High taxes and debt aroused statewide clamor when the depression struck the land. In line with its consistent policy under the present editorial direction the Guard urged, before the 1933 legislature, that borrowing by city, county, or school district be prohibited except in case of disaster or emergency and that instead of being prohibited from carrying cash reserves for improvements and replacements such municipal bodies be required to establish and maintain such reserves under constant audit. Such action was taken by succeeding legislatures, and Oregon became the first of the states to pass such laws, and Eugene one of the first cities, if not the first, to begin voting cash levies for permanent improvements.
A mere listing of topics of Register-Guard[1] local editorials during the year 1943, for which the Voorhies award was made, will give an idea of the range of this Eugene editor's interests and influence in his local field. No doubt, also, his work has served as inspiration and example to other editors who can not have failed to notice the intelligence, the information, the public spirit which have built the influence of this editorial page. This, of course, omits all the national and world-scene editorials which do not enter heavily into the committee's judgment in making the award.
Mr. Tugman's passion for home-rule by home people as against outside control has been accompanied by a recognition that, largely, his editorial job was a home-field job. In his ad dress to the state convention of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association last June he expressed his position thus:
We can add a mite now and then to the weight of world opinion, but it seems to me the best opportunity to justify our claims to leadership is right here at home where we live and work, making our small sector of democracy efficient, intelligent, self-reliant, tolerant. We have only begun to fight.
Perusal of the Register-Guard editorials reveals this consist ency of emphasis on city and county affairs-the home government. This has been true not only in the year for which Mr. Tugman received the publishers' recognition but for the whole seventeen years of his editorship.
Very likely this attitude springs in part from his experience
- ↑ Register and Guard consolidated in 1931.
