Montana labor news., 1938-02-10
OPEN FORUM
THE PORTLAND
news STRIKE
Editor. Montana Labor News:

sentative and probably the richest
city on the Pacific coast, according
to population, has stepped into the
limelight with a very annoying thing
"a newspaper strike.
To one, who has not lived in this
charming city, largely due to its
location, it is necessary to give some
idea as to what Nature has done for
its well being. The Willamette Riv-
er, on which it was originally To-
Gated, flows in a generally northerly
direction, making a bend within the
city in a northwesterly direction in
order to join the Columbia River.
Because of the parsimony of its
founders and their lack of vision it
was laid out without regard to this
bend in the river with a view to
getting as many lots as possible out
Of the ground, even to emitting
alleys. This bend would have per-
mitted the laying out of broad ave-
nues and boulevards fanwise, per-
hitting a maximum of sunshine on
both sides of these means of COM
m%unication. Some day, probably
not far off it may be necessary to
rebuild the city in which event cor
rections can be made to modernize
it. If it is not already so it will be
a tremendous tax on the traffic COM
ing to Portland and when that day
comes, no delay will be brooked to
revise the whole layout of the town.
Attempts have been made from time
to time to correct the mistakes of
the past by driving through an occa-
sional wide street to facilitate the
traffic of the present day. There
were plenty of difficulties attendant
on this, owing to the native con-
servatism.
For years Portland has gotten
along with a minimum of labor dis
turbance, but of late she has been
getting her share and what an effect
it has on her Public Mind. To give
the reader a concise idea of her atti-
tude-it is a sin against God, for the
working classes to even think of OBJ
tanning a greater interest in the
profits Of industry-which is of
course the old lese majesty.
We come to the latest strike, in
volving the three newspapers which
closed their plants, and the citizens
were deprived Of pabulum. Tower
ing above the other papers is the
Oregonian-the paper that has more
than two generations of c~onserva-
tism back of it, and from which the
pioneers and their descendants Sc
cured their daily opinions - and
whose suspension must have caused
a tremendous vacuum to envelop its
public.
To the Brahmins it was their Rig.
Veda, to the Methodists and other
Protestant sects their Bible, there.
fore your readers can get an idea
what a hole there was in the in.
tellectual horizon. Without it, they
became like the Children of Israe
lost in the Wilderness with no Moses
The extreme conservatives mus
have suffered excruciatingly anc
were probably like One Mans Fam
lily lost in a maze of b~ewilderinf
thoughts with the light of their lives
gone and nowhere in the heavens
was there a Star of Bethlehem.
Woe surely descended on theil
fair city, and how uncomfortable
must have been the intellectual
Brahmins at being unable to release
the mental nourishment on which
they thrive and which the lesser
mentally equipped Tapped up.
Nestor of all the editors on the
Pacific coast, Harvey W. Scott, anC
one Of the then three greatest edi
tors of the U. S., how he must wish
to return from his celestial seat t.
re-enact the drama of his belief il
bullets for the settlement of civil
r%uctions, and how the public woulC
have enjoyed his discontinue were
the secret of his attitude towards
agitations of the public mind to b.
accidentally barred as the time o
the Chinese agitation when the re
volver he had in his pocket wen
off as he entered the gate to hi
home on Morrison Street. From hi
throne as Chief Brahmin of them al
) he handed down his daily opinion OF
things worldly and heavenly, anC
; how they were accepted by the pub
lie as Moses Book of the Law.
Rebellion stalked the land though
because his advocacy of a candidate
for public office would usually re
suit in defeat, so it was suspected
that many a seeker for public offic'
5 courted his opposition as a sur,
: means of election.
| Now these unspeakable parvenue
who thought they needed a it'll
t more sustenance were just beyonC
the pale and should have come will
their hat in their hand and asked TO
| a concession in most obsequiou
manner, which would give the own
ers great pleasure to deny. Thei
resort to rough stuff must hav,
, given the Masters of the Bread, Il
use a popular expression, "a pail
in the neck"
It must be terrible to the Portland