Evening star., 1938-10-23
Northwest Labor Warfare
Endangers New Deals Hold
Section, Overwhelmed With Gifts and Giant Dam
Projects, Fears Benefits May Be Offset
by Losses in Union Troubles
By Herbert Lnndy.

SA"sS 20 te ytJLH W u ScftcS " QUIZ
day Star articles discussing economic,
social and political conditions in dit-
1erent parts OF the country. The author
sct this article, Mr.. Lundy, is a member
OF the editorial stat OF the Portland
Oregonian. Nert Sundays article ,pill
Be ,pritten from Kansas City,
PORTLAND, Oreg.-The Pacific North
west, shaken and confused by six years of
labor warfare, vanishing markets, unem-
ployment and strange social and political
Ideas, has shown a strong tendency in the
last few months toward adding up the score
An increasing number Of citizens ire
0pective of party, are convinced that the
Northwest cannot continue indefinitely to
be fair-haired child of an administration
suddenly lavish and loving.
The Northwest was not as dazzled as
some sections might have been when the
New Deal volunteered millions of dollars
to build Grand Coulee, Bonneville Owyhee,
Roza and other hydroelectric, navigation
or irrigation projects.
Former administrations also had spent
millions on the Northwest's rivers and har-
bors, Coast Guard, Army and Navy bases,
Indian reservations, national forests. high
ways and bridges Northwesterners did not
consider the $l8600 900 Grand Coulee
irrigation and power dam, designed to cre-
ate fertile farms for 10000 families in
what is now Eastern Washington desert, as
revolutionary. Neither did many of them
admit that such projects are the economic
salvation of the West.
None denies that the 100000 acres of
the upper Columbia basin to be irrigated
will produce good crops, but many con-
. tend that 1t is economic insanity to build
50 far ahead Of the population and the
market.
Grand Coulee Typical.
Grand Coulee typifies the New Deal in
the minds of most Northwesterners. This
colossus in the wilderness is just as con-
fusing to them as some of the social bet
terment plans that come from Washing
ton. They see or hear these projects; they
accept them for what they appear to be,
but they are confused nevertheless. They
want sadly to be convinced They cannot
justify the lack of employment, the un-
the crippling of the basic lumber industry,
the stagnation Of shipping, with these gov
ernmental plans which, no matter how ex-
pensive, seem always to leave the more
abundant life just around the corner.
Many believe that the Government would
have been better advised to have spent
some OF the money being sunk in the
Grand Coulee of the Columbia River on
small irrigation projects in Western Ore
gon and Washington, near the population
centers and adjacent to ocean commerce.
The controversy over evaluation of irri-
CATION IN the wilderness and irrigation of
existing farm lands in more favorable To-
cations had considerable force in causing
the last session of Congress to authorize
development of the Willamette River for
irrigation and flood control along the lines
suggested by the Army engineers.
Sincere, Effective Purpose,
The Northwest will watch with engross-
ing interest the results obtained at Grand
Coulee and those obtained in the Villa
mette Valley.
The Federal Government has worked
with sincere and effective purpose to-
ward meeting a problem which forecasts
far-reaching social and economic changes
in the Northwest-the migration of dust
bowl refugees and other new pioneers"
into Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
NorthWesterners, who originally viewed
the migration with distrust and cried out
against the added relief burden now are
beginning to realize that these newcomers
tyn
Oregon, which has been the mecca for a
great share of the migrants, has rapidly
declining birthrate-it was the lowest in
the United States in 1890. The natural in
crease in population by births over deaths
has been very small Yet Oregon is an
undeveloped State. 1t needs workers to
break new soil, develop mines, harvest
crops and build industries. So does Idaho.
approximately 100000 families have
moved into the Pacific Northwest from
the Great Plains States alone in the last
three years and as many more have come
from other sections of the Nation.
The heads of most of these families are
farmers or ex-farmers. The Farm Sc
curity Administration has been able to
help only small percentage and it is esti-
mated that less than 10 per cent of the
migrants have returned to their former
homes.
Yet these thousands of farm families
from the Midwest, who ask only to get
their roots in the fertile soil of the North
west, are potentially great asset,
Lands Must Be Cleared.
washington, Oregon and Idaho contain
at least $4,000 acres of logged-or lands
suitable for agriculture If cleared of stuups
land with deep, rich soil, in or near es-
tablished agricultural communities where
roads, schools, markets and other public
facilities already are available.
A project, popularity indorsed, is afoot in
Northwest Oregon to have State or Fed
eral agency take over stump land suitable
for relocating the new pioneers" It is
beginning to be understood that the lands
denuded by logging and forest fires, now
reverting to the counties for unpaid taxes,
must be brought back into productivity.
It is recognized that the old ways of
wasteful logging and subsequent abandon
ment of the land even in an area that
contains 60 per cent of the Nations mar.
ketable timber, cannot be continued with
out committing economic suicide.
Many Northwesterners profess to see more