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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1903)
THE MORNING OREGONIAN, THITESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1903. Development, Progress and Spirit of Orec kTHER pages of this paper give In detail facts and figures "which Illus trate the conditions of Industry, pro duction and commerce In that portion of the United States of which Portland is the business capital. What It has done, what It Is doing, much of what it plans to dp, are there set forth. But with all this painstaking fullness something re mains to be said to give the reader an un derstanding of the power of the country; for it Is by Its spirit, Its potentialities, Its tendencies, quite as much as by its con ditions, that Oregon or any country Is Justly to be measured. It Js the pur pose of .this writing to consider these larger and lees concrete aspects of the Oregonlan life not, indeed, from an ab stract standpoint, but in their relations to the Immediate status and operations of the country and to Its progress. The present era of abounding prosper ity In Oregon dates from the year 18fff, When, through the combined effects of a season of heavy crops and high prices and of a universal revival of business, the country pulled out of the slough of de spond Into which it had been engulfed by financial collapse of 1B93. The period of stagnation. . had dealt severely . but wholesomely with Oregon; and at Its end the country was on a much better footing than at its beginning. True, everything In the form of property had been scaled fiown; every citizen had felt the financial blight of the times. But the country while down to bedrock -was solvent In a busi ness sense, and In all moral respects in finitely sounder and stronger than before. Its losses, apparently so terrible, were not real; they were the mere casting off of an unwholesome bloat produced by specula tion, the break-up .of ill-considered and purely speculative projects. "Whatever was of real value In the country at Its period of greatest activity remained after the hurricane of liquidation had passed. The country came out of the long period of depression to find that It was In fact stronger than before, In that the ideas and habits of the people had been reduced to the level of their circumstances, and that they had learned the lessen of mu tual dependence. Co-operation through organization of Industry, that lesson so difficult for a people of pioneer breeding and tradition to acquire, dates with us from the time when the results of Iso lated and Independent effort proved Insuf ficient to the needs of the country. Be fore the period of depression the'intensely individual spirit Inherited from the pioneer time had largely ruled In our affairs. At Its end the people were ready as they had never been before to pull together. The old resource had failed In a crisis; there was willingness and even eagerness to try new ways. The body social and Indus trial, so to speak, had been born anew and In a character better suited to cur rent times and conditions. 'GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY. Portland nt the Janctlea of Great Valley Systems. WHOEVER would understand the se cret of Portland's business relation! ships, practically unchanged by the devel opments of half a century, would do well to study the accompanying topographical mop. giving special consideration tG the lines which mark river courses and the mountain ranges which cover so large a part of the country. It was Inevitable In the earlier days that a trading station should come into existence at the point where the two great valley systems of the country meet. Vancouver, now In the State of Washington, and on the north side of the Columbia River, was the first point to be hit upon for a settlement, being selected by the Hudson's Bey Com pany as convenient for its purveyors of peltries operating east of the Cascade Mountains, in the Willamette Valley and the 'region of the lower Columbia River. Ihe Vancouver station served the purposes of the fur trade well enough, but it was too far from the productive country of the Tualatin and the "Willamette for the con venience of the agricultural settlers who , .came into the country a little later. Ore gon City, at the falls of the Willamette; came Into existence later. In response to i the pioneer needs of the country, out It In turn wac found inconvenient. It was Ithln reasonable distance of the prod uctive country, but It was too far above point where snips could come. MH- lAukle, seven miles down the river and tthln Ave miles of Portland, was hit pnas a point reachable fay the shallow keels of that early day, and it had a it period of prosperity, but It was on wrong side ot the river, not being ap chable from the Tualatin region iout a long detour involving vthe pass-. S6of the Columbia River. Xilnnton, six miles below Portland, had its brief day 9f "Ufibltious expectancy, but its chances. like those of Mllwaukle, faded away when a settlement -was made at the point now known as Portland, at once accessible to ships, to traffic In boats from up the Col umbia Blvor and by the wagons of the pioneer farmers. From the day when Portland first got Its start until now there has never been any question as to Its status as the center of traffic and trade in the Northwest coun try. Steamboat navigation succeeded navigation by the canoe and the '"whale boat," and It confirmed the standing of Portland. The railroad came fr th steamboat, and It In turn confirmed " "c .u.iiiucrujiii power oi jruriiana. 