CHE MORNING OREGONIAN. "WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1,
PORTLAND CITY OF EAGTORIES
Ranks Second on Coast in Manufacturing, and
Presses California Metropolis Closely for Lead
W. B. AYER, President.
F. H. RANSOM, Manager.
M. F. HENDERSON, Vice-President.
PHILIP BUEHNER, Treasurer.-
By 8. B. Vincent, Secretary of Manufac
turer' Association of the Northwest.
THE City of Portland enjoys the en
viable distinction of being the sec
ond largest manufacturing city on
the Pacific Coast. , Her manufactured
products, while not covering a wide range,
are of such volume, that In the aggregate
their value exceeds that of any other
city In the West, save San Francisco.
When one considers that the output of
Portland's factories for the year of 1907
will total in value approximately J35.000,
0W, her position as the great manufactur
ing center of the Pacific Northwest is un
assailable. Lumber and timber products, of course,
rank first in the list of Portland's manu
factures. With the greatest forests In
the country almost at her door, Portland
is peculiarly well adapted lor the mar
keting of the hewn timber and its manu
facture Into the various commercial forms
which commonly are assembled under the
jeenerat heading, 'Timber and Lumber
Products.'
Oregon lumber is being shipped to every
section of the United States, to the Ha
waiian Islands, to Australia, to Africa,
the Philippines and the Far East. Ore
gon fir is .being shipped with more or
less regularity to Grand Rapids, Mich.,
the furniture manufacturing center of the
United States, and the time, according to
the best Governmental authorities, is not
very far distant, when the bulk of the
standing hardwood timber of commercial
value in the United States will be found
in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
The value of the lumber and timber
products manufactured in Portland dur
ing the past year will exceed J6.o00.000.
' These figures do not include planing mill
products to the value of about tiOOO.OOO
or furniture factory products to the value
of about n.000,090.
Portland's flour and grist mill products
rank second in importance in her list of
manufacturing industries, the value of the
lutput for 1907 being about JO.000.000. As
an advertisement of her commercial sta
bility and increasing importance as a
manufacturing and commercial center,
Portland's food products afford an un
usually fine testimonial. Portland flour
Is now consumed in every section of the
FOmXAND'S BVILDIG REC
ORD FOR 1807.
More and better buildings have
btcn erected in Portland during
the past year than in any other
In the city's history, as is attestr
ed by the official record of per
mits issued at the City Hall. The
total expenditure for the year
was 19.505,377, with the Decem
ber figures estimated at $250,000.
This is a gain of $2, 361.9 IS over
1906, when the expenditure
amounted to J6.943.471. A high
er standard has been adopted in
the building, both of business
structures and residences, as Is
shown by hundreds of new homes
all over the city and many sky
scrapers completed during the
year. A comparative monthly ta
ble of building activity during
the past two years follows:
1907. 1908.
January 6114.47.1 S .liJ,oil7
February S8B.74K ;10S,388
March 6S9.T--9 423.414
April l,,H'tt.77 550.802
Mar - 1. '.-'. 7.':-' 1,87,79
June S6..2.V ::S8.1K7
July 7tK!.:ii 740,6:10
August S81.CBO 71S.001
September . 43.3iX 440,440
October ." KM. 735 S29.870
December 34.1, :0 372.618
' Total (9,410,137 J8.W3.471
Estimated,
globe. Wherever shipping Is carried on,
and In many places where it is not, there
one will find Portland flour. It is eaten
by the civilized peoples of the world,
wherever they are, to the North, the
South, the East or the West;' there one
will find the finest flour in the world
with the sacks bearing the name of the
maker and "Portland, Oregon," in bold
letters. And in not a few countries Port
land "mush" is eaten every day for
breakfast, and in this great country of
ours, where the "flapjack" forms he
principal breakfast dish In hundreds of
thousands of homes, Oregon "salf-raising
pancake flour" serves to keep, the name
of the city and state favorably before the
people.
It is to her lumber and flour products
that Portland, and Oregon, must give
most credit for the upbuilding of her in
dustrial life, but the packing industry,
yet In its infancy, has assumed such wide
scope during the past 10 years, that today
the products of Portland's slaughter and
packing houses aggregate !n value about
J2.7oO.OnO annually. With the rapid grov. tli
of the Pacific Coast this industry will
assume proportions of a magnitude not
dreamed cf a decade ago. Some of the
largest packers in the country are erect
ing plants near this city and in a few
years Ponland will be . the "packing
town" of the West.
And so on down the long list of Port
land's industries one could go. but a I
was not asked to present a table of stat
istics. I will turn from the past into tho
future and dwell for a few moments upon
our needs and the prospects for the fur
ther upbuilding of Portland as a manu
facturing center, and Oregon as a manu
facturing state.
