Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1915-11-02
MUTUAL INTERESTS.

MUTUAL INTERESTS.
The Portland Evening Telegram
has resorted to questionable methods
in its fight against the lumber mill
and interests Of the Willamette val
ley. With irradiant front page ar
ticles this metropolitan sheet has beer
attacking Oregon's largest taxpayer
the Southern Pacific railroad, as wei
as the states greatest revenue pro
hucer, the lumber industry. Port
land is evidently the entire state with
The Telegram. But Portland was on
ly small part Of the state when the
same irreproachable sheet so eagerly
attacked the saloons and asked the
states support for statewide prohibi-
ton. Portland is the, entire state in
the untruthful and unwarranted at
tack that is receiving the attention
of the winged newspaper.
elbow do you stand? Are you for
or against Portland? Are you in
favor of seeing everything filched
away from us by the railroads? We
permit impositions and eXactions such
as are steadily driving away from
us payrolls already secured that have
contributed nightly to our upbuild-
ing. Is this business? Is this com
mon sense? Why should we not fight
any road that is fighting us? The
Southern Pacific is not Portland
road in any sense except in the sense
of exploitation. Portland is not IN
the field asking for anything but a
square deal.
With such illogical and childish
arguments The Telegram is attacking
the very fiber of Portland's exist
ence. 1t is cutting to the quick the
hand that feeds that city. But the
great fortune of the thing is that The
Telegram does not very well repre-
sent Portland. The Chamber Of Com
merce, which has received virulence
from the evening paper for its mac
tivity in the quarrel, pays little at
tention to the paper, and the citizens
who have built up Portland while The
Telegram has been striving for live
lihood among them, do not find much
time to sympathize with its rabid ut
terances.
The Telegram doesn't think. The
Willamette valley lumber industry
needs, and needs badly, any slight ad-
vantage it has in railroad rates. Port
and has the advantage Of water
that is denied the val
ey. The Telegram attacks the rail
'oad company because. it gives the
ALLEY that advantage. That paper
would see Portland enjoy the lumber
business that the valley mills have.
t would take this business from the
alley. But what if the valley took
he lifeblood from Portland by send
ng its orders for merchandise to
california What if the valley did
lot ship its crops to Portland for the
and the jobbers, and the
hippers to derive a profit therefrom2
What if the valley refused to allow
'ortland to supply its markets with
nished products? 1t is just possible
hat the illogical Telegram would sing
different song-perhaps its swan
ong.
"The Southern Pacific is not
'ortland railroad" says The Tele-
ram. Perhaps no more a Portland
BAD than it is an all-Oregon road,
5 it should be. But if the Southern
acific got too far away from Oregon
nd Portland to be forced to contrib
tie its many thousands of dollars
lch year to the treasury of the state, !
Of to mention the direct payments to
lie treasury of Multnomah county,
nd the city itself, then The Tele- 6
ram would-well what would happen &
it? If the Southern Pacific did |
ot support, thousands of Portland
orkmen, paying them top wages and
labling them in turn to pay their
xes into the beautiful city-some- 7
ling else again, isn't is? But the S
eople of Portland are not to be in {
fenced by such unwarranted attacks q
BON its heart strings. Portland can
1t get along without the trade from /
e Willamette valley. 1t would per-
h miserably from the face of the
nth. Portland can no better do
Ithout the Southern Pacific, even >
ough that road sis not a Portland
ad in any sense except in the sense t
exploitation" than it can do'with- :
t the Willamette valley should such \
tacks as The Telegram is making
successful in running the prosper d
: of the valley through the Grip Q
ing of its greatest industry. The y
Iamber of Commerce and citizens of p