Medford, April 27.--A statewide historical essay contest open to all high school pupils 20 years old or younger has been announced for Oregon's Diamond Jubilee celebration next June 3 to 9 in Medford. Essay are not to contain over 1000 words or less than 500 words and must arrive in Medford by May 20. There will be a first prize of $25 in cash, a second prize of $10, three $5 awards and five $2 awards. The title of the essay is to be chosen by the contest entrants and may be written around any historical event or personage having connection with the admission of Oregon into the Union. Awards will be made on the basis of neatness, spelling, grammar, composition and clarity of diction. The essays may be handwritten or typed on regular commercial-sized paper and must not have the names of the writers attached.
    A band contest will be one of the features of the celebration. Invitations have been extended to quite a number of bands, with the response so far especially gratifying. Cash awards will be paid to the winning bands. The committee in charge has announced [that] preparatory details for the contest are being rapidly completed.
    Rabbit breeders of Oregon and California have been invited to make entries in the jubilee rabbit show. Cash prizes will be awarded to winning entries.
    The first child born in Jacksonville, R. C. Armstrong of Grants Pass, will take an active part in the celebration. Armstrong was born the early part of 1853, when gold lured thousands to Southern Oregon. The second white child born in Jacksonville, John Griffin of Medford, will also take an active part in the celebration and will appear in the pioneer parade.
    Agriculture, and the important part it played in early Oregon history, will be stressed on Friday, June 5, of the celebration. Definite assurances have been received from Washington, D.C., that Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace will be in attendance. Secretary Wallace, one of the key men of the administration, will deliver the address of the day in Medford and has announced that he has a message of particular interest to agriculturists and to residents of the state as well. An agricultural parade, with entries open to all communities of the state, will also be featured that day, as well as a picnic basket lunch in the city park.
Oregon Journal, Portland, April 29, 1934, page 6


    NEW YORK, May 8.--(AP)--Differences of opinion in selecting the 1933 Pulitzer prize winners in history, as well as in drama and the novel, were disclosed today with the formal announcement of the full list of awards.
    In journalism, award for the most disinterested and meritorious public service rendered by an American newspaper during 1933 went to the Medford (Ore.) Mail Tribune for its campaign against unscrupulous politicians in Jackson County, Oregon. The prize is a $500 gold medal.
    The advisory board of the Columbia School of Journalism named "The People's Choice," by Herbert Agar, for the history prize; "Lamb in His Bosom," by Caroline Miller of Baxley, Ga., for the novel prize, and "Men in White," by Sidney Kingsley as the best American play.
    At the same time it was officially announced that the drama and history jurors had recommended other works to the advisory board.
    The differences over the selection of "Lamb in His Bosom" were explained by the jury with the assertion that it had submitted two titles: Mrs. Miller's book and "A Watch in the Night," by Helen C. White.
    Taking cognizance of a controversy stirred up by premature publication of the drama award, Columbia University made known that two of the three history jurors had voted for "Over Here," the fifth volume in the "Our Time" series by Mark Sullivan, while a third juror recommended no award be made. Likewise, it was revealed that the three drama jurors had unanimously recommended "Mary of Scotland," by Maxwell Anderson, as the best American play.
    The Columbia statements said that the drama and history jurors "have always understood that they were retained in an advisory capacity, and consequently they do not question the right of the advisory board to exercise its own judgment in making the award," but that in fairness to themselves they desired the public to know the recommendations made to the board.
    Awards of the Pulitzer prizes and traveling scholarships at commencement of 1934, as made by the trustees of Columbia University on the recommendation of the advisory board of the School of Journalism, May 7, were as follows:
A. Prizes in Journalism:
    1. For the most disinterested and meritorious public service rendered by an American newspaper during the year, a gold medal costing $500.
    Awarded to the Medford (Oregon) Mail Tribune for its campaign against unscrupulous politicians in Jackson County, Oregon.
    2. For distinguished service as a foreign or Washington correspondent during the year, the test being clearness and terseness of style, preference being given to fair, judicious, well-balanced and well-informed interpretative writing, which shall make clear the significance of the subject covered in the correspondence or which shall promote international understanding and appreciation, five hundred dollars ($500).
