The Fibber & Mrs. Lee

Portland's reform mayor, trim, grey Mrs. Dorothy ("I will enforce the law") Lee, was getting unexpected support last week in her drive to clean up Portland. It came from no less a person than Mike Elliott, the beefy, tousle-headed new sheriff of Multnomah County, which surrounds Portland.

Mike was a man full of surprises. When he ran against oldtime G.O.P. Sheriff Martin Pratt last November (slogan: "A G.I. Who Believes in Democracy"), he said he was 30, had played football at the University of Michigan, and had served 6 1/2 years in the Marines. After Mike won, a checkup showed that he was 27, that he never went to the University of Michigan, and that he served only 23 months in the Marines. "I didn't mean anything wrong." Mike explained. "It was just one of those things in a campaign. I just needed some real material to beat Pratt."

Once in office Fibber Elliott kept his eye on Mrs. Lee and wondered what to do next. True to her campaign promises, the new mayor cleaned out Portland's basketball and hockey-betting hangouts, had her cops round up prostitutes, close Chinese gambling dives. She even sent her police out to pick up all the slot machines, including those in such private hangouts as the Portland Press Club, which made $50,000 profit on them last year.

After he watched for a while, Mike went into action. By the time he began to move, rumors were going the rounds that he had actually been elected by Multnomah County gambling interests. He denied it, and to prove that he wasn't fibbing, began raiding gambling dens right & left in his county bailiwick on Portland's fringes.

Between Mrs. Lee and Fibber Elliott, Portland & environs last week were as pure as the snow which had covered them in the two-week cold wave.

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