But with all its great endowment it has made less progress in recent years than any district of even relative importance in the Northwest. "Your Willamette Valley," remarked an Eastern railway traffic expert recently to an Oreganian writer, "is the puzzle of the railway world. It yields less traffic than any similar territory in the United States, less than that of any other community of equal numbers." It ought to be worth an effort on the part of those who have large capital bound up in the country to bring about a better order of things.
CONTRASTS, OREGON AND WASHINGTON.
(The Oregonian, September 3, 1901.)
There is no doubt that, during several years, population, business, industry and wealth in the State of Washington have been growing faster than in the State of Oregon; and there is no mystery why.
Oregon, by comparison, is old. Washington is new. A great proportion of the population of Oregon was born in Oregon. A small proportion of the population of Washington was bom in Washington.
What is the result of these simple facts? The bulk of Washington's population came recently from the East. The bulk of Oregon's population came here in early times, or was born here. Coming recently from the East, the population of Washington has retained its touch with the East. Every newcomer into Washington left friends behind him who took interest in him, who was anxious for his welfare, to whom he wrote accounts of the country, to whom he sent Washington newspapers. Persons who came to Washington wrote back to their "home paper," giving an account of the country, always a glowing one. They were anxious, of course, to justify themselves for their removal to the new state. Parents who had sent their sons out to Washington were glad to hear from them and glad to tell neighbors how fortunate the venture had
