Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/188

Rh Under the ownership of the Wheelers, Paul Chamberlin was managing editor until called to the St. Louis Star in 1919. He was succeeded by Richard D. Cannon and W. T. Stott, formerly of the Chicago Tribune. Among their news editors were Herbert J. Campbell and William Raymond. Mr. Campbell was largely an Oregonian product, though he had had varied experience in Seattle, Baker, and other cities before going over to the Telegram. Mr. Raymond had broadened his experience in Seattle, San Francisco, and other Coast cities.

Managing editor during the last years of the Wheeler ownership was O. Clarke Leiter, former city editor of the Oregonian and publisher of the La Grande Evening Observer, and now professor of journalism in the University of Illinois.

The final regime of the Telegram (1927-31) was that of C. H. Brockhagen, former Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco newspaper man, former manager for Cornelius Vanderbilt tabloids. Mr. Brockhagen as publisher installed Lester F. Adams, Medford native, formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle, as managing editor.

Adams was clever, and he had a capable staff, until the financial pinch began to cut it down. City editors under him were Dean Collins, versatile journalist, and John W. Anderson, later capable managing editor of the Eugene News. Early reporters are noted elsewhere in this volume. (47).

An early editor of the Telegram was Mrs. Catharine Amanda Scott Coburn, younger sister of Harvey W. Scott. She directed the editorial page from 1883 to 1888, when she went over to the Oregonian, to spend a quarter of a century there as associate editor.

She went on the paper in that capacity in her 49th year, and remained in the position for nearly three years after the death of her brother. She died in Portland May 28, 1913.

Mrs. Coburn, like her sister, Abigail Scott Duniway, with whom she was for a time associated on the New Northwest, was a gifted writer. She was, in fact, longer active in the profession of journalism than her better known and more versatile sister. Her writing was smooth and pleasant. With her brother and the other men on the paper supplying the strength, sometimes the hardness, she added a graceful touch to the page. There is not space here to prove this by extensive quotation; but take, for instance, this excerpt from an editorial written for the Oregonian July 16, 1905, on the occasion of Joaquin Miller day at the Lewis and Clark fair as an example of what her style could be when the subject justified:

"The songs of a lyric poet," she wrote at the beginning of an editorial nearly a column long, "record the moments when his life, after hours or days of smoldering, breaks into clear flame. The long stretches of existence for all men are a moving slumber; the senses are dull; the passions sleep.