Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/141

132 Spectator made its editorial bow—was Harvey Whitefield Scott. Scott was. . . a voracious absorber and consumer of all other men's thoughts, writings, and works. He was equipped by nature to do a great work. He read all history, poetry, commentary, and philosophy, embodied it in his own mental resources and freely gave it out, modified to suit the hour and promote his own purpose. [Which appears to be a good working definition of a true journalist.]

Positive, impatient, energetic, indefatigable, and aggressive, he pushed his ideas of political economy, social responsibility and public policy with a vigor and ability which has given the Oregonian (22) all the reputation it has;—and that is nationwide, and equal to any other newspaper in the 48 states of the union. . . . His service as an educator (against the free coinage of silver and issues of legal tender currency) was the great achievement of his career.

H. K. Hines, another Oregon historian, wrote in similar vein (23). Noting the beginning of Scott's education at Pacific University, Hines said that he had reared on it "a superstructure of culture and erudition that in breadth and strength has no superior, if it has an equal, on the Northwest coast. The qualities of Mr. Scott's mind are capaciousness, strength, and clearness. . . . The logical faculty dominates his thinking. . . . Men who think profoundly and deeply always questions their own opinions if they find them counter to his. Still Mr. Scott is not what is called a brilliant man. He is not an orator. His speech is . . . even hesitating. . ..

"Mr. Scott is an independent journalist."

In the opinion of Alfred Holman (24) Scott's literary style lost something by his exclusion of the light touch, the "whimsical slang" which lent color to his conversation. The scholar in him was dominant; he was scrupulous of his phrasing, and his passion for exactness of statement reduced, for the average reader, the attractiveness of what he wrote.

For Mr. Scott the purpose of writing was to express thought; his phrase "feeble elegance" Mr. Holman says was used with reference to "easy, graceful, purposeless work."

The work of selecting, years afterward, the editorials written by Scott was complicated somewhat, perhaps, by the versatility of an Oregonian columnist and editorial writer in the early years of the twentieth century—Wexford Jones, a clever writer who, on some subjects, old-timers say, was able to imitate the Scott style so closely as to deceive almost anyone but Scott himself.

"Solidity" is perhaps the word to apply to Mr. Scott's writing. Oddly enough, when thinking out an expression, he would write again and again on another sheet of paper this word "solidity". Mr.