Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/69

Rh right to restrain and regulate immigration, although the conditions of suffrage were made easy for the foreigner. The state was saved the experience of a wildcat medium of exchange, by denial of the right to charter any institution to issue such money. The state was prohibited from being a stockholder in a corporation, and such enterprises could only be established under general laws. The danger of extravagance in the development of the state was prevented by denying the right to incur an indebtedness beyond $50,000.

This constitution, upon being submitted to the people, was adopted by a majority, and application was made to congress for admission, under its provisions. The constitution, though conservative in the main, provided well for existing needs, and for a safe and steady growth. There was nothing in it to encourage a hasty development or a speculative and harmful condition of industrial life. There is every reason to appreciate the good judgment of those who framed it and did much to mold the character of the commonwealth, as conservative, as sound in its social and industrial policy, and to be depended on for sober and considerate action. Located, as the State of Oregon is, upon the Pacific Coast, where much of the history of the next century must be made, itself the product of an enlarged national life, it must, of necessity, exercise a greater influence in the national policies of the future than it has in those" of the past. Some of the provisions of the constitution have, of course, been made of no effect by the amendments to the National Constitution. No sufficient cause has yet arisen to make imperative its own amendment, but the growth of the state may render necessary some changes in the near future.

When the question came before congress the bill was passed without great delay in the senate and submitted