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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1895)
ftttyttttimtt $mw PKGES 13 TO 22 TOL. xxxin. POUTIzAXD, CXREGOJN, TUESDAY. JATUAB 1, 1895. "V -v- "STO. 10,996. SECOND F2SF2T i PROSPEROUS Satisfactory Business Showing: Made for trie IPast Year. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH AT THIS POINT The Barjks arjd. Titicir Great lesersres The Ficr ures of the Clearance House. TACOMA, SEATTLE & SPOKANE CLEARANCES COMPARED The Panic and Its Je suits Portl Bailroads Centering Here 2?osltion Tlie Great ORTLAND is a city that has always en joyed the reputa tion of being solid. This stability has been assured by the high standing of her leading banks, by the solvency of the large business houses located here and by the high creditthe municipal ity has long en iSS joyed. Ten or more of the largest houses of Portland, accord irg to the reliable reports of Dun and Bradstreet, have a credit that Is unlimit ed, the assets of these houses exceeding $1,000,000 each. The standing of Portland as a center of population where business is conducted in conservative lines is shown by the statement that the last batch of $100,000 worth of bonds sold by the commit tee for the prosecution of -work on the new Bull Run water system commanded in the East, where the highest bid was made, a premium of 11 per cent, these bonds run ning 30 years and drawing 5 per cent In terest per annum. The amount of wealth concentrated at Portland is also con clusively shown by the offer of 10 per cent premium for this entire issue made by a local financial institution. The man who has been a casual ob server of the destinies of Oregon and "Washington during the past five years might well ask at the present time what is Portland's position now and what was the relative position of the city prior to the disturbances of the panio in 1893? He might want to know just how much Port land suffered from the panic and what were the imemdiate prospects of recovery: .In. an-er- to this query, it can be said published in this Jssue, The Oregonlan has stated the conditions of business as they actually existed during 1S93. and it also has clearly established the fact that the recovery of business here since the mem orable summer of that year has been as rapid as the most enthusiastic supporter of Portland's claims could have hoped for. The basis of Portland's prosperity has always been the honest toil of her peo ple and the development of a tributary section of country that in the extent of its varied resources has no equal on the coast. Portland at divers times in her history has harbored speculators, but the boom methods of these speculators have rather been incidental features to the ef forts of the more substantial business men in the general xirosperity of the city. Ev idence of this statement is seen In the fact that these enthusiasts have never been in the ascendency in the direction of municipal affairs. Nobody who has lived In Portland for any length of time has failed to note the general trend ofaf fairs here which has placed the control of the city in the hands of the men whose efforts have been largely responsible for the vast concentration of wealth and busi ness at this point, and it may be well to note further that it was the counsel of these same men which preserved the good name of the city during the panic of 1S93, and which was largely responsible for the rapid recovery Portland has made from the disastrous effects of that year. Portland is the financial and commer cial center of a section of country larger than the immediate tributary district of rny of the largest cities in the United States. This belt, which has long found that It could trade with Portland to bet ter advantage than it could deal with other points, has been developed during the last quarter of a century from a fron tier settlement that supported, at most, a population which did not exceed 100,000 to a magnificent country which today is thickly dotted with happy homes, and w hlch claims a population exceeding 1,000,- 000 Portland's growth has followed the growth of the country that traded with lier. and it is the assured growth of this Fme tributary district which is the most fruitful source of promise for Portland's future. Until the completion of the Northern riuflc railroad across the summit of the Cascade mountains to Tacoma In 1SS6, Portland was the single distributing cen ter of all that vast region included with in the limits of Oregon, Washington, 1 laho, Western Montana and British Co lumbia.. Following the completion of the Northern Pacific to Tacoma came a rap il development of the resources of this country that was unprecedented. Taco ma and Seattle In Western Washington and Spokane in the eastern part of the same state emerged from the conditions of illage pretensions to the importance cf modern and well-built cities. These t' roe cities to a certain extent divided vth Portland the trade the city had so long held alone, but so rapid was the growth of the country immediately trib i Ury to Portland, and so great was the increase of her trade with the three prln c pul supply centers of Washington men t oued above that Portland grew as it had i e er grown before, and the wealth and importance of this city as the banking en I business center of the Pacific North "Rfst obtained a recognition never before accorded them. Following the comple tion of the Northern Pacific railroad to Tacoma the lig Portland houses estab 1 -hed branches in Tacoma. Seattle and J- okane, and although each of these th-e important cities of Washington did c insiderable jobbing trade In a small way ta the sections of country