113 unes lonowed naturally the routes of the earlier agencies of trans portatlon, for these had chosen the water courses and the passes through the moun tains. It Is possible, of course, to build and operate railroads across mountain summits, but it Is never done excepting under circumstances of extreme necessity, and railroads so built and operated must always work at a disadvantage compared with roads with lower and level grades. Examine carefully any map of, the States of Oregon and Washington nnd you cannot fall to be struck by the fact that Portland Is approachable from every pro ductive section by a practically level route. From ell points In the Willamette Valley It Is easy going all the way to Portland; from the wide basin of the Lower Columbia River the road to Port land Is a water level; from almost any point In the great interior bnsin of the Columbia and Snake Rivers the road to Portland Is an unbroken level. The gorge through which the Columbia River finds Jte way pist Portland's door to the sea Is the one break In the great wall of the Cascade Mountains between British Col umbia and California. This, with respect to the transportation of the interior basin. is a lact or tremendous significance. Tho law of nature which makes water run down hill applies with dominating force to the heavy transportation of a produc tive country. Freight traffic will follow the line of least resistance it will take the down-hill track. With this principle in i mind, turn to-the topographical map and. tracing up-stream from Portland the lines of water-course, discover for yourself the j ramifications of commercial Oregon the lemiory wnicn is marked out by condi- tlons of nature which no art can change, pc i.fhitf ow n fViA 4 m - . 1C vuiuiiiuu i-cuici 01 1 Portland. j Any and all efforts to direct the traffic ' of any part of this territory Into other ' courses and to other centers must run J counter to the law of gravity, and while . for a time they may appear to be success- j iui, mey must in ine ena wnen competi- ; tion presses fail. Again and again It has j proved to be so during the commercial i career of Portland. Even now, that part j of the traffic of the Interior basin of the Columbia River which passes outlo the ; seaboard over- the crest of the Cascade . Mountains, costs more than that which follows the line ,of water level, down the , westr-and you will find that the earliest Columbia River, through tho Cascade settlers came from the Willamette Val Gorge and by the gateway of Portland, n ley. For many years this movement con- An excessive freight -rate maintained by arbitrary arrangement between the trans- The above outline of the regions which form the Pacific Northwest exhibits the essential topographical features of the country. A little . - uj tfttTttft(rtittttirrniimaiiiiia.r portatlon agencies operating In the try alcne makes division of the traffic possible. The opening of the , Columbia River to nnbrokeii navigation through Its whole coursemust in the very nature of things establish conditions which will make all such arbitrary and unnatural arrangements Impossible. It Is unthink able that the people of the great Interior basin will go on forever paying a freight rat by which Its products may be hauled with profit over an unnatural and un necessarily costly route. Even under the arrangement now In force between the , roalroads, the vast bulk of the traffic of me interior Basin is carried to the sea board by tho route of the Columbia River, I nnA In tlm ft ma .1 .11 I ... ... uiuoi watnuiuy an come 1 that way. This is the judgment of com mon sense likewise It Is the declared opinion, of every practical transportation man, from Henry VIHard to James J. Hill. MOVEMENTS IN POPULATION. Relations of the Willamette Valley to the Xe-rrer Regions. THERE are some conditions In Oregon which follow naturally from the his tory and circumstances of the country but which to general and outside obser vation appear anomalous. Take, for ex ample, the, Willamette Valley, whose de velopment, while intrinsically large, has been slow in comparison with that of tho newer countries cf Eastern Oregon and Washington and of Southern Idaho. Why Is It, every thoughtful stranger is likely to ask, that