Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/16

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6
IN MEMORIAM

over by the Orient. Men of Oregon, of Washington, of California, of Idaho, of Montana, of Utah, of Colorado, responding to the call of the country, have carried the west on over seas.

It is probable that nothing else has contributed so much to the help of mankind in the mass, either in national or moral aspects, as rapid increase of human intercourse throughout the world. Action and reaction of peoples upon peoples, of races upon races, are continually evolving activities and producing changes in the thought and character of all. This intercourse develops the moral forces as rapidly as the intellectual and material. Populations are stirred profoundly by all the powers of social agitation, by travel, by rapid movements of commerce, by daily transmission of news.

The United States has a frontage on the Pacific as well as on the Atlantic ocean. We must expand in the direction of the Pacific, where the future development of our country lies. Over there is China. Over there is India. Over there are the regions which the energy of the world is now beginning to develop. This is one of the great movements of history, without any one in particular bringing it about. It is irresistible; it is one of the onward movements of mankind.