year. The monthly average of bank capital employed is $935,065. The monthly average of deposits in banks is $1,654,498. The total valuation of property in the Portland District, upon which taxes for school purposes will be raised, is $6,035,525. The total school tax on this is $21,124.3334.
All business in Oregon and Washington is transacted on a gold basis. When legal tenders are used, they pass at their value in gold, as determined each day by the market quotations. A statute of the Oregon Legislature provides for the enforcement of contracts to pay in gold coin. The Tegal rate of interest is ten per cent, per annum; or, by express agreement, it may be made one per cent, per month, but not more.
Beyond the manufacture of lumber, flour, woolen goods, staves, linseed-oil, wagons, soap, common pottery, cabinet furniture, agricultural implements, stoves, steam-engines, and other iron works, there is nothing produced in the way of manufactures worthy of mention. The country waits for capital to bring out its almost unlimited resources in this direction, and for cheap labor to make it available.
Most kinds of mechanical labor find employment at from three to five dollars per day. Brick-layers and stone-masons get six dollars; machinists, four dollars; common laborers, one dollar and three-fourths; domestic servants, twelve to twenty-five dollars per month. All kinds of food are cheaper in Oregon and Washington than in the Atlantic States, and of a better quality. There is less adulteration in imported articles; while fruits and vegetables are both plentiful and excellent, and may be enjoyed fresh almost the whole year round.
