Page:Sunset Magazine vol. 31.pdf/459



Forest Grove, and McMinnville, and Dallas—strong, vigorous towns, each rendering real service, not to mention a dozen others; and there, at the foot of the valley, lies Portland with her quarter-million people. The story of Portland is a story by itself. Portland isn't just a Willamette valley town; Portland isn't just an Oregon town; Portland is a world-city. Sure as shooting, sure as death and taxes both put together, sure as any other sure thing on the list, Portland is to become one of the great industrial and commercial capitals of the earth.

It now contains one-third of the population of Oregon; another third is in the Willamette valley south of Portland; the other third is scattered around, up and down the coast, and in the apple valleys, and out in the wheat-growing and grazing districts.

These towns of the valley are sound as a dollar. If they have tried to "boom," the signs of it aren't in sight today. As a matter of fact, they are now organized into a sort of protective league to safeguard them selves against the evil effects of possible booming. Portland is rather taking the lead in this work. Business interests of Portland made up their mind some time ago that they didn't want their city to grow merely for the sake of being big—that they didn't want a crowding in of new citizens who would be of use only in padding out the city directory. They wanted useful men to come in, men of initiative, men whose coming would contribute to the city's real strength; but they didn't want the sort of men whose coming would mean a relaxing of the civic fiber—the speculators, the get-rich-quick artists, those eager for unearned profits. These solid business men saw clearly that their city would be bound to grow, in spite of everything; they saw too that the surest way to make that growth healthy and sound would be to look first to the development of outlying territory and to get the farming industry established on the right basis. That's what they're working at now. You'll notice that Portland isn't advertising herself at all; but she has just raised a fund of $150,000 which is to be spent in a three-year campaign of advertising the agricultural opportunities in Oregon. The Portland Commercial Club, joined in the State Development League with scores of other commercial bodies, and coöperating with the State Immigration Commission, the State Bankers' Association,