Immediately t vutary. yt Portland still remained as 3 had always been, the commercial me tropolis of all that vast territory north of the California, boundary line and reaca i g east from the Pacinc ocean to the Summit of the Rocky mountains. voivruxyws advantages. So Coast City Kxcept San Francisco Can Suriiasw Her. Reference to any map will disclose at a glance the key to Portland's position as rzsusas PORTLAND an d's Recuperative P'owers- and. Strength, of Tneir "Water Eoutca. the principal supply center of the terri tory embraced within the limits of the Pacific Northwest. It will be noticed on any map of the Pacific coast that at near the 46th degree of north latitude the noble Columbia river, one of the great streams of the continent, emp ties its waters into the sea. It will be further noticed that between the Colum bia's mouth and San Francisco bay, on the south, a distance of nearly COO miles, there is no stream of note which cuts into the coast line. Along the coast are small harbors at Yaqulna and Coos Bay, but the depth of water on the bars at the en trances to these inlets does not permit the safe entry of large vessels, and the na ture of the country immediately back of either Coos bay or Yaquina prevents easy means of reaching the rich sections of the interior of the state. The Columbia is easily entered by vessels of 20 feet draft, the depth of water at the shoalest places in the entrance being SI feet at mean low tide. These vessels as cend the Columbia and Willamette rivers to Portland at all seasons of the year without difficulty. By way of the Columbia river the rich garden spot of the Willamette valley in Western Oregon, a section 173 miles long by from 40 to 60 miles wide, and all of which is highly fer tile, is reached, and this same stream affords entry to the vast rolling plains of Eastern Oregon and Washington, which today are the greatest wheat-producing belts of the West, and which support in dustries as varied as are those of any sec tion on the coast. A line of railroad from Portland to the the sea at Astoria follows the level route of the Columbia river. The contract for such a line has already been signed, and .Tthe active work of construction will com mence on" April 1 next 'A line ofroad reaching out from Portland south through the Willamette river valley on the west side of the river taps all the highly fertile sections of Western Oregon over practi cally as level a grade, with the exception of the short pull over the slight eminence back of the city. Such a road is now built, and for years it has been one of the most important divisions of the Southern Pacific system in Oregon. This road runs as far as Corvallls, 35 miles south of Portland, and during the busy season its hauling capacity Is taxed to get the prod ucts of the country to market at Port land. In addition to this line, a narrow gauge road, also operated by the Southern Pacific, runs south from Portland, over a perfectly level route, through that part of the valley lying west of the Willamette. This road runs to Airtie, 80 miles distant, and with its numerous feeders cresses a section of country every part of which is a garden spot. East of the Willamette in the valley of the same name runs the through line of the Southern Pacific, over a route that is without grades for more than 150 miles south from its northern terminal at Portland. This road for the entire distance between Portland and Ashland, 316 miles south, furnishes an outlet to a country that is rich in the re sources of agriculture, fruit, timber, stock and mines, and this is one of the oldest and most thickly settled parts of the Northwest. East of Portland extends the line of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, whose headquarters are at Portland and whose interests center here. This road runs to points in Eastern Ore gon, Washington and Idaho, distant 500 miles or more, and this vast system of roads taps practically every foot of rich land in Eastern Oregon, Eastern Wash ington, and the entire state of Idaho. The route of the main line out of Portland is along the southern bank of the Columbia from a point about 20 miles east of Port land to Wallula. a distance of 216 miles. A single locomotive of average capacity hauls the heaviest-loaded trains over this entire distance, and it can be said of this route, as of that of every railroad leading out of Portland, that It is without grades. From Umatilla an extension runs to Huntington, 404 miles distant from Port land, and where direct connection is made with the "Union Pacific system for the East. At several points between Umatilla and Huntington branches leave the main line and cover rich tributary districts, the legitimate business of which will always afford a paying traffic to a railroad. The most important of these branches leaves the Huntington extension at Pendleton, 231 miles east of Portland, and runs through the rich Walla Walla valley and the entire wheat-producing belt of the Palouse country, in Washington, to Spo kane. Reference to the exhaustive rail road article published in this paper will disclose the complete systems of branch roads which leave the Washington divis ion of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company's lines and tap all the fertile belts of Eastern Oregon. Eastern Wash ington and Northern and Southern Idaho. One of the most important of these sys tems leaves the road to Spokane at Tekoa and runs through the entire mineral belt of the Coeur d'Alene. terminating at ilul lan. 520 miles distant from Portland. East from Umatilla along the bank of the Co lumbia river the line of the Oregon Rail way & Navigation Company's system runs to