Page:Pacific Monthly volumes 9 and 10.djvu/84



Editor's Note. — The object of this department, which appears for the first time this month, is to keep a higfh-g^rade, bona-fide record of the g^rowth, progress and development of the West, it will, however, be confined for the present to the Pacific Northwest, including Ore^^on, Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia. An attempt will be made to make the department of actual practical value tcrall our readers, suj^g'esting the wonderful opportunities and possibilities that are before us. For some of the items api>earing in this issue we wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle. Wash.; the Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.; the Daily Oregonian, Portland, Oregon; the Evening Telegram, Portland, Oregon; the Oregon Daily Journal, Portland, Oregon, and the British Columbia Gazette, Victoria, B. C.

Oregon—

The New Year's issue of the Morning Oregonian contains the following concise and suggestive summary indicative of the state's progressive trend:

"We are passing from primary and relatively small conditions to secondary and larger development. The accompanying pages set forth the general activities of the time, including: A rapid increase in population; a better conceived and a bet- ter organized agricultural industry; the de- velopment of a wholesome co-operative practice in dairying; the growth of irriga- tion, with its enormous stimulation of for- age production; the substitution in Eastern Oregon of the domestic stock industry for the old-time range practice; the opening up of the Eastern market for our timber, with the entrance of foreign capital into our lumbering industry; the i)etter local organ- ization of trade, with its increasing energy; the expansion of the flour industry, by which an increasing portion of our grain pro- duct is manufactured at home; the entrance of our staple products very largely into the channels of Pacific Ocean commerce; the entrance of Portland initiative and ca^)- ital into the transportation field; the begin- nings of commercial manufacture here. These and many other movements, which it would be tedious to name, characterize the present activity and prosperity of the country, and are to be reckoned among the assurances which expand our hopes for the future."

The time will come, and should be has- tened, when Western Oregon will contain 1,000,000 people, Eastern Oregon will de- velop at a corresponding rate, and perhaps more rapidly, under the influence of irri-

gation enterprises. The development of these two sections naturally both tributary to Portland will give this city such ;i growth as would now be scarcely believed. The greatness of Portland depends chiefly upon the upbuilding of the sections of the country, the location of which makes them tributary to this city. * * * i believe that Oregon can do nothing that will help her more than to enter at once upon a system of permanent road building upon a large scale, so that in the next few years every part of the settled portion of the state will have good roads.

— William Mackenzie, of Dundee. Scotland, in the Oregonian.

Four large steamships, the equal of those planned or building for San Francisco and Seattle, are to be constructed to ply between Portland and the Orient. The largest dredge of its kind in the world has been recently built for dredging the river from Portland to the sea, and a 30-foot channel is assured. Portland merchants are awak- ening to the situation, and Portland will be an equal competitor with Seattle and San Francisco for Oriental trade and gov- ernment business.

SUMPTER. Ore.— W. H. Mead, of Spo- kane, who recently purchased the Glad- stone group of five claims from I. E. Rose, is now developing the property. A tunnel is being driven, and when in 300 feet is ex- pected to tap the ledge. The new company operating the group is the Interstate Mining Company, and the price paid for the five claims was $6000.

The Geiser-Hendryx Investment Company is a new mining firm which recently opened offices here t<^ op-