Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/716

466 The election was a landslide in favor of the Republican candidate who re- versed the 140 majority, receiving nearly half the entire Democratic vote of the county.

The legislative experience of the writer shows the methods employed by the land sharks to defeat the will of the people, and by suppressing all at- tempts at exposing their methods, secure a continuance of their exploiting the public domain for individual profit.

In writing this chapter, it is with no desire to laud or extol the efforts of the writer, but to give a true statement of facts, that will show the conspiracy of the land and moneyed interests to gain and retain control of the public lands for private gain.

Having had no experience in public life, being unfamiliar with parliamentary usage, the writer experienced something similar to the feelings of the boj^ who first starts to school, scarce knowing how, or what to do to fill his responsible position with honor or credit. He realized that much was expected of him, that it was essential that something be done to aid the settler and thwart the efforts being made to turn the lands of his county over to speculators.

In his dilemma, he was advised by B. J. Pengra, of Springfield (an uncle by marriage) to lay his case before Judge J. M. Thompson, who was one of the representatives from Lane County and had been Speaker of the House two years before, when he made an enviable record as an honest efficient representative and a fearless exponent of right, and an untiring foe of wrong, whether of Republican or Democratic parentage.

As presiding officer of the Democratic House of the former session, he had incurred the enmity of the major portion of his party by probing and exposing some of the dishonesty of a former Democratic administration. At the last election he was elected by Republican votes, his own party being desirous to punish him by defeating him in the election.

Having a letter of introduction to Judge Thompson, from my uncle, I soon interested him in the cause of the settlers, and he promised to aid me in preparing a suitable measure, to be put before the house, for their protection.

The preliminary skirmishing to organize the house developed the fact that the main issue engaging the members was that of the building of a state insane asylum at Salem.

The insane of the state had heretofore been cared for in a private asylum in East Portland, by Dr. Hawthorne, and had occasioned much comment and strife with regard to its management, and as its maintenance cost many thou- sands of dollars, and was very profitable to the community where situated both from a pecuniary and political standpoint, the people of Portland and its nearby counties desired to retain it, while the southern, or as called, the "Cow Counties" wished to place the care and control of the insane in a state building and at the state capital. Hence the legislative organization was more of a sectional than political strife, the Democrats being hopelessly outnumbered. Candidates for Speaker were J. P. Schooling and Z. F. Moody of AVaseo, and the latter having the united support of the "Cow Counties" and Eastern Oregon, was victorious and the asylum fight was on. Believing that the Speaker was fully informed as to why I was sent there to represent a Democratic county, as well as being ignorant of the custom of