UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (OREGON.) 



789 



accessories, and $50,000 for maintenance. Dredg- 

 ing at various shoal places was the only work 

 done in the year. The channel depth between 

 Portland and Astoria has been increased 5 feet, 

 with good navigable width. The maximum draft 

 that could be carried on June 30, 1902, at mean 

 low-water over the shallowest part of the river 

 was about 19 feet. 



The Navigation Committee of the Chamber of 

 Commerce of Portland reported in January the 

 unsatisfactory condition of the pilot and towage 

 service at the mouth of Columbia river. The 

 pilotage is all done by 9 men, who pool their 

 earnings and control a pilot schooner, which they 

 monopolize. They pay 10 per cent, of the pool's 

 earnings to the Oregon Railroad and Navigation 

 Company for transportation. The rate on all 

 tonnage that passes the bar, whether piloted or 

 not, is compulsory and is fixed by law. The 

 chamber asserts that the inefficiency of the serv- 

 ice would be corrected by competition, and rec- 

 ommends that the pilot commissioners grant li- 

 censes to all applicants who prove themselves 

 competent, and also appoint a competent man 

 to act as superintendent of pilots. 



Fire and Frost. Destructive forest fires oc- 

 curred in September in Oregon and Washington, 

 involving a total loss of $12,767,100 as estimated 

 by a field agent of the United States Bureau of 

 Forestry. Of this amount, $3,910,000 was sus- 

 tained by Oregon. The estimate includes the 

 value of timber, farm property, and sawmills 

 and their products which were destroyed. Eighty- 

 six families were made homeless and 200 others 

 suffered partial losses. Farm property worth 

 $315,000 and sawmills aggregating $149,000 were 

 burned. The burned area covered 170,000 acres, 

 and 2,124,000 feet of standing timber was de- 

 stroyed. Unextinguished camp-fires of berry- 

 pickers and hunters, the careless burning of slash- 

 ings, and in one instance the sparks from a loco- 

 motive, were the causes. The Cascade forest 

 reserve, which is patrolled by rangers, escaped 

 damage. 



Severe frosts occurred in February, with im- 

 mense damage to winter wheat. Umatilla Coun- 

 ty suffered to the extent of 100,000 acres killed, 

 necessitating reseeding. 



Legal Decisions. In a suit to restrain public 

 officers from collecting interest as part of a claim 

 against a suspended bank where public funds had 

 been deposited, the Supreme Court ruled that it 

 is a felony for a public officer to loan public 

 funds, with or without interest, but this does not 

 inhibit a mere deposit in a bank for safe-keeping, 

 the money being at all times subject to order. 

 Where funds so deposited are lost by the failure 

 of the bank, the claim against the bank becomes 

 a personal one when the officer makes the loss 

 good from his personal funds, and until this is 

 made good the claimant has no right to interest. 



State Fair. The fair of 1902 was the most 

 successful on record of these exhibitions, pro- 

 moting the live-stock industry as well as other 

 agricultural work. The receipts were $29,240.56; 

 the disbursements, $26,282.79 ; leaving a net profit 

 of $2,957.77. After paying $1,530.54 for improve- 

 ments and $1,086.43 on old outstanding warrants, 

 the treasury had $393.60. 



Scalp Bounty. Between March, 1901, and 

 June, 1902, the appropriation of $50,000 by the 

 Legislature of 1901 for the payment of coyote- 

 scalp bounties was exhausted, and additional 

 claims to the amount of $13,965 were audited 

 and allowed. At the present rate, the bounty law 

 will cost the State $117,197 in two years. The 

 law requires the counties to pay one-third of the 



bounty; but Baker County decided to discon- 

 tinue the payment of the bounty on the ground 

 that the destruction of the coyote removes the 

 deadly enemy of the jack-rabbit, whose ravages 

 to crops are worse than those of the coyote. 



Public Lands. In the first nine months of 

 1902 the receipts from payments on State lands 

 amounted to $264,636.21. Of this amount, $240,- 

 937.85 resulted from the sale of school lands 

 alone; the remaining $23,698.36 was received 

 from sales of land taken on foreclosure of mort- 

 gage loans from the school fund. Nearly all the 

 school land disposed of is sold on the instalment 

 plan, one-fifth of the purchase price being paid 

 down, the remainder drawing interest at the rate 

 of 6 to 8 per cent. 



Two classes of public land exist in Oregon 

 Government land and State land. Government 

 land is further classified as agricultural, timber, 

 desert, or mineral, with specific terms for the 

 acquisition of each; State land, though similar 

 to the Government land, is acquired at the uni- 

 form rate of $1.25 an acre. 



About 6,000 square miles in the Strawberry and 

 Blue mountain regions of eastern Oregon have 

 been temporarily withdrawn from settlement or 

 entry of all public lands, with a view to their 

 ultimate creation into a forest reserve. This ac- 

 tion is taken not only to preserve the timber, but 

 to secure an adequate water-storage and con- 

 servation in view of the increasing number of 

 irrigation projects. 



Indians. The' Indian appropriation bill 

 passed by Congress in February contained $104,- 

 650 for the school at Chemawa, of which $91,850 

 goes to the support of the 550 pupils, $1,800 for 

 the superintendent's salary, $6,000 for sewerage, 

 and $5,000 for general repairs. 



The Indians of the Umatilla reservation refused 

 to obey the orders of Indian Commissioner Jones 

 that they should cut off their long hair and lay 

 aside their brilliant blankets for the clothes of 

 the whites, looking upon the order as an infringe- 

 ment of their legal rights. They cite the case of 

 an Indian who a few years ago recovered $200 

 damages for the loss of his hair, cut by order of 

 the Court of Indian Offenses, as a penalty for 

 drunkenness. 



Labor Day. The first Labor Day proclama- 

 tion in the history of Oregon was issued by Gov. 

 Geer, Aug. 13. 



Political. The election of State officers in 

 June resulted in a Republican victory for all 

 nominees but that of Governor. In this case, 

 George E. Chamberlain, the choice of the Demo- 

 crats, won by a narrow majority. The other 

 officers elected are as follow: Supreme Judge, 

 Robert E. Bean; Secretary of State, Frank I. 

 Dunbar; State Treasurer, Charles S. Moore; Su- 

 perintendent of Public Instruction, J. H. Acker- 

 man; Attorney-General, A. M. Crawford; State 

 Printer, J. W. Whitney; Representatives to Con- 

 gress, Thomas H. Tongue and J. N. Williamson. 



The vote on a proposed amendment to the State 

 Constitution, providing for the initiative and ref- 

 erendum, was carried by a vote of 62,024 in favor 

 to 5,668 opposed. 



The platform adopted by the Republicans at 

 their convention, April 2, contains the following 

 planks: A demand and insistence upon the pas- 

 sage by Congress of the Mitchell-Kahn Chinese 

 exclusion bill; a recognition of the right of labor 

 to organize and combine for mutual protection 

 under the law, and a recommendation that the 

 Legislature enact all necessary legislation to pro- 

 tect labor in all its rights and privileges, with a 

 further recommendation that Congress create a 



