Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/103

94 The Vox was a small sheet, of four pages, about 9/½×13 inches, such as in the early days one would "kick off" on a job press one page at a time. Usually it was in a three-column format with columns 17 ems (almost three inches) wide. The first issue, however, had its first and fourth pages made up in two-column form, with columns 24 ems (four inches) wide. These two pages were taken up with a memorial to Congress, passed by the Salem legislature, complaining bitterly of the conduct of the governor and two of the three territorial judges, who were still at Oregon City. This memorial, which came from a joint committee of the legislative house and council, headed by Matthew P. Deady of Lafayette, was signed by Deady. It is a long document (80) but very easy reading, in Deady's well-known effective style. The inside pages were given to brief reports of the legislative proceedings at Salem, and more than a column (about a thousand words) to a verbatim report of a debate in the house on a bill to "organize Jackson county" and to "establish a probate common law court there."

The paper carried considerable advertising from Salem business houses. The typography was neat and correct. The writing, if not Bush's, was done by someone equally well schooled in the old "Oregon style" of vituperative journalism.

S. J. McCormick, who has a number of firsts to his credit in Oregon journalism, was early on the scene with the four-page, fourcolumn semi-weekly Portland Commercial, the first publication devoted particularly to business interests in Oregon. The first issue appeared March 24, 1853, saying in its salutatory:

"The time has come when the interests of our merchants, mechanics, and traders require that an organ devoted solely to their service be established."

In the masthead appeared one of the earliest western blurbs for advertising, which read as follows:

"Advertisement is the flywheel of business, acting upon trade as steam does on machinery."

The contents of the publication failed to justify the title, for its contents were not markedly different from those of other Portland papers. The first page was filled with general miscellany and only two local items-one on the disappearance of small-pox from the community and the other on the need for a fire department. A halfcolumn editorial felicitated the people of Portland on the adoption of a city charter. McCormick promised his readers the paper would grow, perhaps become a daily.

When the name was changed, six months later, to the Portland Commercial and General Advertiser, the little paper appeared with 12 of its 16 columns filled with advertising matter, which covered