Wallula, a distance of 27 miles. At Wallula a connection is made with the Northern Pacific Company's transconti nental line, and also with the Hunt roads, an important local system of Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington. East of Wallula the trades of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company stretch away to Walla Walla, 31 miles distant, where con nection is made with the Washington di vision of the same system from Pendleton. The Northern Pacinc runs its througn trains out of Portland over a route that is practically level as far as Tacoma, 144 miles distant. For a number of years the cars of this road gained entrance to this city over the level Columbia-river route of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Com pany, but. on the completion of its road across the Cascade n-ountains to Tacoma from a connection at Pasco in Eastern "Washington, its management conclud&d to reach the big city of the Northwest by tte circuitous Tacoma route and over the Cascade mountain grades, over which trains are hauled in sections only by the largest engines manufactured. Portland is now the terminus practically of all the great railroad systems of the Pacific Northwest. The Great Northern reaches this city over the Columbla-rHer route of the Oregon Railway & Naviga tion Company, and the Canadian Pacific is also enabled to maintain headquarters here by close traffic arrangements with the Northern Pacific, and by a freight line of steamers which ply regularly between Portland and the Sound ports. It is worthy of note that all the roads center ing at Portland reach this city over level grades, and that the traffic received from Portland constitutes their heaviest busi ness in the field of Oregon and Washing ton. A reference to the map again will dis close the startling fact that no great rivers empty their waters into Puget sound, and that entry into Eastern Wash ington from any of the Sound cities can only be made by scaling the lofty heights of the Cascade range separating the east ern and western divisions of that state. Western Washington, unlike Western Or egon, contains no large body of agricul tural land, and the principal industries of that part of Washington west of the Cas cades are the sawing of timber and the mining of coal. These industries, although important, will not alone support large cities, and there is no trade of any rici immediate tributary country like the Wil lamette valley, all wholly tributary to Portland, which is enjoyed by either Seat tle or Tacoma. Portland's immediate trib utary country is reached either by the open highway of the Willamette river, over which boats ply at all seasons of the year, or by any of the three lines of rail road which run south through the valley for its entire length. The cities of Puget sound can only reach the country back of this inland sea by lines of road expensive ly built, and expensive to operate. The in dustries of this country adjacent to the Sound consist principally of coalmining and lumbering, as before stated, with con siderable attention paid to hopraising in the small valleys of the Puyallup and Stuck rivers. Portland reaches all of Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington over a line of railroad on which one en gine of small capacity can haul a heavily loaded train. The Sound is practically shut out of Eastern Oregon, and to reach Eastern Washington it must incur the ex penses of the heavy haul over the Cas cade mountains. STATEMEXTS VERIFIED. Proof of Portland's. Claims for Su premacy in tlie Northwest. ACOIiIA, Seattle and Spoltane are strictly modern cities. Thes2 places are well built up, and the principal streets are lined with stately brick and stone edifices that would do credit to Chicago. All of these places have xinexcelled railroad connections, the enterprise of the citizens of each has com manded the respect of the en tire people of the United States, and many great fortunes have been built up in these populous centers. With all their enterprise, however, with the effort of the railroad companies to crowd the claims of each of these cities before the attention of capitalists, the fact remains that the great business of the Northwest is today transacted at Port land, just as it has always been. Not one of the trio of cities mentioned above does one-fourth as much actual wholesale business as Portland regularly handles, and the bank clearances of this city are about equal to the bank clearances of Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane combined. There is a great future ahead of all the leading centers of population in the Pa cific Northwest, but no city on the coast outside of San Francisco can ever surpass Portland. Real estate activity in Portland in the past, as before stated, has been an inci dental feature of the city's prosperity. A few 25-foot lots were sold here a few years since on the outskirts of the city by speculators, but this kind of real es tate transfers was discouraged, and the 1 few lots sold indicate the temper of the T psople, which has always prevented their bUng humbugged to any extent. In all the other cities of the Northwest, how ever, trading ia reaLestate was a leading Industry, an industrylthat called for the investment of largejcapltal, and which was directed by mengof signal ability. The panic put an effectual stop to trans fjs of property, not only on the coast, bat also for a time in nearly all parts of the United States. The subsidence of the n;al estate boom was not perceptibly felt in Portland. In Tacoma, Seattle and Spo kane it presaged disaster, from which no one of these cities has yet fully recovered. Portland's recovery is shown by the state ment that, while the-bank clearances of the city were but a little over 52.000,000 in August, 1SS3, InOctoberlast the clearances reached the satisfactory figures of nearly $7,000,000. g THE FASXC. T Its Universal Effects-Portland's Part in the Upheaval. OON after the inauguration of President Cleveland In March, 1S93, there was a perceptible de cline in the "business of the Northwest.