White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1935-10-03
NAME CHANGERS BUSY AGAIN

NAME CHANGERS BUSY AGAIN
The curtain is up on another Of those silly name
changing battles, comparable to the war waged be-
tween Seattle and Tacoma over the cognomen OF
the ubiquitous Mt. Rainier.
The Portland Chamber Of Commerce announces
that it intends to send memorial to Congress
asking that the river which for part Of it's length
acts boundary line between Oregon and Wash
ington be renamed and henceforth be officially
known as the Oregon river.
The Portlanders candidly admit that even if
Congress fails to act upon this piece Of propa-
ganda the state of Oregon will receive sufficient
publicity to make it's efforts more than worthwhile
and will create the impression in the minds OF
those Fasteners who still think of the states west
of the Rockies as territories that Oregon is the
sole proprietor and beneficiary of that magnificent
flow of water second in the United States only to
the vast Mississippi
From Seattle, which has had much practice in
such encounters comes the spirited reply that if
Portland really wants to put it's state on the map
it should change it's name to Columbia. Also, it
might we'll change the city's name to Multnomah,
or some such since Portland Oregon, is too easily
confused with it's sister the other side of the
continent, Portland, Maine!
The forgotten men, the British Columbians, in
whose district the disputed river has it's head
waters, have finally taken their place in this little
drama of the wild west and stand for compromise
member of the Usadians (how's that for anane?
The key to the puzzle is United States of America
and Canada) suggests equitable solution
satisfactory to everyone the name Orewashumbia
Shades Of William Cullen Bryant and his famous
ine-Where rolls the mighty Orewashumbia!
More seriously, the Canadians generously say
that it the name is to be changed at all it should
rightly be Washington. And while we are on that
name, what has happened to the propagandists
who wanted to change the name of our state be-
cause it is too easily confused with Washington,
ID. o.? Some OF these held for reverse of Ore
CONS tactics and felt that Washington should
gain future fame as the state of Columbia.
That would be pretty slick, of course, as we
would have our state song all ready for the sing
ing and everyone could happily join in the refrain
of "Hail Columbia, Happy Land'' This would
save the poets may hours Of anguish which they
now spend trying to compose poems honoring
Washington.
Others, of a more poetic turn of mind than the
Columbia protagonists, suggested Cascadia But
that to us, is too reminiscent of Utopia, or Ar
cadia or even of one of those liquids children are
said to cry for
But to get back to the river: The Portland
Chamber of Commerce has considerable tradition
back OF it's demand. To the very early gentry the
river was known the Oregon; but on maps
dated 1882 the name is given as the columbia, or
Oregon, River"
AS is the with many of the names applied
to rivers, mountains and bays by the original ex-
plorers, the name changed each time another
party came through the country, and through COM
mon usage, that name has stuck, and to attempt to
change it brings only discord.
While Italy and Ethiopia battle it out on the
east African front, let all loyal Neutrality-suspicious.
give heed to the dog fight here in our own front
yard.