Oregon at 150: Celebrating Oregon’s Progressive Heritage

Oregon will celebrate its 150th anniversary of achieving statehood on Valentine’s Day this Saturday.  In honor of my beloved state’s 150th birthday, I present this short piece highlighting some of the achievements of the state’s progressive movement.  As our state motto says, “She Flies With Her Own Wings.”

Cross-Posted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/sh…

The National Journal wrote in 2006 that, “Oregon is an experimental commonwealth and laboratory of reform on the Pacific Rim, a maker of national trends.”  Oregon 2006 State Profile.  Whether is the initiative system, public beaches, the bottle bill, assisted suicide or the Oregon Health Plan, Oregon has always taken pride in leading its own way.  This diary briefly discusses some key moments in Oregon’s political history.

1859: Oregon becomes the 33rd state.  Oregon became a state by agreeing not to allow African Americans to own property in its original constitution.  This provision was repealed in 1926.

1897: In what would prove to be perhaps the most important session in the state’s legislative history, the state legislature refuses to meet over a dispute on whom would be one of the state’s US Senators.  In order to broker a compromise, William Simon U’Ren, a leader of one of the factions in the state legislature at the time, agrees to accept the opposition’s Senator in exchange for the legislature’s support of the Initiative and Referendum system.

1902: The Initiative and Referendum System goes into effect in Oregon.  In its early years it did the following: Banning free railroad passes, popular elections of U.S. Senators, establishing the first presidential primary in the United States, giving women the right to vote, eliminating poll taxes and establishing a 40 hour work week.

1913: Governor Oswald West declares that the state’s beaches are public property.  Today, this means that access points must be provided at regular points along the beach and that, in fact, the state’s beach is a public highway.

1924: Following the overturning of the “Compuolsory School Act” (a reform pushed by the KKK which required all students to go to public schools and not religious ones), the KKK largely leaves the state and moves to Idaho.

1949: Oregon establishes the fair labor practices commission, helping protect worker’s rights.

1971: Oregon establishes the nation’s first bottle bill, providing for a $.05 deposit on soft drinks (now extended to water bottles and all carbonated drinks).

1972: Oregon passes Senate Bill 100, establishing Oregon’s land use system.  The system is predicated on the basic principle of limiting sprawl and thus preserving farmland.  In brief, each city (or in the case of Portland and Eugene the full urban area) draws an “Urban Growth Boundary” outside their cities beyond which only limited development may occur.  This has been wildly successful by most estimations.

1973: Oregon passes Public Records and Public Meetings laws, establishing some of the most open government systems in the country.

1986: Portland’s light-rail system (MAX) begins service.

1987: The Oregon Health Plan begins to be implemented, providing a trial of free comprehensive health care under Medicaid.

1993: Oregon holds the first statewide vote by mail election in the country.  Mandatory vote by mail was approved by initiative in 1998.

1994: Oregon establishes Doctor Assisted Suicide by initiative, becoming the first state to do so (followed recently by Washington).

2007: Oregon passes domestic partnership and equal protection laws granting GLBT couples the rights to equal benefits to marriage and full protection under the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

That’s a good brief summary.  Discuss below.