Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/416

410 society must keep filed and indexed for readiest use data giving forms and results of experience at home and the world over in all lines of its development. This it must do that the commonwealth may have and utilize the best light in dealing with its own affairs. The files of the Oregon Historical Society should have that order, completeness, and up-to-dateness which would afford a sufficing guidance for legislative and administrative work of the State.

The fully equipped Oregon Historical Society—one meeting the needs of the commonwealth—will thus have in best working order a library of research into all lines of world activities which touch the life of Oregon. It will be the" center of association and discussion on the part of the students of these commonwealth, national, and world problems. It will have supervision of the archives of the State and serve as the reference library and librarian for the. legislative and administrative activities for the commonwealth as a whole and for any of its local organizations or communities. It will also deepen that historical sentiment through which the land becomes hallowed for the heart and rich for the imagination. This program for the Oregon Historical Society of wide and active relations to the life of the Oregon commonwealth is urged on three fundamental grounds. It is in harmony with the widest and highest application of the principle of cooperation among the agencies for the promotion of the higher life interests of Oregon; it would bring into largest and most effective play scientific methods and principles for the shaping of the future of Oregon, and would at the same time result in the best selection of data for future history and provide for the highest utilization of them fro'm day to day. And, lastly, the Oregon Historical Society, from its nature as a historical society in relation to the methods of progress in this scientific age and its position among the institutions of the commonwealth, is best intrusted with this function of mentor in the commonwealth life of Oregon. .