Page:Report of the Oregon Conservation Commission to the Governor (1908 - 1914).djvu/335

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The progress in water power and electrical development is advancing at such rapid pace thst but few tat books are published containing the latest information. Technical publications are accestble to but few, and the information there prea.nted i unially in such detail as to be of ‘tUe value to the layman.

We, therefore) deem it advisable to publish the latest information from Norway and Swoden, as found in the DaiIy Co,mular ajid Trade ReportW’ of the U. S. Department of Commerce sad Labor. It is believed to be accurate, is fl smpIe language, and has been prepared by experta.

This inforitation shoold afford a basis for estimating the value to the public in adopting at thi time) aome denite policy which will eventually result in potting to beneficial use, the undeveloped water powers of Oregon.

"Numerous factors have combined to retard the industrial progress of Norway. The cli,nate is s.vere, coal is lacking, the mineral deposits are not easily accessible, the area of tillable land is very limit.d, and the industrial education of the people a not advanced.

"Less than B per cent of the land is under cultivation, about 25 pa cent is covered by forests, and the retnainder consists essentially of moors, mountait pastures, lakes and marahea. The conditions of life have been comparatively hard and emigration extensive. Exports to other countries have be.n limited chiefly to timber and the products of the ext.nazve fisher’€s.

"There is, however, now a marked change for the better. Norway bids fair to develop into an industrial state of considerable importance, and the clwmical industries are the one coming most prominently to the fore in the movement. The first step forward was taken in the development of the wood-puI wdisfry. The s.cond, and most important for Norway’s future, was the utilization of the country’s magnificent water power for the establishment of electro-technical and, more especially, of electrochemical industries on a scale impossib’e in any other Etiropean ‘awl

“The general movement forward in the manufacturing industries of the Kingdom and more specifically In the variou! branches of applied cheriRtry may be measured by the growth during the decade 1897-1908. It should be stated, in this connetion, however, that a very noticeable increase in the establishment of new factories, 11111!, etc., began in 1890. It reached its maximum in 1899. Then was a decline in the rat, until 1904. when a new period of activity st in, and has continued uninterniptedly until tha present time, Co gTe