Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1959)
OREGON WILL PLAY HOST to the world at its Centennial Ex position and International Trade Fair which opens for 100 days on June 10 in Portland. Shown above is an aerial view of the exposi tion grounds. In the foreground is the 11-acre exposition building. To the left is Adventureland, Oregon's answer to Disneyland. At- tractions there will include an Indian village, a frontier town peopled with counterparts of famous characters of the Old West and- an atomic display. The exposition site embraces 65 acres as well as 100 additional acres to be used as parking areas. Centennial of ficials expect at least 7,000,000 visitors. Oregon factories Expand Wages, Salaries Mount Toward Billion; Increase Tenfold in Quarter Century; Working Force Trebled The manufacturing industries pre Oregon's top employer of la boi and are also at the top in value of product. The value of manufacturing to the Oregon economy is demonstra ted by figures showing the aver rgt monthly employment roll in thai field to be 136,000 in 1958. The total labor force in the state in that year was 693,600, of whom 53,000 were unemployed. While agriculture is basic, the status of lumbering as the top in dustry of Oregon gives to manu facturing the top spot in the econ omy of this state. The forest re source has been important from pioneer days. Latest figures available show the value added to raw material in manufacturing at $1,145,000,000 in 1956. Wages and salaries paid a mounted to $663,000,000. The fail ure, thus far, to build up enough manufacturing outside the lumber industry has been hampering pros perity and growth. Too much of the state's raw materials have been sent east for processing and then brought back here in finished form for marketing, after paying tlie freight both ways. The situa tion is damaged by the distance from the heaviest centers of popu lation and by the high expense of transporting the product. This sit uation cannot by any magic be brought to anything like a sudden ending; but the prospect that Ore gon will process an increasing per centage of its own raw products brightens as time goes on. New Industries Springing l'p Frocessing industries new to Oregon have been springing up. Seme formerly little-k n o w n products have been coming from Oregon's mineral-bearing centers as raw material yet to be prepar-l-q for human use. Markets for the farmer have been developed to a surprising degree in the last few years by various types of food piocessing. Eastern Oregon has become a heavy producer of sugar from the beets grown on thou sands of acres in that area. Can ning of fruits and vegetables has become a major industry in many Oregon towns, and in later years these plants have added units for freezing. These various preserva tive processes were unknown to Oregon's early inhabitants, and their development has come on with a rush. This has taken care not only of the home market but of constantly widening distant mar kets, yielding the farmer and the horticulturist highly profitable cash crops. Nearly every one of Ore gon's smaller cities is the home of at least one of these food-preserving plants. Manufacturing in Oregon has increased nearly fourfold since 1935 in number of establishments 1710 in that year as against more than 6,000 now; nearly threefold in number of employees 57.000 in 1935 and close to 150,000 now; ten-, fold in salaries and wages $63, COO.OOO in 1935 as compared with approximately $663,000,000 now. (The valuation increase, however, must be attributed in part to the heavy deflation of the dollar in that period.) Those 1710 plants in 1935 hired 51,000 production workers; twenty years later the number had grown to nearly three times that figure. C. H. Gram, former state labor commissioner, in an article pub lished nearly 35 years ago gave an optimistic but accurate estimate of Oregon's manufacturing resources. His general implied forecast is being fulfilled. "Endowed," he said, "with un matched natural resources, an al most unlimited supply and variety of raw materials, much water pow er, yet unharnessed, and with rail and water transportation facilities aftording outlets for her products to the markets of the world, Ore gon occupies a unique position a mong her sister states with re pect to the possibilities of industri al development .... "Oregon ranks second among the states in lumber production" (now in first place) "and first as a tim ber-bearing state . . . With judici ous conservation timber will con tinue indefinitely to be a leading factor of the state's industrial wealth. " . . .Oregon offers rare oppor tunity for cheap power develop ment for manufacturing pur poses." Gram directed attention to the state's railroad and harbor facili ties, its developing mineral wealth dS other factors in its prospective industrial development, then in its infancy. This article was published in "Manufacturers and Products of Oregon," published in 1925 by the tion. A comparison of the 1935 manu facturing figures with the 60 per cent growth of Oregon's population since 1940, when the figure was 1,089,684, indicates that industry has been outrunning population in that period. An instance of an Oregon corpor ction turning out a metal product with a remarkable degree of suc cess has been the Iron Fireman Ccmpany of Portland, the growth of which through the years has been spectacular. Many Products Made A late issue of the Oregon Manu facturers' Directory issued by the Oiegon Development Commission lists 1800 Oregon firms and com panies turning out Oregon products. The list starts with "enameling" and ends with a ladder factory. It seems to include almost every thing one can think of; the variety is impressive, but the great ma-' jority of the factories are small. Not to cite too space-filling a list, there is included here one product oi those listed under each letter of the alphabetical index except Q and Z. Following is that alphabeti cally selected list. Agricultural machinery, beet sugar, canned sea fooa, dental equipment and sup plies, electrical equipment and products, furniture and fittings, games and toys, house furnishings, industrial trucks, tractors and trail ers, jewelry, knit underwear, leath er and linen goods, machinery ac cessories and machinists' precision tools, nonferrous foundries, o i 1 burners, paper and paperboard mills, refrigerators, sawmills and planing mills, tractors and truck tiailers, umbrellas, parasols and canes, veneer mills, woodworking machinery, X-ray and therapeutic apparatus, yarn mills. This will give the start of an idea of the wide variety of ar ticles manufactured in Oregon. Opportunities for the continued growth of Oregon manufacturing are seen in the fields of chemicals, ammonia-based fertilizers, paint pigments from native low-grade iron deposits, a wide variety of textiles (such as industrial felt and synthetic fabrics), men's and children's hosiery, work clothes, leather specialties, outdoor boots and shoes, aircraft parts, various types of machinery for electronic products, supplies for food-processing and for electronic and pulp and paper industries. While devel opment of some of these may be far in the future, the opportuni ties are believed to be here. Feeders of City Sherman County Journal, Moro: "Rural areas including small towns provide in Oregon as elsewhere the solid mental and emotional back ground to keep the state on an even keel unless overpowered by the growth of cities. They are rich in tradition, rich in character, and in Oregon even rich in money." Minnie the Mermaid says: C Dl rur nuy or Relaxation MV 4.VS of Oregon Beaches fVV on Highway 101 Otis to Depoe Bay Sun-kissed beaches Fresh water sports Surf Fishing Deep Sea Fishing Rock Fishing Two fresh water fishing streams Bowling Golf Square Dancing Agate Beds Swimming Pools "There's fun for everyone in the 20 Miracle Miles" For further information write Oregon Coast Ad Club, Inc. P. O. Box 604 Oceanlake, Oregon I ; salutes ,c:r-y:".i2 feed industry...; ' S, ' " ; w t M BE. J its 100-ycar-young hone state! OREGON CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION ii niiin ji mil mi MINI If SCPTf Mill IT. If SI niuo iiKoa It was a century ago that the Territory of Oregon became a State. And in the hundred years since, Oregon has progressed and developed into one of the Union's greatest, with very likely the brightest future of all. It was in 1929 that the Blue Bell Potato Chip Company started humbly in Portland. Today the firm employs almost 150 of your fellow Oregonians, and distributes its complete line of potato chips and snack items over all of Oregon and in four other states. It is still Oregon's only completely home-owned potato chip plant. It's been a real pleasure to grow with Oregon. Here's to the next 100 yean for us all! This is Blue Bell Potato Chips' 3-ycar-old $600,000 horn in north Portland. 10
