Page:Oregon Exchanges volume 5.pdf/27

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OREGON EXCHANGES
January, 1922

by Prineville and Mitchell, only to be met with the information that ultimate connection with any news center was impossible. Forest service lines to Sisters were tried in the hope that a relay to Eugene by way of McKenzie Bridge might be effected. The line across the pass was out of order. The Bulletin's grapevine circuit got into commission. A rancher in Millican valley, 20 miles east of town, was called on the phone. He called the Fort Rock ranger station, the Fort Rock ranger rang Silver Lake, Silver called Lake View, Silver Lake called Lake View, Lake View wired Klamath Falls, and Klamath Falls wired United Press Manager Frank A. Clarvoe in Portland.

Then the news began to trickle in, Relayed five times, over wires never be fore used by a news agency, abbreviated United Press reports reached Bend be tween 9 o'clock and midnight, to be used the next day. The manner in which the news was obtained was almost as big a story as the actual happenings which were being reported.

It was too good to last. One of the rural lines developed an infirmity, and Bulletin news no longer traveled the length of the state and half way back. By that time, however, a wireless outfit had been assembled and the first radio news ever received in Central Oregon came when warnings from Marshfield and North Bend, telling of the probable loss of the tug Sea Eagle, were picked out of the air. Again the means by which the news was secured rivalled in importance the real occurrence.

One night the radio station allowed Bend to "listen in." Then the railroad wires were put into commission, and a partial service was made possible. Not until December 20 was the Western Union wire again available.

Train service up the Deschutes canyon was suspended for nineteen days, and for half of that period no mail was received. Then it was brought in from Shanico, which for the time being resumed its old time position as Central Oregon's chief shipping point. Not until the blockade was nearly at an end was any other than first-class mail and daily papers brought in, and shipments of stock were naturally out of the question. In spite of this handicap, however, the job department of the Bulletin continued to operate as usual, postponement of delivery being made necessary only in a few instances where special stock ordinarily not carried, had been specified.


Oregon Editor Since 1873

Henry G. Guild of the staff of the Tillamook Headlight lays claim to the title of the oldest newspaperman in Oregon in point of service. Mr. Guild, coming to Oregon in 1873 at the age of 18, went to work in that year for H. B. Luce, then publisher of the Washington County Independent at Hillsboro. When Mr. Luce went to the mines near Jacksonville Mr. Guild bought him out, selling the paper back again in a year and a half. This was the first of a rather long series of papers' conducted by Mr. Guild. In 1880 he established the Silverton Appeal. Later he was for a time on the staff of the Salem Statesman. In 1892 he went to Sheridan as publisher of the Sun. The next year he bought a half interest in the Oregon Independent, a Salem weekly, as a partner of J. D. Fletcher, a former lieutenant governor of North Dakota. In 1902 he established the Bulletin at Prosser, Wash. Next came a few years in California. Returning to Oregon Mr. Guild bought a half interest in the Hillsboro Argus, conducting that publication with Mrs. Emma McKinney as partner. After publishing this paper for two or three years he bought (about 1908) the Newport Signal, which he conducted for about two years. From 1910 to 1914 he was receiver of the United States land office at Vale. After one year on the Oregonian as hotel reporter, Mr. Guild published the Lincoln Sentinel at Toledo for two years. He is now at Tillamook. Does anyone know of an active Oregon editor whose experience in this state dates back any farther than that of Mr. Guild?

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