- This followed the spirit of unrest and uncertainty which wosjresponsible for the closing of av large number of the leadingpindustrial estab lishments ofthe East on the first of thafjyear. At that time Portland's position was a pecu liar one. This city had long been the financial center of the Facifis Northwest, and it wasja matter of com mon repute that nqainterior bank with available assets everliad trouble in ob taining any reasonabllgaavances from the Fortland bankers. lljebalances of these interior banks were carried principally in Portland, and their main dependence on being able to tide over any financial strin gency was on the banks here that they had so long done business with. In the early spring of the year of the panic the interior banks began to reduce their balances with the local banks here. This was due, first, to the withdrawal of deposits, and, second, to the necessity which the interior banks were under to carry their customers through a period when all sources of revenue threatened to be cut off. This withdrawal of balances by the interior banks practically threw the burden) of carrying these banks on the leading financial institutions of this city. , roruanas bankers realized then, as they do now, that the financial credit of Port land's tributary country is the credit of this city itself, and during the late spring months of 1893 the vast concentrated wealth of Portland was kept in reserve to aid at the opportune time the solvent banks of Oregon and Washington that might need temporary relief to tide them over the threatened period of financial disturbances. No trouble of any serious character occurred to any of the banks of Oregon and Washington until everybody thought all danger was over. Following the failure of a few big banks of the in terior came the insolvency of a bank here that had not been conservatively man aged. The history of this failure and Its results, together with the rapid recovery Portland made whei the soundness of ..he financial situation here ence became thor oughly understood, will be found in the exhaustive article on banking published in this issue. While a few of the large number of banks established at Portland closed their doors during the panic, it was the great wealth of this city which avert ed serious disaster to the financial insti tutions of all parts of Oregon and Wash ington, and it was this same reserve of the Portland banks which has been direct ly responsible for the rapid recovery the business of the city has made since that time. The last part of 193 was a period of liquidation. Everybody was paying his debts, and no goods were being sold. This wac no more true of Portland than It was of New York or Chicago. Conservative men of Portland, who had always pros pered here, suddenly found themselves confronted with the necessity of securing debts which their own good names had always carried before without other in dorsement. The local banks would not lend money in any amounts, for the rea son that the bankers realized that the (ffj country was not yet in the stable condi tion which justified loans. Eastern cap italists would not lend money in the West because they were suspicious of Western securities, and for the additional reason that in many instances they had not the money to loan. It was this phase of the panic which was the most serious blow to Portland. Evidence of the city's recupera tive powers is seen in the statement that no contemplated improvement here com menced before the panic, and on which work was being prosecuted in the summer of 1S93, is today unfinished, and the sev eraL millions of dollars Invested here during- the past IS months has been a revela tion to the Eastern people regarding Port land's recuperative powers. No loans are refused today on any good security, and the willingness Eastern moneyed men show to obtain loans in Portland attests the high credit this city enjoys as a prosper ous trade center. A recenfr instance will show the estimate of Portland's solidity in the minds of the great moneyed men of the East. The Port of Portland commission have already sold $310,000 in bonds at a premium. These bonds draw a per cent interest, and are to run for 30 years. The $2,C00,CC0 or more of bonds for the construction of the mag nificent new waterworks plant of the city commanded a premium of $202,950, the premiums in certain instances ranging as high as 11 per cent. During the past year no man with income-producing property of sufficient value to justify the loan he asked for has had any serious trouble in borrowing money, and there is probably as much, if not more, money in Portland today seeking desirable investments or loans as at any time In the city's history. Since the panic of 'S3 Portland has ex pended nearly $2,000,000 In the construc tion of a waterworks plant that affords this city a supply of clear mountain water from the Cascade mountains nearly 40 miles east of the city. The city has also expended nearly $500,000 in providing free transit across the Willamette river at this point. Of this amount, the sum of $370,000 was spent in the construction of the magnificent new bridge at Burnslde street, one of the finest bridge structures on the coast. A fine system of sew ers, costing nearly $1,000,000, has also