Page:The Name of William M. Tugman Added to Honor Roll.djvu/6

 A final editorial on that school crisis followed the election by the school board of H. R. Goold of Renton, Washington, as city superintendent with authority over both the financial management and the educational policy, theretofore divided between the superintendent and the clerk of the schools. The board's action was commended in a comprehensive editorial, the closing paragraph of which summed up the situation:

"In the gradual elimination of one item of expense alone—the $9000 a year we have been frittering away on interest on operating debts for the mere lack of any modern financing plan—there is an opportunity for Mr. Goold to save much more than his increased pay. There are many other loose ends. It's now up to Mr. Goold and the board. We believe the people of Eugene are tired of political operation of the schools and that they will insist that the new system be given fair play."

Meanwhile the Guard was laying the foundations for its years of work on promotion of city planning, city manager administration, pay-as-you-go city financing. These have been uphill fights, with progress impeded by public inertia, by the strength of the opposition, and by interruptions occasioned by numerous battles for matters of more immediate urgency, though less ultimate importance.

An early editorial on city planning, June 22, 1929, put the matter concretely:

"A great many now living will see the day when the business district of Eugene will cover twice its present area, but our organizational slowness in development emphasizes repeatedly the need for systematic city planning. Nothing can stop a good town, but some expensive mistakes can and should be avoided by getting down to business on planning. We talk about pulp mills and rayon industries. Just where would we put a rayon plant so that the destruction of property by its sulphur smoke would not offset its value to the community? Without a plan we are about to find ourselves with some kind of developments plunked down without regard to community welfare."

All this is background for the work which Mr. Tugman was doing continuously through the years and which in 1943 attracted the attention of the committee making the Voorhies award for outstanding public service as an editor.

Space does not permit of a consideration of the many public issues on which Mr. Tugman gave his home city leadership, through the depression and in the pre-war years when the lowering cloud of war was casting a dark shadow over the nation.