Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/248

Rh Times are hard and the compensation of labor is falling, but the expenses of the government are increased on every hand, and taxes are constantly becoming more burdensome. Where will it all end?

Mr. Fisher did not live to get a look at a national budget of the 1930's.

One of Mr. Fisher's interesting departures while in charge of the Review in 1894 (it was then a semi-weekly) was to sell space in the paper to the Populists, in which they could express them selves in any way they wished in "America's Greatest Country Newspaper," as he was calling the Review. In the issue of June 11, 1894, he was busy explaining to indignant Populists that the proposed charge for a Populist column was not a discrimination but that he would have charged the Republican or the Democratic county central committee twice as much because the Populists "had no paper in the country, and we like to see fair play in politics as well as in everything else." "The Review," he said, "claims no dis tinction as a political organ, but it does claim to be a newspaper, and one of the best in the state, too." He finally leased a column to the Populists, who ran the People's Party county ticket and some editorials favoring fiat money, etc. At the head the editor disclaimed for the Review all responsibility for anything in the column. It was continued through the campaign, filled with Populist doctrine. One day (April 19) a fictional conversation appeared:

""Poor Smith, I see the sheriff has closed him out at last."

. ..

"Pa, this is a bankers' panic, aided and abetted by such men as Cleveland, Sherman, Voorhees, Hoar & Company. It is another step toward serfdom for the masses.""

Mr. Fisher continued as managing editor of the Review until February 5. 1901, with the paper firmly established since March 1, 1898, as a daily except Sunday publication, the only one then in Oregon south of Eugene. It was a five-column tabloid, about half advertising, 2 columns of advertising on the left side of the front page. Typographically it was a neat paper. He had not been get ting along well with the Plaindealer editor, but that had nothing to do with his departure. He left for Boise, Idaho, where he was a founder and the first editor of the Capital News. In his valedictory he said, in part:

"To my friends in Douglas county I say farewell and will ever treasure and value their friendship. To my enemies, and they are a necessary result of fearless, out-spoken journalism, I also bid good-bye and call accounts settled."