been finished, work on which was inaugurated before the panic. Since that time also the city has completed a new city hall at a cost of $519,535 35; the Cham ber of Commerce building, one of the fin est business blocks of the city, has been finished at a cost of $S25,000; the union de pot has been completed at a cost of $1, 000,000, and the Port of Portland commis sion, a body made up of Portland men act ing under authority of an act of the state legislature, have spent over $400,000 in im provement work on the Willamette and Columbia rivers from Portland to the sea. A work of great public benefit to Portland is the completion of the vast system of improvements inaugurated a number of years ago by the Portland General Electric Company at the falls of the Willamette river, 12 mile3 south of Portland. The company has erected at that point the largest electrical genera ting and transmitting plant run by water power in the world. The electrical energy generated at the falls is transmitted to Portland, where it is used for lighting the complete system of arc and incandescent lamps of this city. In addition to supply ing these lights, the company is also pre pared to transmit power in large quan tities to Portland for running factories or other industrial enterprises. They have demonstrated that this electrical power can be furnished at Portland at a cost considerably below the cost of power pro duced by steam, and it is confidently ex pected that within the immediate future most of Portland's factories will be run by power obtained from this source. On the extensive power-station at Oregon City, the city at the site of the falls, the Portland General Electric Company have already expended upward of $1,500,000, and their estimates contemplate an addi tional expenditure of $500,000 to complete the plant, which will be finally finished some time during April, 1S95. The above are but a small part of the improvements made in Portland during the past 18 months. Enough has been I told, however, to show conclusively that Portland's credit is today what it has always been, and that no fear need be ap prehended regarding Portland's ability to maintain the supremacy which has so long been accorded her. RECUPERATIVE POWERS. Geaeral Improvement in Portland's Business Darinsr 1S04. HE history of the different pe riods of general depression in Portland's business, wh'ch have occurred within the his tory of the city, may afford an instructive lesson of the stable conditions on which Portland's business rests, and the possi bilities of rapid recovery which exist here today as they have for a quarter of a cen tury or more past. Property values, especially in growing centers of trade, are not an LH- accurate index of the degree of prosperity such a place may enjoy. In but few cities of the United States are property values fixed. There is the speculative feature of buying and selling property, which too often either leads the investor to pav more than the property is worth from ;he standpoint of a business Investment, or to undervalue the property and make an offer that is considerably below what it actually ought to sell for. In one case he makes the investment on the prospective valuation, the value the property will at tain at some time in the near future, and in the other instance he considers the actual conditions as they may exist dur ing some period of great depression, and places a value on the property which is far below the amount represented by its actual intrinsic worth. The general rule, however, that investments in property are safe has been exemplified in Portland, just as it has in every other prominent city of the United States, and the man who makes a judicious investment in Portland property toaay will realize the same returns on this investment that the thousands of people have who have al readymadefortunesoutof Portland realty. There is some property In Portland that has been sold on a speculative basis. The large amount of property, however, in cluded within the thickly settled part of the city may even today be considered as possessing a value that has all the ele ments of stability. No good piece of prop erty in that part of Portland west of the river and extending back for one mile or more from the water front along the busi ness center would be regarded as anything Lut a sound buy by any conservative man of business. This property Is nearly all highly Improved, and it affords an asset en which loans of any reasonable amount would be readily made by the numerous large financial institutions of the city, cr by the agents of the numerous outside financial companies that are represented here. On the east side of the river the business and residence districts, compris ing hundreds of acres of sightly property, are regarded by the men who loan mon with the greatest favor, and loans can be readily obtained on any improved prop erty favorably located on the East Side as loans can be secured en property west of the river. The desirable property of Portland has always formed a basis of credit which has prevented anything like a crisis In the finances of the city. It is probably a safe assertion that should the occasion require it, an issue that has never been brought before the Portland people, an amount -ofr money could be secured- by Portland's 'wealthy property-owners that would carry this city safely through even five or six years of as great a depression as was experienced on the coast in lb9o. Aside from Portland's assets in income producing property, however, this city, as the financial center of the Pacific Northwest, has a fund set aside for a rainy day that has not only carried Port land, but a large part