Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/198

Rh field, occupied by the Morning Oregonian and the Evening Telegram.

Anyhow, July 23, 1902, this "Newspaper for all of the People" became the property of Mr. Jackson; it was an opportunity, and that was about all.

But the young Virginian was a born newspaper man, and the opportunity was all he needed. He changed the name to the Oregon Journal, thereby giving some basis to the statement that he founded the paper, which he brought back from the jaws of death.

The list of the original stockholders in the Journal company indicates that Jackson had convinced some pretty substantial people the new paper under his inspired leadership could succeed where so many others had failed—the Daily Bee, the Bulletin, the Standard, the Dispatch, the Northwest News, and others. Stockholders were J. N. Teal, R. T. Cox, J. C. Ainsworth, Walter F. Burrell, Leo Friede, I. N. Fleischner, Dr. A. J. Giesy, William M. Ladd, L. Allen Lewis, A. L. Mills, George W. Bates Jr., Raymond B. Wilcox. It needs no intimate knowledge of Portland to recognize that here were a good many of Portlands key people, support from whom gave the new paper a flying start after the change of ownership. The paper, however, didn't start right in making money. There was, in fact, a deficit for years (52).

In letters to B. F. Irvine, who many years later was to become editor of the Journal, Mr. Jackson outlined the philosophy behind the Journal's policy:

"The strong need no defender; the weak do. The powerful have many newspaper supporters; the poor have few. Wealth is able to take care of itself; poverty is not and needs help.

"If the time ever comes when the Journal cannot be free and fearless and independent, I will throw it into the river," was his frequent remark (53)."

Boycotts and threatened boycotts failed to affect his policy.

He made no outside investments that could influence his news paper's attitudes. On one occasion, said Mr. Irvine (54), when asked to invest in a canning factory with the prospect of large profits, he wrote:

"I don't care to make investments in a canning factory, even if I had the money, particularly so in one that promises such large returns as 50 per cent without my contributing any work or thought in making such profits. Such proposals lead reasonably good people, particularly women and heirs with money, to expect too much for doing nothing, and that is unmoral."