Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-05-28
OREGON FIRST EVEN IN graf.
ITUDE.

already taxing away % per cehI
of the business Of the express
companies in the United States
Here is pretty good argument
in favor of the government owning and
operating all public utilities. True the
principal work Of this system is done
by privately-owned public utility cor.
porations, the railroads of the country,
but it shows that in some things, at
least, the government can do business
as cheaply as private individuals. The
parcels post has, in fact, met the ex-
press companies on their own grounds,
and done the work formerly done by the
latter so much more cheaply than they,
that it has practically absorbed all their
business Of certain class.
As usual Oregon set the pace, for did
not our own senator, Jonathan Bourne,
perfect this system, and get it tried by
the government.
Oregon has shown the way to the
balance of the country in remarkable
manner. II begun when the good old
battleship Oregon set the pace for the
world, and the state has followed that
grand example faithfully. The initia-
tive, referendum and recall are all Ore.
gon.made goods, so is the direct elec.
tion Of senators, and in the enfranchise.
ment Of women, If not the leader, she
was largely the cause, through the life
work Of Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway
Oregon 3 "grand old woman, The par
eel post is also hers, as are many other
things too numerous to mention, though
among these one stands so prominently
that It cannot be overlooked and that
Is the school children 8 industrial fairs.
Started because Superintendent Alder
man few years ago saw some Yamhill
county school children raising a purse
to send after a supply of popcorn, in
stead Of raising the popcorn, In few
years, from his little experiment of Of
fering prize to those children for rails
ing popcorn, the movement has swept
over the country. Sixty thousand school
children in Oregon took part in the con.
test last year, and the movement has
spread over the entire country, from
Goose Bay to the Kennebec and from
scappoose to Boca Chica.
For the referendum and that part Of
il and the direct election of United
States senators we have collectively and
individually alternately poked fund at
and damned u Rem, while adopting his
ideas We are now boastng about the
parcels post and using II, too, to our
private convenience and profit, and we
Oregonians rewarded the author IL it,
Jonathan Bourne, by refusing to re.
elect him to the senate, and taking Har.
ry Lane instead Lane is all right, in Il
way, but still one cauont help feeling
that we have traded off our pasture for
n cow,
Alderman has not got his yet, not
all OF it, but, according to the eternal
fitness Of things he will surely get a
full measure Of Oregon's gratitude
which always hits the recipient about
the solar plexus, and leaves him down
for tho count from tho fullness and
force Of it, Still Oregon is to the
front in everything from start to finish,
initiative TO recall, equal suffrage to
parcel post and battloships to popcorn.
Genius seems to thrive best on i'll
treatment, and Orcgon's 8 peculiar kind
Of gratitude seems to bring the best
returns, though, as gift, It would seem
TO the average man about as welcome
as the seveu.year itchj II sticks to him
about az persistently and keeps him
about as steadily entertained and do,
lighted.