of the Pacific North west, through one of the most disastrous panics the country ever witnessed. Port land's representative banks have always been safely managed, and these banks today are among the strongest on the coast. Portland's leading business houses have been managed in the same con servative lines, and even during the latter part of 1S93 no serious losses weie made by these houses. During 1SD1 there was a general Improvement in business which has surprised even the most enthusiastic of the local merchants, and the prospects of a still further increase in general bus iness here are more encouraging than they have been for a number of years past. The clearances of the Portland banks during August, 1S93, were $2,730,459 30. The clearances for October of the same year were $5,678,514 S5. In October last, as shown by the table published in connec tion with the article on banks in the present issue, the clearances of Port land's banks reached the satisfactory fig ure of $6,961,937 53. These figures furnish undisputable evidence of the rapid recov ery in the general business conditions of the city during the past year, and they Indicate, as has been stated before in this article, that Portland's prosperity rests on a foundation that no financial storm will ever seriously disturb. The reports of the Portland postoffice afford a most interesting study of the rapid growth the city has made in the last 40 years, and these reports also tend to establish the claim that Portland has never suffered a serious setback from any temporary depression brought about by the same causes which effect a temporary lull in the affairs of all large cities at different times in their history. In 1850 the gross receipts of the Portland post office amounted to $S2 93. The following year the gross receipts were $1474 75. In 1S56 the receipts had increased to $1724 22. From the latter year up to 1SS4 there was a steady and rapid increase each succes sive year, except one, in which a slight falling off only was noted. In I860 they were $3603 89; in 1867, $10,520 S3; in 1873, $20, 109 25, and in 1880, $41,567 42. In the four years following, the annual receipts of the postoffice nearly doubled, for in 1SS4 the gross receipts made the satisfactory showing of $75,222 83. In 1S85 the receipts drooped back to $66,307 12; in 1880 they were $6S,887 82, and in 18S7 the receipts surpassed all previous records, the show ing for that year having been $7S,976 23. By 1S92, however, the receipts of the post office had reached the enormous amount of $175,790 74. In the year of the panic the receipts only dropped back to $167,556 30, a total falling off for 1S93 over what the receipts had been the year previous of a little more than $8000. One of the dullest periods experienced in Portland's history since the era of rail roads was that included within the years 1S55 and 1SSG. In the report of the post office cited above, however, It will be no ticed that, while the postoffice receipts dropped nearly $7000 In 1SS5 below what they had been in the previous year, in 18S5 they increased over $2500, and the showing for the following year was over $10,000 ahead of what it had been in 18S5. The receipts of 18S7 were even ahead of the re ceipts of the boom year, 1884. The post office receipts of Portland show that the period of recovery by Portland from any disturbance in either the business or the finances of the city has never exceeded two years, and the wonderful recuperative powers Portland has shown during the past year indicates that by the latter part of the present year, at the latest, the nor mal condition of business will again have been reached here. It is this upward tendency in all lines of industry in Portland and the vast trib utary country that is the source of the greatest promise for the immediate future. There were never the chances afforded for Investment in Portland property that are I Bt. effered today. While there has been no great depreciation in the values of good property here, yet the financial depression of 1SS3 put an effectual stop to real estate transfers In all parts of the United States. This was followed by a readjustment of property values that finally led during the past year to considerable activity in the real estate market In Western cities of good standing. Desirable property has been sold here at fair values property that the owners would have held during more prosperous times. Putting this prop erty on the market has put men with, means on the alert for desirable buys in good realty here. There is no property in Portland beln? sacrificed at the present time, but there is much good property be ing sold here at prices that will insure in vestors large returns within the next few years, and the class of men who are mak ing these investments attests the faith that is felt in Portland's future by those who are best able to study carefully the situation here as it now exists. What is true of Portland property is doubly true of farming lands in all parts of Oregon. Good land can be bought to day in the Willamette valley and in the best parts of Eastern Oregon at prices that allow this land to be worked at a profit by any industrious settler. The era of big farms in Oregon has gone by. Wheat at from 40 to 50 cents a bushel cannot be raised profitably as a single crop. To raise wheat at a profit when from GO to SO cents a bushel is the settled price, the farmer must have a big farm and have all the advantages of modern and expensive machinery, and the control of some little capital. A man fanning from 20 to 40 acres, however, and raising diversified crops, can afford to take chances of raising a small amount of wheat, and if