Page:Pacific Monthly volumes 9 and 10.djvu/353

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
There was a problem when proofreading this page.
PROMINENT NEWSPAPERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST
241

inence in recognition of the force and literary merit of its editorials. The Oregonian, like strong men generally, who seldom learn the art of compromise, has made enemies. Yet the Oregonian has never forfeited the respect of its constituents.

The first issue of the Weekly Oregonian was published December 4, 1850.

H. W. SCOTT, EDITOR, THE OREGONIAN


Mr. H. L. Pittock, the present manager, became connected with the paper in November, 1853, in the modest capacity of office boy. He served his time as an apprentice, learned the printer's trade thoroughly, and under his sole ownership the first issue of the Daily Oregonian was published on February 4, 1861. The greatest tribute of respect that the Pacific Coast States will ever pay to the memory of Mr. Pittock will be found in the reflection that he devoted his life and his best efforts to building up in Portland a paper of national importance, and that he succeeded as the result of absolutely clean business methods.

The limits of this article prevent more than passing mention of the personnel of the Oregonian's management. Perhaps it is well even that it is so. Even with the stamp of sincerity back of the statement, laudation is cheap, and from the men who have been most closely associated with Mr. Pittock and Mr. Scott, and who are most competent to speak of their merits, praise would come with as bad grace as it might be distasteful to the principals themselves. Yet the writer may be pardoned for digressing far enough from the main purpose of this article to refer briefly to the great work done by Mr. Scott in directing the editorial policy of the Oregonian.

Mr. Scott has never advocated a cause that had for its key note anything but the highest moral development of the community with which the destinies of the Oregonian are so closely associated. That the Oregonian has led in the best growth and development of Portland and Portland's interests is shown in the reflection that the paper today even is in advance of the city in which it is published. No city of 200,000 population in the United States supports a paper of the scope and ability of the Oregonian as an ideal newspaper. In his work during the first Bryan campaign alone, Mr. Scott performed a service in favor of sound money and good morals from the stand-