100 years ago

Members of congress and other officials at Washington have awakened to the fact credit legislation is not sufficient to restore agriculture and that something must be done to allow the farmer to make a profit was stated in a talk before the Rotary club today by W. L. Thompson who recently returned from a trip east.

Mr. Thompson pictured conditions in the east as improved over last year but he expressed uneasiness over the farm situation and pointed out that 46 per cent of the buying power of the country rests with agriculture. He said that it is realized at Washington that some steps must be taken to help in restoring Europe and that the idea at present is to mediate through a commission on financiers, independent of politics.

In regard to the tariff Mr. Thompson declared that since the enactment of the Fordney-McCumber law the price of wool has advanced in Europe. He presented that fact as refutation of the view that the tariff has been responsible for American farmers to sell their surplus abroad at good figures.

50 years ago

Umatilla County has discovered it has several more county roads than had been thought.

They include most of the frontage roads along Interstate 80 North from Morrow County line to Pendleton.

Owners of property along some of the roads, who had asked for county crews to maintain the roads, had been told in the past that these were not county roads.

But, Commissioner Raymond Bevans said today, a document has been found in the files from 1965 in which the then-county court agreed to take over these frontage roads, when the State Highway Division placed them in conditions that would meet county road standards.

This has now been done, the Highway Division told the county.

Bevans said he was puzzled by the state documents on the matter and renewed a search of the old files.

The agreements with the state now are being placed on formal record in the county court journal.

25 years ago

Marc Rogelstad was confident at the end of his first week as Chief of the Boardman Rural Fire Protection District.

He came on board just in time to formally create one taxing district out of Boardman and the rural district. Rogelstad also will lead Boardman in developing a long range emergency plan, which must account for the nearby chemical weapons depot.

The 14-year veteran of fire service did not appear daunted, however. With the slightest of smiles, Rogelstad folded his arms and admitted that he likes a challenge.

“That’s part of why I came here,” he said.

Those were words that Assistant Chief Bill Ellis was pleased to hear. Rogelstad’s Jan. 5 arrival was a relief to the man who had been volunteering as the interim chief for six months.