will enable them to see that it is a source of congratulation and even of pride for them to trace their descent through Oregon and the Oregon Trail. While not doubting that a certain contraction of aim adds to the intensity of energy, it is still important that local ambition and enterprise should not be allowed to efface historical truthfulness, or limit breadth of mind. The versatility and progressiveness of the people of Washington must be conceded, and their rapid increase in numbers, wealth, and commerce is leaving Oregon behind. This is due largely to the influx of eastern people and eastern capital who have seen opportunities open in the undeveloped resources of Washington which they could not so easily find in the older and slower Oregon. They have brought the latest methods, abundance of money, and the daring of youth, and their growth is both an astonishment and warning to Oregonians who have been content with old-fashioned ways and the conservatism of age. Nevertheless, we believe that nothing would be more for the permanent advantage and culture of the people of Washington than a definite, intelligent, sympathetic study of our historical descent. While giving so much as they have done, there is yet much, perhaps quite as much, for them to gain.
This applies as much, and perhaps even more, to the people of Oregon. We are comparatively torpid; we have but the faintest conception of our historical wealth. A superficial familiarity only adds to our real density on the subject. Only until recently have the best of us been catching the true historical perspective, in which both reason and imagination can play, and disclose truthful proportions; or have realized that right here, in our own midst, has been re-enacted an epitome of all history within an hundred years. Nor is it at all probable that any of us have as yet caught the real meaning and spirit of the