this relatively long-settled and rich countryt with Its better equip ment of churches and schools and social conditions, should be In a material sense not much further ahead than the country north andwest of the Blue Mountains, the Palouse countryi the Valley of the Yak Ima and several other newor districts? On the surface there appears to be no adequate reason for It, and yet the ex- nlannflnn Is clmnln Thn WllUmnttn ITnl w -ufT-io f -poma Northwest to be occupied by white men and It had come to a very considerable development - before any movement was made toward occupation of other parts 0f the country. Many of the early comers -were stockmen-dependent upon the range . . . . . ... ! ana wnen ine pastures oi me wmameue : were c0SCd Dy fences, as they were very? generally by the early "fifties," .they ' "trekked" off to newer fields. The dlscov- J ery of gold In the lato "forties" drew oft j another large section of the ea.rly Wll- j lamettc settlers. It was through this i movement from the Willamette valley that Eastern Oregon and Washington got their first stast In the way of population. Go. today Into TJmaUlla County. Baker County. Crook County. the Walla Walla country, the Kllckl-j tat country, to Tillamook, to Klamath I Lake anywhere east, south, north or S tinned; the newer districts, being closely ' connected with the Valley by ties of fam- TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF OREGON, WASHINGTON AND IDAHO me wuci wit ui iic nuimwcsi is uisincis oi ine country meet ac ily and acquaintance, made continual drafts upon the parent stock. Again, tie growth of Portland drew largely from the population of the Valley. The tempera ment of the pioneer people was of a sort to develop In the second generat'on a tarte for professional life, and the demonstm Hon of this tendency "is found In tho fact that a very large proportion of the" pro fessional men of the city have been drawn from the Willamette Valley. There never has been a time when , many among tho foremost men in the professional life of the city have not been men of up-the-Valley birth or tradition. The Willam ette Valley has thus been In a sense the fountain head of our Northwest popula- . . won, ana irom it as a common source every part of the country has made drafts. As the Valley came Into a considerable development earlier than the other parts of the country. Its aval able public lands were soon exhausted, therefore those who came looking for free homes found It necessary to search further, and so passed on to newer districts where Uncle Sam still wssable to provide every comer witn a farm. Railroads were built Into many of tho newer districts almost as soon as Into the Willamette Valley, giving Immigrants the chuice of taking up free und or of buying lands already Improved In the Willamette Valley; and In many districts, notably in the Umatilla and Palouse, settlement was .facilitated by the fact that the country was treeless, while In the Valley It was necessary after buy ing a farm to devote much labor to clear ing and preparing it for the plow. Of course, there has always been among newcomers a minority preferring to buy improved places and ready to pay for tho advantages of an established civilization, and from this class the population of the Valley has steadily been recruited; but ho movement has been slow when com rarcd With tho rush Into districts Mke that of the Palouso, where tho Immigrant had only to establish hfs camp while ho put In a crop on tho ready soil, defining to the time between planting and harvest tlje making- of such shelter for his family as serveii In a new country. It is only within the last few years that the condi tions of the country as a whole have been equalized; that the price of Willamette Valley-lands has not been In striking and unfavorable consist with vyJ ies in thn newer districts. The period of hard times, ( . ...... ... - 100, wnicn lonowed tne collapse of 1833. served to bring down the prices of Valley lands from the artificial basis to which J they had been advanced by the generally Inflated Ideas of the boom times to some- thing like real value; and the stress through which the country passed tend- ! ea 10 me nreaK-up ot tne large and largely unworked-holdings which had been the fashion of the country from i pioneer times. Today the Valley, In Its ! current growth, -compares., favorably with those districts which for many years en - grossed all the Incoming movement, while i- the Valley appeared to be. almost stand-4 Ing still in its development, A point has been reached In the general development i of the country where the spee'lal attrac- tlons of the Valley count for more than J ever before, ahdwhere they are not nulll- wiicic n i. rtii me waicr-icvei lines, n win De pDservea, covering iw tne conjunction or tne wOiumoia ana - fled by the existence of new and available districts In which good lands may be had for the