The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-09-14
REPRESENTATIVE GILL
DEFENDS MASON

Dufur. Oregon, Sept. 3, 1911
The Glacier, Hood River. Oregon,
To the Editor:
During the session OF the Legislature
1 last winter petitions were circulated ir
Hood River in which A. /. Mason was
charged with being a self appointed
/ lobbyist. There has been much unjust
criticism of Mason's work at Salem.
am writing this article to tell the
plain truth about Mason's work il
reference to road legislation. | will
preface my remarks by saying that
Mason and did not always agree OF
road legislation. | hammered Mason
so unmercilessly to get him away from
/ the abutting property tax idea that
| feared | would ALLEVIATE his friendship
but wish to say to his credit that he
| had the good sense not even to get
angry with me.
| Mason was not at Salem as the rep
resentative of the road interests OF
Hood River County in particular. He
was not self appointed lobbyist as
charged in petitions circulated at Hood
River. He was appointed to repre-
sent the grangers in Oregon. 1t hap
pened this way. At Oregon City in
May 1910. c. d. Huffman, of La
Grande, and myself were elected mem
| bers of the Grange Lobby whose duty
it was to look out for the farmers
interest at Salem. But the people OF
Wasco and Hood River Counties were
kind enough to send me to the House
of Representatives 1t was apparent
that my duties in that Office would
| leave me no time for work in the
grange lobby. State Master Spence,
who was chairman of the Grange
Lobby, was i'll with the grippe, SO
that there were two vacancies in the
Grange Lobby. To fill these b. G.
Leedy, of Corvallis, and A. |. Mason
were appointed. The expenses of this
grange lobby known officially as the
Legislative Committee) were paid by
the State Grange.
was present in the senate when
Mason made tile speech that reused
President Selling's anger. There was
nothing in the speech that Selling
should have gotten angry about. You
people of Hood River know that Mason
calls spade a spade and that he
doesn't sugar coat anything. In his
speech he blurted GU thestruth with sc
little padding that it fairly blistered
where it hit. Selling took umbrage to
his statement that there might be a
county court .that would thwart the
will of the people. In order to dis
credit Mason the Portland dailies, the
Journal in particular. magnif ed the
affair till it looked twenty times as
large in print as it did to us Salem.
These papers did not say that Selling
apologized to Mason the next day but
that is what happened. | suppose at
Hood River it did look as if Hood
River had got slap in the face. But
the newspapers were after Mason s
scalp.
The next time Mason got into the
| limelight was when he and Senator
Joseph got into an alteration. Joseph
was leader of the Good Roads Associa-
tion's bills in the senate, and | sup
pose Mason went after him more thar
occasionally. Sometime in the after
noon the news came over to the House
| that Mason had been about to trounce
Joseph. | saw Joseph that evening
and he made light of the whole affair.
Since the session he told me that he
called Mason a "pestiferous cuss,
and that Mason started toward MIN,
and that Frank Motter feared he
would strike and held him back
Joseph said that he did not think
Mason intended to strike him anC
Mason said he did not intend to do So
so it seems it was nothing more thar
a linguistic tussle with few senator.
| ial courtesies thrown in. But again tC
discredit him, the papers made 8
mountain out of mole hill.
Another case Of misrepresentation
was when Mason was so intensely
interested and absorbed by road dis.
cussion in the committee of the whole
that he arose and said ''Mr. Speaker
before he came to himself. But ever
as Rusk motioned his gavel at him he
was sitting down. The book, "BehinC
the scenes at Salem, says Speaker
Rusk rebuked him. If merely calling
a mans attention to the fact that he
is out of order is a rebuke then he was
rebuked
The things Mason advocated al
Salem he believed were for the bes
interests of the people of the State oi
Oregon. AS a lobbyist, he would per
haps accomplish more if he were les:
outspoken and persistent in the pursuit
of his purpose. If he would couch his
truths in smoother sounding syllables,
| he would bring more votes to his
standard. Another criticism that car
be offered to Mason is that his persona
views of legislation often loom up 81
big that he is not able to see that they
do not coincide with the wishes of the
majority of the people. But he is Sc
earnest and honest about it all thai
you forgive him though you may have
given a weeks hard labor to get hin
to see he is not with the majority
But he is more times right thar
wrong.
Mason's earnestness in regard Il
road legislation has been questioned
by some wishing to discredit him. L
he is anything, he is over-enthusastit
on the subject of good roads. He has
given the subject much thoughtful
study, and has brought out many gooC
ideas.
A few words about the five bills pro
posed by the Portland Good Road:
Association. Their whole purpose was
to provide a way to build the7Pacifit
Highway from the Columbia river tC
the California state line. Incidently
other parts of the state would have
gotten some help. There were severa
jokers in them. The grave yard wa!