Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/688

 of the unfortunate ventures that preceded it. There have been other efforts of like kind, vigorous, yet unsuccessful needless to recount here. These statements are presented as part of the history of The Oregonian, since they tend to show that it does not owe its position and success to absence of competition, or to the fortune of opportunity, but to vigilance, management and hard work.

Of the editorial management of The Oregonian after Mr. Dryer's time, it now remains to speak. During some months there was no regular editor. Mr. Pittock got work done as he could, and superintended it himself. In 1861 Simeon Francis, who had long published the Springfield, Ill., Journal, came to Oregon and took the editorship of The Oregonian.

His successor was Amory Holbrook, an able man, but an irregular worker, who held the position about two years. After him, John F. Damon, now of Seattle, and Samuel A. Clark of Salem, were editors, successively. In May, 1865, Mr. Clark resigned and Harvey W. Scott, succeeded him. Mr. Scott had come to Oregon in his early boyhood and educated himself against great difficulties and was glad of an opportunity to show his willingness to work. In his hands continuous and laborious editorial work upon The Oregonian, by one who had no thought beyond doing his best and his utmost for the paper, began.

With the exception of the interval between October, 1872, and April, 1877, The Oregonian has ever been under the editorial direction of Mr. Scott. During that interval the editor was W. Lair Hill, an able lawyer, well known throughout the northwest, and now a resident of Oakland, California. Mr. Hill came into the paper in consequence of a partial change in the proprietorship; Mr. Pittock had sold to Hon. H. W. Corbett and others, including Mr. Hill, a controlling interest in the paper, but Mr. Pittock retained the business management. In March, 1877, Mr. Scott bought the interest that had been sold to Mr. Corbett, and Mr. Pittock and Mr. Scott together bought the shares that had been sold to the others, and Mr. Scott resumed editorial charge. Since then The Oregonian, as knowTi today, has been created.

When the daily Oregonian was started by Mr. Pittock there were three other daily papers already in the field. There were the Commercial Advertiser, which had been published more than one year; The Daily News for some months, and The Daily Times, just started. There was no telegraph in Oregon or the northwest. Exciting as the times were—for it was just at the beginning of the Civil war—news was unobtainable till long after the events of the day; and it was not possible to tell when steamers would arrive from San Francisco, or later, when the stage coaches would get through the seas of mud and mountains of snow between Sacramento and Portland. But vigilance then was a prime factor, even as it is now, and even more so ; and the ceaseless vigilance and industry that directed The Oregonian in those days and after days made the newspaper.

Besides the hopeful attempts to start newspapers mentioned above there were many others quite as hopeful on the part of their projectors, yet not costing so much money. In about 1868 one M. P. Bull, an earnest, hustling young fellow, launched the first attempt of an evening paper, and called it The Daily Evening Commercial. Bull had very little money to start with and no backers that cared for his paper; although Captain Ainsworth, and probably others, who admired the pluck and energy of the man, did help him in a friendly and wholly gratuitous way. Bull kept the Comercial afloat for about eighteen months, and then had to drop everything for want of print paper that cost hard cash.

The next adventure in a daily evening paper was made by Don Steams, a wide- awake young man from Omaha. Stearns had some experience on newspaper