conf
dence during the entire Legislature,
has this to say, in the Daily Oregonan: !:
THE fact that Oregon today has no
system for the building of permanent
roads, no authority for the appropria-
tion of one dollar toward the building
of such roads, no power to create an
Indebtedness for the building of them
under the provision of the recent
amendment of Sec. 10 Art. II Of the
Constitution and no power to use con-