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About The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip. (Portland, Or.) 1923-1927 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1925)
Page Sixteen JANUARY, 19251 minds to start for Oregon without delay, with theirl eyes fastened upon some particular spot in Oregon! suitable for their purposes. THE UNITED AMERICAN western parts of the state where there is rich soil for farming and fruit-raising and plenty of grazing ground for dairy herds and sheep. Some of those hardy pioneers who transformed the eastern states into Valleys of Paradise, back there where the climate is severe both in winter and in summer, would marvel over the opportunities there are in Oregon to do a better job with better and bigger returns, because nature makes it possible to do farming in Oregon on a vastly more profitable scale. In Bill Strandborg’s “Open Window,” Paul B. McKee, who is managing the California-Oregon Power Company’s interests at Medford, writes: When I say that business conditions are good in our terri tory I am speaking of a wide spread of agricultural country extending north and south three hundred and fifty miles and east and west one hundred miles. Many substantial towns and scattered industrial plants give us a diversification of business that is always helpful. While winter weather closes down some of our logging camps and saw mills we make gains in other directions. The gross income for ten months of 1924 more than equalled our entire year of 1923 and collections have been proportion ately better. New hotels, garages and other enterprises directly con nected with tourist traffic — - have made their appearance in many of our towns indicating the importance of this new industry. Jobbing business grows rapidly at Medford as the back country builds up. The pear industry enjoyed a very profit able year, and lumber manufacturing has taken a big place in the pay roll total of the Rogue River Valley. Klamath Falls seems to have just fairly started as a great lumbering and industrial center. Dunsmuir and Yreka, California, are surprising us with new business contracts while Grants Pass and Roseburg, Oregon, continue to make demands on us for power that reflects a most encouraging expansion in every line of activity. This is just a ¡bird’s-eye view of the progress made and in the making that is centered in the territory in Southern Oregon in which Mr. McKee is located. Here is another one from “The Open Window” from J. P. Lottridge, in charge of the affairs of the Eastern Oregon Light & Power Co., at Baker in Eastern Oregon: While business conditions in the territory served by the Eastern Oregon Light and Power Company have not been all that could 'be desired during the past year, the improve ment in agricultural conditions leads me to believe that we are going to see a marked improvement during the coming year. I do not anticipate that this improvement will be particularly noticeable during the next six months. Our communities depend very largely on agriculture, lumber and mining. During the winter months these activities are more or less handicapped by winter conditions, so that it will be three or four months at least before we can determine whether or not the present indications of improved conditions are substantial or not. I have great faith in Eastern Oregon and feel that there can be no doubt about its ultimate growth and prosperity. The recent election gave all classes of business the assurance they needed of fair treatment, and I feel that our entire section will respond to this assurance at the first opportunity. The voices from other sections of the state are chiming in with similar testimonials of progress and activities that are indicative of an advance all along the line. Those who have friends “back east” who are con templating coming west, should send them such litera ture of Oregon as would help them to make up their CHINA’S INTERNAL DILEMMA rp HE POLITICAL situation in China where the I ancient Manchu dynasty of kings was overthrown! several years ago and a republic established after al fashion, has come to a pass when it is difficult to say I just what kind of government there is in China. Any-I one trying to shed some light on the subject usually! gets half through with his discource when new de velopments have altered the situation sufficiently to I prevent the finish of the discussion with a tangible! conclusion. Brigands and “carpet-baggers” are runing amuck I all over the country, which is said to have a population of more than four hundred million inhabitants. Chris-1 tianity and the occidentals’ civilization may have done a great deal for a few individual Chinese people, but there is evidently something yet to be added to the mixture to make Christianity and Western civili zation produce a satisfactory blend with Buddhism, Confucianism and what is called oriental culture or civilization, such as it is. China’s outlook as a republic-was exceedingly bright, but all the bright dreams have vanished and their materialization can hardly be considered “a matter of time.” To understand Chinese politics, however, is proba bly as much of a “Gordian knot” to the occidental as | his problem to figure out how the Chinese hierogly phic signs can be reduced to articulate human speech. While the procession of chaos and insurrections in China is constantly passing in review, and foreign nations are maintaining military guards amounting to army units of war strength around legations and foreign business centers in the Chinese cities, with foreign missions raided and the missionaries murdered or carried off into the mountain retreats by the bandit armies, where they are held for huge ransom, the world is anxiously awaiting the results of the peoples’ conference in China which was scheduled to meet on the 24th of January. This conference is called for the purpose of settling the issues between the powers now in open warfare against one another; the conservative, the reactionary, the progressive and the radical elements. The element having the strongest support is then supposed to be given the power to organize the government. One of the strongest factors in the Chinese political field is the present president of southern China, Sun Yat-Sen, who has the support of the so- called Kwamintang party and the Christian General Feng. The president of the rebellious northern sections, Ohi-Juis, though a formidable factor, is not thought strong enough to get the endorsement of the con ference and become elected president of all China. The army generals are, however, playing a strong part as independent leaders, and predictions regard ing the outcome of the conference vary. Educated Chinese who venture to offer expla nations may be right or wrong in their analysis of cause and effect, but though they speak with re luctance regarding foreign influences as potential