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What Others Say About It
The Bend Bulletin · December 4, 1912
In the story: 1. A city of two thousand, to 1912.
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Ten thousand copies for Seattle, printed on the Bulletin’s own press — and the first man quoted in it is James J. Hill.
The club’s first publication, printed by the Bulletin in December 1912. Ten thousand copies, ordered by the Bend Park Company “its originator”, for distribution in Seattle. The paper then reprints most of the text, which is how the archive has it at all: no copy of the booklet has been found.
The title is a joke that explains itself in one line. “The leaflet is called ‘What Others Say About It.’ ‘It’ is Bend.” A town too small to be known makes a book out of other people saying it will be.
And the first of those others is James J. Hill, whose Great Northern had reached Central Oregon by the Oregon Trunk the year before: “My belief in the future of Central Oregon is best illustrated by the investments I am making … regardless of cost.” The Deschutes Historical Museum’s account of where Bend got the figure of a hundred thousand names Spokane and it names Hill. This is the Emblem Club, in its own first publication, putting Hill at the head of the argument.
The second witness is The World’s Work of New York, “one of the greatest and most reliable magazines”, for its December issue. The club is quoting a railroad builder and a national monthly to a Seattle audience, five months after the emblem was copyrighted and a month before the club’s first annual banquet.
From the source
WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT BEND
A valuable and interesting publicity booklet has been printed by The Bulletin for the Emblem Club, an initial order of 10,000 copies which has been taken by the Bend Park Company, its originator, for Seattle distribution. The leaflet is called “What Others Say About It.” “It” is Bend. Most of the text follows:
James J. Hill says:
“My belief in the future of Central Oregon is best illustrated by the investments I am making through the medium of the Oregon Trunk line. We intend to do all that a great railroad system can toward developing this vast Central Oregon Empire regardless of cost.”