    Awarded to Frederick T. Birchall of the New York Times for his correspondence from Europe.
    Honorable mention:
    To John E. Elliott of the New York Herald-Tribune for his correspondence from Germany.
    To Harry Carr of the Los Angeles Times for his series of dispatches from Australia, Japan, China, and Philippines and Europe.
    3. For distinguished editorial writing during the year, limited to the editorial page, the test of excellence being clearness of style, moral purpose, sound reasoning and power to influence public opinion in what the writer conceives to be the right direction, due, account being taken of the whole volume of the writer's editorial work during the year, five hundred dollars ($500).
    Awarded to "Where Is Our Money?" by E. P. Chase, published in the Atlantic (Iowa) News Telegraph on December 2, 1933.
    Honorable mention:
    To "Why We Still Have Lynchings in the South," by Osborn Zuber, published in the Birmingham News on September 13, 1933.
    To "Strategic Gains" by Geoffrey Parsons, published in the New York Herald-Tribune on April 21, 1933.
    To "The Governor Sends Troops to Gallup" by E. H. Shaffer, published in the Albuquerque Tribune on August 31, 1933.
    To "The Freedom of the Press" by Casper S. Yost, published in the St. Louis Globe Democrat on November 2, 1933.
    To "Newspapers and the Code" by Douglas W. Swiggett, published in the Milwaukee Journal on July 25, 1933.
    To "Freedom of the Press" by an unknown writer, published in the New York American on October 9, 1933.
    To "Iowa's Disgrace" by James E. Lawrence, published in the Lincoln (Nebraska) Star on April 28, 1933.
    To "Some Aspects in the Administration's Program" by William R. Mathews, published in the Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona) on July 16, 1933.
    4. For distinguished example of a reporter's work during the year, the test being strict accuracy, terseness, the preference being given to articles that achieve the accomplishment of some public good commanding public attention and respect, one thousand dollars ($1,000).
    Awarded to Royce Brier of the San Francisco Chronicle for his account of the lynching of the kidnappers, John M. Holmes and Thomas H. Thurmond, published November 27, 1933.
    Honorable mention:
    To Eben A. Ayers, Andrew J. Clarke and Edward J. Kelley of the Boston bureau of the Associated Press, for their vigilance and accuracy in covering the kidnapping of Margaret McMath at Harwichport, Mass.
    To Edward J. Donohoe of the Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) for his able and convincing work in setting forth corruption in office on the part of members of the public school boards in Luzerne County.
    To H. Ellwood Douglass of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for his accounts of the epidemic of encephalitis in St. Louis.
    To Meigs O. Frost of the New Orleans Times-Picayune for his reporting of the case of Pearl Ledet, accused of causing a death in an automobile accident case.
    To Charles J. Truitt, correspondent of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, in covering the district of Ocean City and Salisbury, Maryland, after the severest storm in the history of the eastern shore had severed all communications.
    To Frederick Woltman of the New York World-Telegram for clear, exact and understanding writing in reporting the status of various closed banks in suburban areas of New York after the national bank holiday.
    5. For a distinguished example of a cartoonist's work during the year, the determining qualities being that the cartoon shall embody an idea made clearly apparent, shall show good drawing and striking pictorial effect, and shall be intended to be helpful to some commendable cause of public importance, due account being taken to the whole volume of the artist's newspaper work during the year, five hundred dollars ($500).
    Awarded to Edmund Duffy of the Baltimore Sun for the cartoon "California Points with Pride--!" published November 25, 1933.
B. Prizes in Letters:
    1. For the best novel published during the year by an American author, $1,000.
    Awarded to "Lamb in His Bosom," by Caroline Miller, published by Harper and Brothers, New York, 1933.
    2. For the original American play, performed in New York, which shall best represent the educational value and power of the stage, $1,000.
    Awarded to "Men in White," by Sidney Kingsley, produced at the Broadhurst Theater during the season 1933-34, published by Covici-Friede, Inc., New York, 1933
    3. For the best book of the year upon the history of the United States, $2,000.
    Awarded to "The People's Choice," by Herbert Agar, published by Houghton-Mifflin Company, Boston, 1933.
