An indication of McElroy's salary is given in connection with an even more historic occasion. In June, 1853 he went down to Portland to help organize what was probably the first typographers' union in the Pacific Northwest. On June 20 he met with E. M. Waite, E. G. Gowne, W. B. Affleck, H. S. Stipp and R. D. Austin to establish the Oregon and Washington Typographical Society. Members swore to work for not less than $1,500 a year or $5.00 a day, and any mem ber who took less could "be published to the world as a RAT."[1] For comparison, in 1853 the judges in Washington Territory received $2,000 a year and the governor a total of $3,000, while skilled laborers got from $4.00 to $6.00 a day. In a letter to his wife, McElroy observed: "provisions are very scarce and very high; in fact there is scarcely anything to eat in the country."[2]
Two months after his Portland journey, and a few weeks after Dryer returned from Mt. St. Helens, McElroy finally had help. On September 15, 1853, one Matt K. Smith's name appeared on the masthead of The Columbian in place of McElroy. The change in command had not been Dryer's intention, for Smith was to help McElroy not replace him, and Dryer's reaction to the switch is preserved in one of his few extant letters:
I was not a little surprised to see the course you have seen to take in relation to taking your name out as publisher of Columbian, I regret you have done this . . . I informed Mr. Smith plainly and emphatically that you have always had and should have, the entire control of all matters relating to the publishing of the Columbian. I desire him to assist you and told him to council with you in all he wrote for the paper.
However, I suppose you have reasons for doing as you have done. But not withstanding I wish you to retain the charge of that office and its business. Whenever you can stay no longer I shall stop the paper ... I am sorry on the whole I did not stop it when the year was out. I have offered the concern to the democrats for $2,500—I will see the people of Washington Territory DAMNED before I will publish a paper out of my pocket for their benefit.[3]
The letter did nothing to change McElroy's mind, but he
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