There has been a quickening in the
PACKS PRUNES FOR THE NATION
Albany Center of Industry in the Willamette Val
leyShips 6,000,000 Pounds of Dried Fruit in 1907
By Wlltard I.. Marks.
AhBA.W exported a.000,000 pounds of
dried prunes in 1907 the largest
shipment ever sent out from any
city in the Pacific Northwest. They went
to all leading markets of the United
States, brought better prices than ever
before, helped increase the fame of the
Oregon prune and distributed J300.000
among the growers of this part of the
state.
The immensity of this shipment can
better be realized when It is shown that
If the prunes sent from Albany this sea
son were placed end to end they would
reach once across the United States and
two-thirds of the way back. Or they
would build a wall of prunes more than
two feet high from Albany to Portland.
Every person In the United States could
sit down to dinner and each have three
prunes out of this colossal shipment. If
the people of Albany were to eat all the
prunes their city shipper this season,
each person would be compelled to eat
ten prunes at each of the three meals
every day for Ave years.
A little less than half of the prunes
which comprised this shipment were
crown in Linn and Benton counties, in
country tributary to this city. The re
mainder came from different' parts of
the Willamette Valley and Southern Ore
amount of manufacturing In this state,
an Increase natural with the rapid devel
opment of the country and the working
out of the inevitable principle that the
West must supply the West with such
manufactured articles as can be econo
mically produced on the Pacific Coast.
The population of Oregqn and the entire
West is increasing at .such a rate that
assessor's figures show
increase: in wealth.
No more remarkable evidence
of Portland's progress can be
given than the comparative table
of the annual assesssment of
Multnomah County property dur
ing the past seven years. Port
land property comprises all but
a comparatively small proportion
of the assessed valuation of the
county, and the increase from
year to year has been very great.
In explanation of the appended
table, it should be said that 1905
was the first year that property
was assessed at an approximate
full valuation. Even with this
taken into consideration, the ad
vance has been notable, and it is
worthy of attention that the 1907
assessment exceeded that of 1906 .
by J52.235.490. Increased value
of realty and franchises and new
buildings are the chief factors in
the advance that has been made.
The annual assessment of Mult
nomah County for ,the past six
years follows:
1002
UNIX
194
19o5
lnuB
1907
.J 44,146.000
. SI, 038.000
. 56,429.000
. 143.860,000
. 180.9(15,668
. 233,141,058
manufacturers in many lines have not
been able to keep pace with the rrowth
of the home trade and new factories have
been established and older factories en
larged to handle the increasing volume of
-business. The demand for all commodi
ties is so great that Portland, so well
situated in the matter of transportation
and possessing so many natural advan
tages. Is forging ahead rapidly as a manu
facturing center. Capital, in seeking an
outlet in the West, has poured into the
metropolis of Oregon in large amounts
during the past three or four years and
will continue to be invested here as the
country grows. ' ,
Oregon's development as a manufactur
ing state has just commenced, and as her
matchless resources are developed to a.
g'-eater degree so will her advance in
the roster of manufacturing states fue
heralded. With the coming of additional
railroads, the improvement of river trans
portation, Portland soon will be the
greatest railroad center on the Pacific
Coast except San Francisco, and fac
tories usually seek the best transporta
tion facilities.
Several of Oregon's most promising in
dustries have been allowed to lag and
prompt action will have to be taken to
save them from dry-rot. For instance
a few years ago Oregon was eighth in
the list of wool manufacturing states,
but today 'she is thirteenth. No indus
try seems to offer such a promising field
for development. This state is possessed
of as good wool as is grown in this
country and it is raised in such quantities
as would seem to warrant greater efforts
in a manufacturing way. The water of
many of our streams is equal to the best
that Great Britain has and there seems
no good reason why more of our wool
should not be scoured at home and manu
factured into cloth, blankets and other
articles of which wool is the base. The
time is not far 'distant that unless the
wealthy men of Oregon get together rn
some project for establishing textile
towns. Eastern capitalists will step into
the breach and capture the profits which
seem to be certain in any well managed
woolen mill.
Portland seems to offer a rich field as a
furniture manufacturing center. With
BANK CLEARINGS FOR PAST
SIX YEARS.
Rapid expansion in the volume
of Portland's business is re
flected in the clearings of local
banks, which are gaining heavily
each year. During the past year
the per cent of gain was large
and for many weeks consecu
tively Bradstreefs reports
showed that Portland led i all
other American cities in this
particular. The following table
gives the bank clearings dur
ing the past six years:
Jig J134.320.103.O9
J-J0-; 173..-.W.S22.S:!
