The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1920-03-11
MANY BOOSTERS
At CLUB BANQUET
Heppner Commercial Club Was Host
Last Thursday Evening When
Many Prominent Speakers Were
Heard-John Day Project Main
Theme for Discussion.

One hundred or more men had
their feet under the banquet table in
the Odd Fellows Hall last Thursday
evening, when Toastmaster Mahoney,
who is also president Of the Heppner
Commercial Club, arose and announc-
ed the purpose of the gathering and
introduced the first speaker of the
evening, Sam. L. Van Vactor, well
known local attorney. Mr.. Van Vac
tor was eloquent in his address Of
welcome.
The speech making WAS in pro-
gress only after the banqueters had
eaten to their satisfaction of the
bountiful dinner which was spread
for the occasion by Mrs. M. l.. Cur
ran.
Irrigation and more particularly
the John Day Project was the main
theme OF the evening and there were
present large number of irrigators
to speak from first hand experience.
Messrs. Cobb, Larsen and Boardman
from Boardman and Messrs. Glass
gov and Wadsworth from Irrigon
are men who have been living in Nor
row county's irrigable section the last
several years and truly they can
speak as those having gone through
the pioneer stage of the irrigation
game.
The banqueters were favored with
the presence of George Quayle. secre-
tary Of the Oregon State Chamber of
Commerce. Mr.. Quayle spoke on a
number of topics but especially en-
phasized the importance OF the John
Day Project and told his audience
that the directors OF the project could
look to the Oregon State Chamber of
Commerce for support and coopera-
tion at all times.
Mr.. Quayle outlined briefly the
many projects which the state cham
ber is back Of, defined in we'll chosen
words the essentials of successful
commercial club and cited instance
after instance where successful meth
DDS have made cities and where the
wrong methods employed had spelled
disaster for communities.
Mr.. Quayle called up a few things
to the attention Of the local club
which will probably be acted upon
He laid stress upon the Importance of
an airplane landing field. Another
big feature for a town is public
camping ground. Mr.. Quayle pre-
diets the largest tourist travel thru
the state this year we have ever had
and the town which is equipped with
camping facilities will be the town
getting the most benefit from that
travel.
C. c. Clark, president of the board
of directors of the John Day Irriga-
tion Distict delivered splendid ad-
dress on irrigation. Mr.. Clark brot
forth In a clear manner the westward
progress Of the empire and showed
what an important bearing on that
progress, irrigation had. He was fol-
lowed by Mr.. Davis, reclamation en-
gineer of Hermiston who has been
closely identified with the John Day
Project from the very beginning and
he told Of the great possibilities OF
the project and of the approximate
cost of delivering the water to the
land. This cost Is placed at the pre-
sent time at 1929 per acre.
f. A. McMenamin, who has served
the district as attorney, mentioned
the favorable attention given the
John Day Project by the State lrri-
cation Congress in Portland and
pointed ont the fact that big business
men of that city gave up hours of
their time to learn Of this vast irriga-
ton undertaking, while home people
we're sleeping, and had but handful
of people at the Congress to represent
a proposition which will mean the re-