    4. For the best American biography teaching patriotic and unselfish services to the people, illustrated by an eminent example, excluding, as too obvious, the names of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, $1,000.
    Awarded to "John Hay," by Tyler Dennett, published by Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1933.
    5. For the best volume of verse published during the year by an American author, $1,000.
    Awarded to "Collected Verse," by Robert Hillyer, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1933.
C. Traveling Scholarships:
    1. Three traveling scholarships, having the value of $1,500 each, to graduates of the School of Journalism, who shall have passed their examinations with the highest honor and are otherwise most deserving, to enable each of them to spend a year in Europe, to study the social, political and moral conditions of the people, and the character and principles of the European press.
    On the nomination of the teaching staff of the School of Journalism, the following were appointed:
    1. Fred Gruin of North Bergen, N.J.
    2. Harold A. Bezazian of Chicago, Illinois.
    3. Betty Turner of Oakland, Cal.
    Alternates:
    1. Mark J. Ginsbourg of Shanghai, China.
    2. Jerome I. Meyerberg of Newton, Mass.
    3. Mary Joanna Durham of Greencastle, Indiana.
    2. An annual scholarship, having the value of $1,500, to the student of music in America who may be deemed the most talented and deserving, in order that he may continue his studies with the advantage of European instruction, on the nomination of a jury composed of members of the teaching staff of the department of music in Columbia University and of the teaching staff of the Institute of Musical Art.
    Awarded to Percival Price of Ottawa, Canada.
    3. An annual scholarship, having the value of $1,500, to an art student in America, who shall be certified as the most promising and deserving by the National Academy of Design, with which the Society of American Artists has been merged.
    Awarded to Cathal O'Toole of Long Island City.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 8, 1934, page 1


    Yes, the Mail Tribune is still rather dizzy! This may be because its hat band is too tight. But we prefer to think it is because the old M.T. isn't accustomed to HONORS. (Look over our mail for the past year, and you will understand!)
    Many hours have passed since the award of the Pulitzer prize to this paper was released, but the shock still lingers. It's a pleasant shock--and how. But frankly it is difficult for the M.T. to realize that a committee of newspaper men, in far-off New York City, after making a survey for the entire country, actually picked out this "small town'' daily in Southern Oregon for stellar honors.
    It's hard to grasp. It does something to the blood pressure. One starts pinching oneself to see if it is really true. This isn't normal behavior. The Pulitzer newspaper prizes are awarded every year, and newspapers are supposed to take them in their stride. Our inability to do so, we repeat, we charge to the fact that during recent times, honors of any kind have been so rare. We weren't--and aren't--in proper training to receive any.
    HOWEVER--sufficient unto the day are the good tidings thereof. So without further ado the Mail Tribune announces it is tickled pink!
    It, undoubtedly, takes a newspaper to get the maximum bang out of a Pulitzer award. For it was established by one of the greatest newspaper men this country ever produced--FOR newspaper men, to be awarded BY newspaper men. That makes it almost exclusively a newspaper affair.
    Add to this fact that it is awarded for the "most meritorious and disinterested public service in the country" during a given year, and from a newspaper standpoint the thing is about PERFECT.
    For the aim of this newspaper--as well as every other newspaper worthy of the name--is to BE of real public service. To know that in the opinion of others competent to judge, it has rendered such service, is quite sufficient reward, without any gold medal attached.
    But the gold medal too will be welcome. For it will serve as a more pleasant reminder of those "dark days'' in the early part of 1933, than the records in this paper's archives. For those records deal with rather painful things--such as canceled subscriptions (when subscription money was sorely needed); with an advertising boycott (when advertising was skimpy enough already); with mob insurance, and armed guards in the composing room and at an average of at least one threatening letter in every eight hours.
    It was no joke for the M.T., or for this community, in those days. However the last thing we desire is to revive any of the gruesome details, which we, and we believe the people of Southern Oregon, wish to forget. Everyone in this neck of the woods knows all they want to know about them anyway, so we will spare our readers any further recapitulation at this time.