J""- INM 4RflQ
1005
228.4fl2.T12.x9
281. 170. 796. 2K
353,801,629.80
191 H.
1907
December, 1907, estimated.
timber rapidly disappearing in the East
ern states, and Portland offering ex
cellent shipping facilities to every part of
the country, it will be strange indeed if
her furniture industry is not soon ie
veloped to a degree entitling her ..o the
cognomen, "The Grand Rapids of the
West."
gon. They were dried near the scene of
their production, and were packed at the
plant of Laselle Brothers in Albany.
Thirty prune-dryers w-ere operated this
Fall within a radius of ten miles of this
city. Hundreds of people were employed
picking and drying the prunes and the
magnitude the industry assumed in Linn
County this year is shown by the fact
that Lasselle Brothers paid out more
than J40.000 in wages for labor fllrectly
due to the work of their packing plant.
The prunes shipped this year were of
excellent quality and received high praise
in Eastern markets. Ninety per cent of
the shipment consisted of prunes of the
Italian variety, the remainder being
petltes. The prunes were about equally
divided between the- classes listed as
30'8-40's. 40s-50 and 50's-60 s, making an
average of 45 prunes to the pound.
There are about 1000 acres of bearing
prune trees in Linn County, and that
part of Benton County close to this city.
Added to this acreage are some young
orchards not yet old enough to bear.
The growth of the prune-growing In
dustry here is shown by the fact that
100 acres of prune trees were set out this
year.
Included in the prune acreage tributary
to Albany is the largest Italian prune
orchard in the world. It stands In Ben
ton County on the Albany-Corvallis road
five miles southwest of this city, and in
cludes 160 acres devoted exclusively to
culture of prunes. There are said to be
EASTERN AND WES'
CAR and CARGO SHIPPERS
Vertical Flooring Made from Gang-Sawed Lumber.
Long Timbers Up to 120 feet. Surfacing Up. to
32-32 Inches. . Decking and Ship Plank. Ship
ments By All Routes from Portland, Oregon.
larger petite orchards in California, but
this excels all others of the Italian va
riety. This big orchard was set out 15
years ago by a stock company, composed
principally of Corvallis men, and owing
to poor yields and fluctuating prices it
was a financial failure for many years.
Recently, however, it has been yielding
a good income.
Until five years ago prune-growing was
hardly recognized as an industry in Linn
ormgon mum
AND 1LATHS
Mills and General Offices: Foot
MMBER CO.
MILLS: NORTH PORTLAND
PORTLAND, OREGON.
We Use American Lumberman Telecode, Western Union Code, Pacific Coast,
Liebers, A 1 and Southard.
County. Then the Laselles established
their first packing plant and exported
30 carloads of dried prunes. Prior to
that time only Ave -or ten cars a year
were sent from this county, and the only
200 acres of prune trees were bearing in
this vicinity. Since then the industry
has been making remarkable progress,
and when the Laselles shipped SO car
loads in 1906 it was regarded as a re
markably large shipment. Last year 150
PORTLAND
LUMBER GO.
Manufacturers of
Gar and Cargo Shipments
Daily Capacity 400,000
Special Attention to Local Orders
Phone S&Sd&i 57
TERN
carloads were exported and all Pacific
Northwest prune-shipping records broken.
The reputation of the Oregon prune has
rapidly risen in the Bast. In the past
five years the price has risen 2 cents a
pound, and this year's shipments netted
5 cents a pound to the grower. In former
years some difficulty was experienced
rin selling the Oregon product, but this
season local prunes were sought more
than those of any other state.
of Lincoln St.
EER
Peninsula
Lumber
Company
ROUGH AND
DRESSED LUMBER
RAILROAD AND
MINING TIMBERS
PORTLAND, -
'
Pacific Export Lumber
Company
OREGON PINE (Douglas Fir) -
For Export from Oregon, Paget Sound and British Columbia
Lumber and Timber
Cat to any dimensions desired for General Yard Use, Dock, Bridge
and Railway Construction '
Piling, Round or Square Spars and Deck
Plank Railway Sleepers, Etc.
Schedules supplied suitable for export to any part of the world
Orders carefully executed
Correspondence Solicited
216 Chamber of Commerce
Portland, Oregon
Cable Address: "Pacexport Portland." Codes: Southard, A. B. C.
4th and 5th Editions, Liebers and A. I.
PORTLAND IRON WORKS
IRON AND STEEL WORK OF ALL KINDS
Saw Mill
A Specialty
14th and Northmp Streets
mmummmnntmummm
COFFEE
TEA SPICES
BAKING POWDER.
EXTRACTS'
OUST RIGHT
CLOSSET a DEVERS
, PORTLAND, ORE.
X
OREGON
U ...MM
Machinery
PORTLAND, OR.
S. BAN
C0MPAST
34 N. Third Street
Men's
Furnishings
and
General
Merchandise
IMPORTED
JAPANESE SILK
And Otfier Goods