Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/346



Washington are divided by the Cascade Mountains into western and eastern sections, while Idaho is divided by an east and west Hne. The eastern sections of Oregon and Washington differ from the western in soil, climate, productions, and largely in the conditions of life of their populations. Ranching, wheat raising, and mining are the three chief interests of the inland country; the coast country has most of the commercial cities, lumber and other manufactures, fisheries, and general farming which is becoming steadily more specialized. The inland population spreads thinly over a vast area with few towns, mostly small; in the west the towns have more people than the country. Portland has about one-third of the total population of Oregon. Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett on Puget Sound aggregate about as large a proportion of the people of Washington.

In earlier times, before the admission of Washington and Idaho territories into the Union, schemes for the division and rearrangement of these territories were perennial. At present there is new state activity only in Idaho, w-here during the recent legislative session north and south clashed over questions relating to the removal of the State University to Boise in the south from Moscow in the north with the result that a plan of division was proposed. What the outcome will be is problematical.

In Oregon and Washington the eastern and western sections are usually able to compose their differences amicably. The west is proud of the development