    Judging by the local reactions to date, everyone wants to know HOW it happened. We are told it is the first time a newspaper in a city of less than 35,000 people has ever received the Pulitzer prize. How come?
    Well, the Pulitzer committee made the award, we didn't. It is something for them to explain--if explanation is necessary--not for us. All this paper had to do with it, was to comply with a request from New York that we forward a collection of news and editorial clippings which would give a true picture of the strife and turmoil in Jackson County, during 1933. Perhaps between then and now someone sent the committee a box of extra fancy pears--or a gold-plated invitation to the Diamond Jubilee. We don't know. We don't even know who the members of the committee are, or where they came from.
    We merely know THIS: we are deeply grateful to them, and take this opportunity to assure them that the honor they have conferred will be a source of pride and inspiration to this newspaper, as long as it endures!
    We hope we haven't given the impression there is anything PERSONAL in this award. There isn't. The prize goes to no individual, or group of individuals, but to the paper itself. It is not what any one person did, but what the paper did, and that service was the contribution of EVERYONE on the payroll.
    So we think it only fitting that this column should thank them all at this time, for their hard work, courage, and loyalty during a most trying time, and assure them that while the gold medal will be received by Ye Editor--as medals are usually received by those who happen to be in command--it would never have been awarded had it not been for the privates in the ranks.
    And finally it would have never been awarded if this community, at the height of the crisis, had not given this paper such valiant support.
    We could fill this column with the names of citizens--lawyers, doctors, business men, preachers, rural editors (the Jacksonville Miner PARTICULARLY) and just plain volunteers, both men and women--without whose aid the job could never have been done.
    In the MASS they did more than we did, for in the last analysis, such affairs are settled and settled right--only by the forces of an aroused public opinion.
    But we repeat this isn't a state police prize, or a bar association prize, or a committee of safety prize, or a community prize, it is EXCLUSIVELY a newspaper prize.
    And it is as a NEWSPAPER that the Mail Tribune gets it. So--to the Pulitzer committee--to its loyal staff--to the splendid citizenship which is so justly Medford's pride--the Mail Tribune bows its somewhat battered head in--
    HEARTFELT THANKS!
Medford Mail Tribune, May 8, 1934, page 6


    Robert W. Ruhl, editor of the Medford, Ore., Mail Tribune, which has been announced winner of the $500 Pulitzer award "for the most disinterested and meritorious public service rendered by an American newspaper during 1933." Ruhl's series of editorials were printed during a fight against Jackson County politicians. His newspaper fought a political group known as the Good Government Congress, thirty-three officers and members of which were arrested for crimes alleged to have been committed during the political feud. Llewellyn A. Banks, then editor of the Medford Daily News, was found guilty of second degree murder for slaying a constable who attempted to arrest him on a ballot theft warrant. This is the first time this award has been made to a Pacific Coast newspaper or to a daily not printed in a metropolitan city.
Calexico Chronicle, Calexico, California, May 8, 1934, page 1


    MEDFORD, Ore., May 10 (AP)--A straight-thinking newspaperman, who pitted clear editorial persuasion against the forces of political insurrection, directed the campaign which won for his paper the Pulitzer Prize for "the most distinguished and meritorious public service rendered by an American newspaper" in 1933.
    He is Robert W. Ruhl, 54-year-old editor of the Medford Mail Tribune and once a schoolmate of President Roosevelt at Harvard. He helped smash an upheaval in Jackson County which threatened guerrilla warfare in the first six months of 1933.
    Ruhl's fight began when Llewellyn A. Banks, 70, an orchardist, developed political ambition and bought a newspaper plant to aid his desires.
    Stirred into a violent temper by what he thought were gross wrongs perpetrated by city and county officials and fellow residents of the Rogue River Valley, Banks organized his "Good Government Congress."
    Through his paper, the Daily News, he harangued the citizens and pleaded for support. "Ropes and nooses" for some county officials were demanded.
    The first bombshell burst when 10,000 general election ballets were stolen from the county courthouse on the eve of a recount on charges of fraud.
