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| Harry Lane served as Portland Mayor from 1906-1910 and became one of the city's most unforgettable characters. |
In the early part of the twentieth century, Portland had a
new ally, particularly for women. Mayor Harry Lane became an unforgettable
Portland character of considerable importance.
Lane, a life-long Democrat, was born in Corvallis. He was a rare breed
of man, in that he personified the original spirit of progressive reform that
would plant its seeds in Portland and become firmly entrenched here. Lane was a
physician and public health advocate and the grandson of Joseph Lane, Oregon's
first territorial Governor. Harry Lane joined his grandfather as a US Senator,
when he became Oregon’s first popularly elected Senator in 1912. As a graduate of Willamette University
Medical School in 1876, Lane went on to study in New York and Europe before
setting up a medical practice in San Francisco and later returning to Portland.
He married Lola Bailey in 1882 and had two daughters with her, Nina and
Harriet, adopting a third daughter named Marjorie, an unusual act of compassion
and social activism, given those hard scrabble times.
In 1878 Lane was hired by Governor Sylvester Pennoyer as
superintendent of the Oregon State Insane Asylum, known today as the Oregon
State Hospital. Working at the hospital for less than four years, Lane
discovered conditions of extreme abuse, neglect and administrative corruption.
He aggressively put forth charges of corruption of the entire institution,
contacting local Portland authorities and other influential people. To his dismay, he discovered that any
accusations of corruption he made fell on deaf ears. He made many enemies in
the hospital and elsewhere by attempting to improve and publicize the horrible
conditions in the hospital. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Governor Pennoyer responded to the political pressure of other notable
Portlanders who wanted to see Lane gone; they didn't want a whistle blower at
the Oregon Insane Asylum. In 1891,
Governor Pennoyer forced Lane to resign his position at the Asylum, so it could
be taken over by someone less dedicated to social justice. The experience left
Lane discouraged and suspicious of the political process.
After resigning from his post at the Insane Asylum, Lane
served on Oregon’s first state board of health. He valued, understood and promoted the
importance of protecting clean water, and encouraging Oregonians to buy
and grow good quality food to sustain their families. He became known as a man
who worked hard to prevent disease, promoting public awareness of the dangers
and prevention of tuberculosis, which impacted lower income populations
primarily. Throughout his entire medical career he demonstrated a profound
understanding of the social stressors of those less fortunate and how they struggled
to overcome poverty and the indifference of the upper classes. He often didn't
charge Portlanders in need that had no way to pay for medical services. He
became known as the “poor people's doctor” developing a reputation as a man who
cared and was beloved in those diverse Portland communities of low income
families.
Another interesting facet of Harry Lane's often overlooked
life is that in 1899, he created Oregon's first Mycological Society, called The
Mushroom Club of Oregon, and acted as the club’s first president. The club’s
main purpose was to provide the public with vital information about the safety
and cultivation of mushrooms, as a cheap and nutritious food source. At a time
when mushrooms were prohibitively expensive and only “high-stepping” people
could afford them, Lane taught everyday Portlanders how to mushroom hunt
safely, as a way to enrich their diets and their lives. He published several
informational articles in the Oregonian
sharing his expertise on the joy of mushroom hunting and cultivation.
In his articles Lane focused on the scientific description
of various mushrooms species, their general habitat, within and in the
surrounding areas of Portland and how to safely distinguish between the
species. His goal was to promote mycological appreciation and to help prevent
the consumption of poisonous “toadstools” that could either kill the consumer
or make them very ill. Lane had his favorite mushrooms, and boasted of
consuming more than twelve different varieties including morels. His favorite
mushroom was the common russula, of
which he wrote, “no more savory or delicate morsel comes to the pan” than from
the delectable yellow and purple russula. The seriousness with which he approached all
challenges in his life was also reflected in his mushroom activities, when he
warned, “Those who do not care to join the club and will insist on eating
fungi, can easily learn to distinguish between the wholesome and poisonous
species by eating of the species they find, and leaving it to the coroner to do
the rest.”
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| Harry Lane served two 2-year terms as mayor and used his veto against an antagonistic City Council more often than any other Portland mayor. |
Elected mayor in 1905, and again in 1907, Lane fought hard
for such issues as regulation of railroads, effective city planning and
services, public utilities and of particular interest, given his background as
a committed physician, public health measures he knew would improve the quality
of life of the city’s most at risk populations. Like many mayors before and
after him, Lane took on special interests such as gambling and fraudulent
contractors. He also addressed the ongoing issue of city wide prostitution and
the pervasive health issues that prostitution and disease brought to the larger
community. He challenged the ideas and justifications for American imperialism
and became an advocate for Native American Indian tribes.
While mayor of Portland Lane hosted the 1905 NationalAmerican Woman Suffrage Association convention and became an outspoken
supporter of women's rights. He was
recognized thereafter as an ally for women and developed a large following of
supportive and devoted women friends as a result. As mayor he led the nation in
appointing women to public office and supported the employment of women in many
fields. His most noted act of support of women's equality occurred when he
hired Lola Baldwin for the Police Bureau as one of the first female police
officers in the nation. She worked as a
police officer for more than a decade and created the Women’s Protective
Division.