taking. TRANSPORTATION PROGRESS. Many Sections of the State Waiting for Railroads. Still THE development and progress of Ore gon owes much, of course, to the rail road systems which operate In the coun try and connect It with the world In gen eral; but at the same time Oregon has gained less relatively through Its rail roads than almost any other American state. In the first place the railroads were long In coming, and when they did come it was by routes long served by naviga tion, and they tended In .their effects to confirm and enlarge establlshedcondltlona rather than to create new ones. No revo lution was made anywhere in Oregon by the Iron horse; it wrought no radical change In the domestic conditions except ing insofar as it substituted one form of carriage for another. It did not, as In the adjoining State of Washington, recast and make anew the conditions of life and busi ness. There were, of course, reasons for all this, the main reason being the situation of Portland, the chief city of Oregon, at the junction of the two great valley sys;, terns of the country the Columbia and the Willamette. In a flat country, rail roads may wander at the will of their builders, as Is everywhere illustrated In the levol states of the Mississippi Val ley: but In- a mountainous country they must, if they are to be built and operat ed economically, hug the lines of the water-courses. It happens curiously that tho great lines of river-way run around rather than throuch much of the State of sure, runs through tjie Valley which takes Its name, and Is paralleled by one of our more Important linos of railroad, but the great river courses of the Snake and Col umbia east of the Cascade Mountains run along the north anS east boundaries of Oregon, nowhere cutting through the heart of the country, which everywhere lies high. The railroads follow these river-ways routes served by navigation long before the day of railroads and so - railed in tneir western march to open up much In the way of new territory. In the adjoining State of Washington, on the other hand, the railroads. In order to reach the centers of population, were compelled to cut across country, and thus to dpen up and give transportation to re- glons previously little populated. In Washington, the great Interior lies lower than the Interior df Oregon, arid It was crossed 20 years ago by the road which connects- the Puget Sound country with .the East. Central Washington, therefore, yrhlle no richer .naturally than Central Oretron. and destined In tha lone run to no greater development. Is from 15 to 20 years In advanco of the last-named countrv. -which- Is only just now being opened up by special railroad movements. If, like the Valley of the Yakima, the Valley of Willamette Kivers at rortiana. - - . . . . the Deschutes and tfe Valley of the John Day"ltlver had lain an the path of the transcontinental railroads, they would not today be pioneer county still waiting for the development whlc their Intrinsic merits are bound to win, In time. The same Is true of the country of Southeastern Oregon. Here Is a district larger than the State of Ohio and Intrin sically scarcely less rich In Ihe native ele ments which under population and In dustry go to the making of wealth; but with all Its potentialities and Us geo graphical proximity to the chief markets of the Coast It lies midway between Portland and San Francisco there. Is not a pound of railroad Iron In it. To fh; day It knows no means of tranrrvrti4k excepting the saddle pony, th m .jn Mrk and the freight wagon. T n '- ur few been that It lay far ncrf lln ol the Central Pacific Railn 'ar west f the Oregon Shirt Line an. r-r south t the Northern Pacific and the f .-ecm Rail way & Navigation roads. Elged in be tween high mountains, it has .v.mp', wait ed for a railroad. Population ba-i cam to it, but only In limited numbers, nd t- day It remains what It was forty -ve; -. j ago a pioneer country. j Instances might be multiplied to l.; trate the truth that one-half of the , - ductlve area of Oregon lle3 unocv. pied and practically unproductive, waltiii I upon that essential of commercial prog ress, tranuportation. There Is tho Tilla mook country, south of the Columbia River, which has only such transportation service as the sea affords, subject to the hindrances and hazards of a shallow bar, oftentimes In winter Impassable for ves sels for weeks together. There Is tha whole region of the ocean coast, from the Columbia River to the California line, practically undeveloped, and for tho lack of regular transportation. There Is the Klickitat country. Just now being opened by Portland Initiative and capital. There Is not to go far from home the Valley of the Upper Le'wls River and the Valley of the Nehalem, and the Bridgeport dis trict in Clackamas County all pioneer country to this day, waiting .upon tha time when, with the coming of transpor tation, the productive