    In addition to the ballot theft charge, Banks was the defendant at that time in two criminal libel cases, one criminal syndicalism charge, and 18 or 20 lawsuits. Banks published an extra edition of his paper declaring he would resist arrest.
    "We have now come to that great showdown," his paper asserted, "where blood is likely to be spilled."
    Members of the "Good Government Congress" threatened to "take over Jackson County."
    Banks' prediction of bloodshed materialized on the morning of March 16, 1933. Constable George Prescott of Medford walked up the steps of Banks' residence with a warrant for the man's arrest. A rifle bullet blew off the top of his head.
    "I shot Prescott," Banks shouted as he stepped over the prostrate body. "He was trying to force his way into my house as any burglar would!"
    Banks was sentenced to life imprisonment.
    "Militant journalism," so called, had no place in editor Ruhl's program. He won his case with expressions of calm, deliberate judgment.
Niagara Falls Gazette, May 10, 1934, page 7


    Warren Kelso, former Gold Hill boy, has started giving motion picture shows in Gold Hill. The men have a portable talking machine and plan to show at various small towns in the valley. They will play here Monday evenings at the hotel building.
"Local Happenings," Gold Hill News, May 17, 1934, page 4

    Approximately 2,450 cars of pears, about 200 under last year's total, is estimated for the 1934 crop, according to Robert K. Norris, horticulturist for the Pinnacle Packing Company. The estimate is based upon observations recently made in 25 of the lead- [omission] detailed information compiled from growers. Bartletts and Comice are to show an increase over last year's crop, but Winter Nelis, Howells and d'Anjous will show a decrease over the same period.

    Medford, Ore., July 13.--Almost the entire southern part of the Rogue River Valley was afloat when a heavy rainstorm, one of the heaviest in years, descended in the Coleman Creek and Wagner Creek districts immediately south of Medford late last week. Hail which accompanied the rain damaged pears and apples almost 25 percent. More than five inches of rain fell in less than two hours in the center of the storm area, with more than three inches falling in other districts where the storm hit. Fortunately the storm had spent itself before it reached the main floor of the valley where the largest acreage of fruit is located, so no damage was suffered in the main fruit area.
    Picking of Bartlett pears will commence here July 15, and from present indications a large share of the tonnage will go to canners, who are busily operating here and offering from $30 to $35 a ton, with most growers holding out for the higher figure. With reports reaching here that the Bartlett crop is short in California, growers are not rushing to sell their fruit. Some good f.o.b. sales of Bartletts have been reported which also tends to keep the cannery price from breaking.
    Indications also point to a strong market for late pears, one grower already having received an offer for Rose pears which would net him 40¢ a box. All growers and shippers feel that d'Anjous will return a good price this year and that Comice will be at a premium by packing time.
    Blight conditions, which were bad here this season, it is now found will materially cut down the tonnage of pears from this district.
    A $65,000 addition to the present plant of the Southern Oregon Sales, Inc., precooling and storage plant is now under way and will be completed in time to take care of the present season tonnage. The entire plant will have a capacity of 250,000 boxes of pears and apples, making this one of the leading specialized fruit storage plants of the Pacific Northwest.
    The method of handling fruit in the new addition, which avoids rehandling after precooling, has proven to be both an efficient and satisfactory arrangement and has attracted interest from storage men as far away as Italy and Argentina.
    Funds for the construction were made available through the Spokane Bank for Cooperatives under the Farm Credit Association. Paul Scherer is general manager of the concern.
The Chicago Packer, July 14, 1934, page 20

    Prompted by a reddish glow in the heavens, the frantic dinging of the village fire bell and a peculiar odor permeating the air, Jacksonville's volunteer fire company made a hurried call to the Oscar Knox home on East California Street Monday evening about 10:30. Fire laddies arrived to discover a backyard edifice enveloped in flames, threatening nearby buildings and sensibilities of neighbors.
    With some gusto, and a roaring stream of muddy water from fire hose, the volunteers quenched the blaze and washed the charred two-holer from its moorings in less time than it took Fire Chief Ray Wilson to describe the incident next day. Although the "phone booth" was adjudged a complete loss, the hole in the ground was saved.
Jacksonville Miner, August 31, 1934, page 1