OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 167
mediate future. 54 Plans are under way to open up the ques- tion, and the first appeal will be made beyond doubt to the as- sembly in 1921. Representatives of the Portland Chamber of Commerce made an excursion through Southern Oregon in October, 1919, and on the 16th stopped at Ashland. At a meeting with Ashland business men the matter of reviving the normal was brought up, and it was the unanimous pledge of the trade excursionists that the support of the Portland dele- gation would be given when next the school asks for support. The normal school issue is therefore still alive.
The educational outlook in Oregon is exceedingly promising. We stand on the threshold of a new era of economic develop- ment. The state has within its borders the fourth greatest city on the Pacific slope. Manufacturing and shipbuilding are rap- idly becoming great industries. Foreign trade has more than doubled in the last three years. The Columbia river and the great coast indentations and rivers are not only profitable fish- ing grounds, but afford unrivalled harbor facilities. The de- velopment of wagon roads, the use of motor vehicles, and the construction of electric railroads have removed the greatest obstacle to the growth of the state lack of means of trans- portation. Each year sees more and more of the abundant water power of the state utilized.
The timber resources are the greatest on the continent. Western and Southern Oregon are the leading forest sections of the state. There is over 60,000,000,000 feet of standing timber in Lane County alone a quantity that cannot be com- prehended. The lumbering industry is now the most pros- perous in the history of the state, and only the beginning has been made. Agriculture in the Willamette Valley and in Eastern Oregon is in its infancy. New lands are being put under cultivation, and irrigated areas extended. The most famous fruit growing lands in the world are within the state.
54 The Eugene Daily Guard of November 13, 1919, had this to say on the normal question in its editorial columns: "The state normal at Monmouth is about the only educational institution in the country which reports an abnormally small enrollment this year. The condition presented in Oregon should be a strong argu- ment against the founding of two more state normal schools, a proposition that will be on the ballot next fall. It would be better to add teacher training courses to the curriculum, of both the university and the agricultural college."
