The Mt. Adams Sun, Bingen, WA., February 8, 1962, page 4
OLD EDITORIALS NEVER DIE
"The main cause why the people of the West End of Klickitat
County ask for county division is the inconvenience of getting to Goldendale.
Bingen is the only logical location for the new county seat.
"It is prophesied by some that Bingen and White Salmon
will ultimately be one town and therefore it will make no difference with
the court house is located. (But) if now located at Bingen it will be a quarter
of a mile from the Depot; if at White Salmon, it will not be less than two
and one half from the Depot."
Before anyone in Goldendale has apoplexy or organizes
a lynching party, we hasten to explain that the above proposal is quoted
verbatim from an editorial in The Bingen Observer, published fifty years
ago on October 18, 1912.
The editor of The Bingen Observer was one J.E. Wolfe.
We do not know what happened to him. Old editors never die. They either dry
up or switch from ink to drink and lose their press.
When Editor Wolfe took over the four-year-old Observer,
he announced his purpose "To make The Observer the best country newspaper
in all this region. It will toady to no party or partisan; will not play
lick-spittle to any man or body of men; but will seek to honor God in all
our ways.
"We have no use at all for grafters, shyster lawyers,
political tricksters, or molly-coddle professors of religion. Hell is sure
to have a large population made up of that kind of materials, and in all
probability this section of the great State of Washington will furnish its
full quota," Mr. Wolfe wrote.
In order that no one in White Salmon would miss the point,
Editor Wolfe waxed more specific.
"Too much White Salmon is not in good taste. Some folks
up on the hill would like to have a White Salmon trademark on everything
almost: White Salmon County, White Salmon Depot, White Salmon City, White
Salmon River, etc.. It is too fishy in sound and smell to take well but the
majority of the people.
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© Jeffrey L. Elmer