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
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