the selling price will not justify him inhaulinghis wheat to market he can feed it to his pigs, his cattle or his chickens. No market for farm prod .ucts can be so depressed that a small farm in any of the fertile sections of Ore gon cannot be made to pay, especially if the farmer, with his family, will do the principal wofk of cultivating his farm and not confine himself to any single crop. What is said of wheat will also apply to hops and wool, all staple crops of Oregon. The rich lands of Oregon are adapted either to wheatgrowing, fruit raising or to producing successfully any of the crops raided on any part of the coast. Crops in Oregon, as has been re peatedly drummed into the ears of the farmers of the East, never fail, and Ore gon doubtless has better capacity for sup porting a large number of families, each occupying and tilling a small farm, than any state In the Union. The results of small farming in Oregon during the past year have been highly successful. Fruit culture, as is shown by the complete ar ticle on the fruit industry of the "state, published in this issue, is claiming a large share of the attention of the Oregon farmer today, and the fruit industry of Oregon within the next few years prom ises to become one of the greatest Indus tries on the coast. "WORK SOLVES IT. Industry Is tlie "Watcliword of an In telligent People. zZ&i HERE are today in Portland and in the Immediate tributary territory which does its princi pal retail trading with the busi ness houses of -this city up ward, of 100,000 people. These people are generally prosper ous; they are intelligent and they are possessed of that In domitable will which made the early pioneer brave the hard shins of the trip of 2000 miles across the plains in his cherished hope of finding a home in the rich lands of the Willamette valley. The advantages for advancement in this stato now are even better than they were 20 years ago. Oregon has the same match less resources that were always here; there Is more land open to settlement that is within easy reach of good markets than was ever offered at any time in, the state's history, and there Is the capital to develop promising industries in the state that was altogether denied the first settlers in the Willamette valley. In the separate articles in this number on the leading industries of Portland and the state will be found full statistics of the present standing of these industries and also the general conditions under which they are conducted. The article on Portland's banks, for instance, will fur nish all the desired information on the financial stability of the city. The sepa rate article on the prosperous centers of population of Oregon will afford an ac curate idea of the industries of the differ ent parts of the state. Under the general head of Oregon will be found valuable In formation on the industries of mining, stockraising, including sheep and wool, timber resources, fruit culture and other prominent occupations of Oregon's people. Portland has direct connection by railroads and steamer lines with Puget sound, steamers ply on the Willamette and Columbia rivers regularly between Portland and the sea, steamboat lines operate from Portland south through the Willamette valley over the river of the same name for a distance of 100 miles and more, regular lines of steamboats operate on the Lower Willamette and Upper Columbia between Portland and The Dalles, and as noted in the article on railroads in this present-issue, Portland has direct connection with all parts of the Pacific Northwest and with the East by the numerous lines of railroad center ing here. The coast points of Oregon and Washington are reached regularly by commodious steamships of moderate draft. Portland Is a center of great manufac turing activity. Some of the oldest fac tories on the coast are located here, and the investments of capital In these indus trial enterprises represent millions of dol lars. In the single plant of the Oregon Iron & Steel Company, at Oswego, six miles south of Portland, on the banks of the Willamette river, is invested the large sum of $500,000. This is Portland capital, and the headquarters of this company are in this city. Some of the principal indus tries at Oregon City, the coming Lowell of Oregon, 12 miles south, are owned and operated by Portland capital. The largest woolen mill on the coast is established at Oregon City, and this mill is operated and controlled from the company's head quarters at Portland. In Portland itself are established large and complete saw mill plants which emnloy In the aggregate hundreds of men, a complete cordage works of great capacity, a linseed oil mill which is one of the largest plants of the kind In the West, paint factories, furni ture factories and hundreds of other in dustrial enterprises. Portland today is the leading manufacturing center of the Pacific Northwest, and the development of these industries here has followed the legitimate demands for the products of these factories which the rapid settlement of the rich tributary country has created. The completion of the great electrical generating and transmitting plant of the Portland General Electric Company at Oregon City will be of the greatest benefit to the industrial development of Portland. This plant will not only supply power for running all the electric lights of the city, but power will also be transmitted from Oregon City to Portland in any quantity deslredfor running all kinds of machinery. This plant i3 the largest electrical gen erating power station in the world run by water power, and when completed it will be one of the greatest industrial undertak ings on the Pacific coast. WW 1 )