Mayor Lane was a speaker at the July 6, 1905, unveiling of
the Sacagawea statute at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition at Lake View
Terrace. Sacagawea was a Shoshone Indian woman who assisted the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. Because of her efforts, Lewis and Clark were able achieve their
objective of safely exploring the Louisiana Purchase. In the early part of the twentieth century,
she came to personify the innate worth of women and the influence and positive impact
women could have on the lives of others, embodying independence and compassion.
In his speech, one of the most memorable of his career, Lane boldly announced
that any form of violence between white and Native populations had occurred
because of “white people ill-treating the Indians who had befriended them.”
Though Lane served two 2-year terms as Portland mayor and
was a committed social reformer, he may have been born into the wrong time. He
was up against a formidable structure of institutionalized city corruption that
continually worked against his strident and sincere efforts at social reform
and equity for those with the least. Though he was beloved by community
members, particularly the poor who had benefited from his time as a Portland
doctor, and despite the fact that he was popular among voters, he is best
remembered for having achieved little of any lasting impact politically. This was
mainly due to the influence of wealthy merchants and saloon owners some of them
members of the City Council, who derived much of their income from gambling and
prostitution. Lane was simply
outnumbered. He used the veto more often
than any other Portland mayor in his battles with the City Council and thus
achieved little of positive value.
In November of 1912 Lane was elected to the US Senate,
where he became a leading national advocate for women's suffrage. Fighting
against women's “separatism” from society as a whole and promoting more
equitable treatment of women was highly unusual for a man at this time. During
his time in the Senate, Lane encouraged a more benevolent rapport between the
US government and the Native American population. He advocated support and
health services for Native Americans that many others in the Senate simply did
not value. All his life, Lane was dedicated to exposing, and if he could,
correcting, the injustices suffered by Native Americans at the hands of the
millions of European immigrants moving to and settling in America.
In Congress, Lane served on the Committee on Forest Preservation and Game Protection, the Committee on Fisheries and the Committee
on Indian Affairs. He regarded the Committee of Indian Affairs to be the most
important of his jobs, and often criticized the US Government for its policies
and attempts at “civilizing” the Native American population. Lane was extremely
direct in his criticisms, saying, “I think the whole scheme of our management
of the affairs of the Indian is a mistake. It is wrong; it is expensive to the
government, it is fatal to the Indians.”
Lane had a realistic view of what the American Indian was
up against, not only in Oregon, but nationally and he could be quite outspoken
in their defense. He once declared that the poverty of the Indian population
existed solely because of white men, describing local Natives as being a
crushed culture while, “the white man is astride them and is at work taking
everything they have.”
Lane's social and political passions led directly to his
downfall both professionally and politically. He was never more outspoken than
when he discussed either privately or publicly, American involvement in World
War One and his opposition to it. He did not support President Woodrow Wilson's
well-known desire to engage Germany in war and he made this very clear in many
1917 speeches and addresses in Oregon and Washington DC.
Lane opposed ending diplomatic relations with Germany and
steadfastly refused to offer support to enter a war he felt the country could
not afford. A small group of like-minded US senators supported and agreed with his
anti-war philosophy, the most prominent was Wisconsin Senator Robert LaFollete.
When they let their opposition to the war be known, Lane and LaFollette became
the target of hostility and intense attacks by the President and other
politicians as well as the general public.
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| Elected to the US Senate in 1912, Lane became an outspoken advocate of Native American rights and one of the leading opponents of US entry into World War I. |
Woodrow Wilson described them as, “a little group of
willful men, representing no opinions but their own” who had “rendered the
great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.” Many
Oregonians turned on Harry Lane, and were similarly outraged. A loud cry from certain factions of the
public erupted for Lane's immediate recall. In an editorial the Oregonian said, “...the people of Oregon
are ashamed of themselves for having sent Harry Lane to the United States
Senate.” Although the Oregonian
skewered Lane, he still had many loyal friends who wrote to him, sending him
cards and letters of support celebrating the life he had spent engaged in
consistent public service for the betterment of all Oregonians, the rich and
poor, the educated and the uneducated, the well-known and the invisible. The stress of the public outcry contributed
to his untimely death from a stroke in 1917.
The legacy Lane left Oregon is not a paltry one. His
contributions remain in the way he promoted health and nutrition programs for
the poor, who were able to persevere because of that help, care and concern.
His legacy remains in the work he did for women's rights in Portland, most
notably the appointment of women to public office and the social services for
prostitutes that he championed at a time when they were vilified rather than
helped or given any manner of understanding or compassion. He steadfastly
fought for women's rights at a time when it was not popular for men to take on
women's issues and he continued to employ women whenever he could.
He continued to
champion the “fallen women” who were often overlooked and ignored; the
prostitutes of Portland. These were women who became chronically ill due to
venereal disease and the hidden agony of “pelvic inflammatory disease,” which
was a common ailment of the time, and caused women and young girls so much
pain, they often sought relief with alcohol, opium and even heroin. And of
course Lane's legacy remains in his fight, however unsuccessful, in combating
the city wide corruption of an early American town inundated with vice. Harry
Lane was indeed a man ahead of his time and one of Portland's most accomplished
pioneers.
