From here, a century later, the best part of legislative news coverage in the 1920s are the caricatures drawn by Murray Wade, whose versions for 1923 the afternoon paper rolled out gradually, publishing a group of six every few days.
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| Murray Wade's caricatures of legislators January 25th, 1923 |
This is the second one, with some transportation themes, an orator with airs, and Senator Kinney. There are surely other subtle digs and celebrations, not all of them apparent to us now.
After the campaign and election in 1922, and all the criticism of the Klan from the afternoon paper, I was expecting to see more of that in the news - and these cartoons - in January and now starting February of 1923.
But the papers haven't highlighted the Klan or connections to Klan associated legislation at the Legislature as the session has got going. The local coverage really falls off a cliff. They publish steadily about trials and attacks elsewhere, but not very much about activity in Salem and at the State House.
The morning paper had not been very passionate about criticizing the Klan the previous year, so the lack of coverage in 1923 might not be so surprising.
But the quiet in the afternoon paper was surprising. One reason might be that even though George Putnam, its publisher, has been lauded for his anti-Klan stance and investigations, he actually shared good part of their bias. He did not, in the end, stand that far outside of popular norms and culture, and he had newspapers to sell. At the moment, I see him more in continuity with the nativist and reactionary culture than standing against it. He opposed the mode and style of the Klan, but not so consistently its policy aims.
For example, he wrote positive editorials about eugenics bills and explicitly racialized them. Here is one of them.
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| Editorial, afternoon paper, February 1st, 1923 |
And he did not appear to write criticism of the school bills that focused on "inculcating patriotism," fighting socialism and Bolshevism, and forbidding "slighting references to American patriots."
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| February 5th, 1923 |
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| February 6th, 1923 |
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| via Twitter |
The Klan-backed compulsory education initiative that was passed by voters in 1922 has got most of the attention.
- "'Mixing the Devil's Broth': The KKK and the Compulsory Education Act of 1922"
- On the case that overturned it, "Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)"
Putnam had written many editorials against it.
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| October 26th and November 6th, 1922 |
But as Putnam weighed in on the policy debates at the Legislature in 1923, his concern from 1922 about "a demagogue who is in sinister alliance with secret society spoilmen" seemed to modulate, and it turned out he was more worried about the secret society and the spoils system itself than the policy measures for which they advocated.
When the Legislature of 1923 took its cues from the school ballot measure, they worked on more. Senator Eddy, from the Roseburg area, had more than one bill for "patriotic" and anti-socialist education.
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| Senator Eddy of Roseburg - Oregon Historical Society |
These new bills and laws did not seem to bother Putnam for whatever reason. It was style more than substance he criticized.
As we work our way in 1923 up to the November 10th Klan parade and granting of the charter to the Salem chapter of the Klan, we'll be following the afternoon papers coverage and posture. But so far there hasn't been much to say.
Here's a small note in the afternoon paper on the man who would preach at that November 10th parade and ceremony at the Fairgrounds.
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| February 2nd, 1923 |
See previously here:
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