Page:Book Reviews History of the Oregon Country.pdf/2

Rh No assurance bearing on the character of this work need be offered to the great majority of those who were as adults living in the Pacific Northwest prior to 1910. Definite opinions of Harvey W. Scott's intellectual leadership are held by virtually all of these, either from a confirmed habit of reading the editorial page of the Oregonian or through an acquaintance with the ideas there set forth gained in their community center discussions. That editorial page through the thought and discussion it provoked constituted essentially a folk school, for by it the people of all of the "Old Oregon Country" communities, accessible from Portland, were stimulated and guided towards grappling with their community problems.

This institutionalizing of the editorial sanctum of the Oregonian with Harvey W. Scott in charge came about naturally. As a boy of fourteen he participated in the great and trying adventure in crossing the plains with the. migration of 1852. Arriving here, his father's accumulations exhausted, he did his share towards supporting the Scott household, but was left to his own resources for earning the means to attend college. The beginning in this was made through the use of the ax to secure which he had to have a loan. Applying his powerful native intellect with indefatigable energy and with the unremitting study of the best books he rose gradually from the level of association with the day laborer to regular companionship in his reading with the best minds of all ages. Having thus shared the conditions of life from the humblest planes he retained a keen interest in the lot of every class through which he rose to become as managing editor of the metropolitan daily the counsellor and guide of the commonwealth.

Through his assiduous reading and thought on the most fundamental interests in human experience he saw in clear perspective the course of change down through the centuries. The meaning of the occupation by the white man of the Pacific coast in all its relations was clear to him. As he had grown up with the country he was doubly at home in the discussion of any phase of the history of the Pacific Northwest. The following is a list of the subjects under which the compiler grouped the selections used: Discovery, exploration and acquisition; pioneer settlement, especially around Champoeg and Puget Sound centers; Indian affairs-wars and treaties; nomenclature of the Pacific Northwest; varied matters in the earlier and later pioneer periods; Oregon colleges; Oregon and California, Northern Pacific and Union Pa-