Oregon Ousting

Eleven days after he had won "vindication" and the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Oregon's primary, George W. Joseph, sharp-tongued Portland attorney, was last week disbarred for life by the State Supreme Court. In effect the court had ousted from his profession Oregon's next Governor because the Republican nomination there is tantamount to election.

Long and bitter had been Nominee Joseph's controversies with the Supreme Court which reached their climax in the Wemme will case. E. Henry Wemme, rich Portland tentmaker, had had his friend, Mr. Joseph, draw him up an ironbound will bequeathing half his estate to the Christian Science Church and half to heirs in Germany. Thomas Mannix appeared as counsel for those who sought to break the will. When the case came before the Oregon Supreme Court, Mr. Joseph charged that Chief Justice Rand had had a mining deal with Mr. Mannix and was thus disqualified to hear the suit. Then he accused Mr. Mannix of plying Justice McBride with liquor to win favorable decisions. In the consequent uproar, Mr. Mannix filed a disbarment petition against Mr. Joseph who retaliated with a similar action against his opponent. When a committee who heard the evidence recommended his disbarment to the Supreme Court, Mr. Joseph announced himself as a candidate for Governor, made a stormy campaign on the very issue before the court. He made much of his birth in a California log cabin, flayed the 10-c- fare charged on Portland trolleys, demanded public ownership of public utilities. His chief opposition came from the Portland Oregonian. He won the gubernatorial nomination by 5,000 votes, which he considered cleared him of all opprobrium, regardless of what the Supreme Court did to him. Permanently disbarred with him last week was Mr. Mannix. Nominee Joseph's political credo, expressed while he was a State Senator: "Keep 'em stirred up so they don't pass anything. There are too many laws now."

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