Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/379

Rh during the Civil War period, and also W. Lair Hill, with whom all lawyers of Oregon and Washington are familiar personally or by reputation. He was the author of the well-known code of this state bearing his name, and for a considerable period a resident of Seattle.

The fifth was the Weekly Oregonian and the only one of all the newspapers of Oregon and Washington appearing prior to 1860 to survive with its original name and without periodical suspensions.

The Oregonian had to struggle for existence during all its early years. Rivals unnumbered went to the newspaper graveyard during the succeeding quarter century. It is a conservative estimate to place the aggregate at a $1,000,000 sunk during that period by ambitious printers, dissatisfied politicians, and by corporations who could not control its editorials, in the various attempts to break the Oregonian down. The most notable contest was between the Oregonian and the Bulletin, when Ben. Holladay was the great magnate in railroad and steamship affairs of the Northwest. He established, about 1872, a first-class newspaper and job printing office that cost not less than $50,000. He employed the best newspaper talent he could secure, and the Bulletin at once became a dangerous rival for the Oregonian, which had to depend solely on its own resources for its support, while the weekly deficit in the Bulletin office was made good by a check from Ben. Holladay.

The Oregonian had at that time about seven thousand subscribers at $3 per year to its weekly paper, while the Bulletin had only a few hundred. The Weekly Oregonian saved the day, and the Bulletin died the death. Its backer is reputed to have sunk not less than $100,000. This left the Oregonian master of the field, and it became the overshadowing journalistic power of the Northwest until the