industry to which they aro so admirably adapted will be es tablished. These Instances ere recited to make plain the statement that railroads have as yet done relatively little for Oregon. Many among Its best productive, fields remain almost unoccupied and compara tively speaking undeveloped. No Ameri can state affords so many and such Invit ing opportunities for railroad enterprise. Portland, a city of merchants, has been slow to enter upon enterprises foreign to Its business habit and genius; but a start has been made In railroad-building which promises to accomplish that for which we havo waited too long upon the enterprise ot professional railroad opera tors. The Columbia Southern, elsewhera described in this paper. Is strictly a home enterprise, conceived by Portland men and to a considerable extent created by Portland capital which it Is pro The electric lines by proposed to bring Western v y study of this, may f4will rajMt j pnuuv'- s , Clackamas County and TmfritS v ,D' ton County into a tMrtct aomt.', " ,wl Portland, are hot:. - n T. several logging r. starting at Colun Helens, on the Co! Ing toward the N er home enterprl la. City, i...ais ibi&Sfver a.Sfl wo? Ti aistrJ. oil."4- 'f all as illoetrat v -And fts 4::;ty at nt prbfa, to But most lmpo: Ing the spirit of as well Is the .-lu-which passing r :! The Klickitat country ern part of the S st east of the Cascade . i the $tit; . Mountains, a few mile3 north of the Columbia River but directly shut oft from It b? a high range of mountains. Although In point of geog raphy east and above the obstPagilprg Jo navigation at The Dalles, . the. ifficSffct' Is connected with the lower bas3n of the Columbia River by fi. series of narrow canyons, affording a railroad route. Through these canyons a Portland com pany is building a railroad designed to connect with a steamboat line making di rect connection with Portland. This en terprise, elswhere described" In detail, Is wholly a Portland affair. Every dollar of the large sum put Into It something like $1.000.000 has been subscribed by Portland people. Unquestionably It was "as a busi ness project that the venture was made; there had not been In It something more than an investment. Through this enter prise Portland is consciously reaching out In a great work of interior development. The spirit of the city is back of this movement, and It will not rest content with the accomplishment of this special and Isolated project. Portland Is only just , beginning to understand the potentialities of her great accumulation of capital: only just coming to comprehend that her op portunitle3 may have largermotlve and a wider range tnan tne operations or me cantlle trade. INDUSTRIES Of THE SOIL A CsBsIdered la Their R'.Mcto Progress of tl4 State. tke WHILE the Induir? :f Oregon la a thing of man rams- whfie matjjrj streams combine ti mak ihe 4lump ef its productive life- ft ilrat cvsl main 3a- pendence Is the sail, herjgc ippf-'as woodsmen, m!tjr, Jfefeecgt&t, work ers In factoms. the. baker and the .;nileflUaE farmer outp-ucbra products of u and tho b ef mtr cft world of .jnercfs. t& paper of Si4y .v vtd merclal affairs net Sorlt. -Sfc quan-' tlty of tSKfJVlt., :l ttlons In so far of uf Ik wtJftcce; and the reas ant? tttriraDP3K'ja8ls mkmmt6 the xM'-sM. of this V umaelf-1 what quired to sup- - . community of ' Wiymwhi w'-flSms- of home popu- -wfe. c ,-ularly an Inde- MUt, ange of Its orlgi- and If it were wtafe . o Com ' the rest of tho - M fjShne ufrfii&.not suffer for any t'M aiw-'tiafe:-aBa; not, indeed, for or tlrSr luxuries of life. There Is no nek. r Vrcbatdf pv garden product suited f i 'ero&rfttsfltitudes which carfnot be t 8-own are; aia la most Instances to per f - torfu Our,ereal3 go Into the, annually Zipe, bte gcommefclat supply which maV.es h World's dally bread. Our wools miyiM hd1ilothlns for several times the n- VVl.. n'fmt n-wrrt rnitriMvr" JT.,.. I - i L re distributed through the agencies of i commerce arouna tne world. Our" general J KlBwlproducts help to supply the mar- ) ei3is iar .oast as xne Atlantic seaboard. , Owr .hops go wherever thclt ia'de a&anded. Our dairy products .afec&bnd. kto none. 'kites Sut while our farm industry we. class Mock breeding and ranging as farming l a thing of great variety InjItseTf and of Imost varied productions, -Its, specialties 'are pronounced. Wheat Is easfly our fore "rooat. field crop, being specially suited to the soils and general conditions of much of our farming country. : Afler wheat comes animal productions In the many forrosf and it Is here that our greatest advance Is likely to come. LArge parts of Eastern Oregon are now given over to stock ranging, and more and more It Is coming to be understood that the best results of farming in Western Oregon jeeme through one form or another of anl BMtl husbandry.. For, .while every species ef 'arm reduction yields a bountiful re- rtf ft A t L Vnf.-:'i- -k