'Tis Oregon, bright Oregon.
Where are the crags whence the glaciers flow,
And the forests of fir where the south winds blow?
In Oregon, grand Oregon.
Where sleep the old heroes who liberty sought,
And where live their free sons whom they liberty taught?
In Oregon, free Oregon.
What is the lure of this far western land,
When she beckons to all with her welcoming hand?
It is the hand of Oregon.
Oh, Oregon, blest Oregon,
Dear Mother of the heart;
At touch of thee all troubles flee
And tears of gladness start.
Take thou thy children to thy breast,
True keeper of our ways,
And let thy starry eyes still shine
On all our coming days,
Our Mother Oregon.
ERA OF GOOD ROADS
In closing this chapter we may express the conviction that while this fourth era of transportation—a new period of steamboat traffic—is surely coming, though yet but in its dawn, there is now taking shape still a fifth era of transportation. This is to be nothing less than an era of good roads and transportation by auto trucks as feeders to steamboat lines. The most conspicuous fact at the time of publication of this work in this section as in the country at large is the movement in the direction of good roads as the logical sequence of the development of automobiles. This movement will inevitably become coupled with that of improvement of rivers as of cheap water transportation. With this improvement of rivers will be another sequence, that is, the creation of cheap electric power.
We are at the dawn of a day in which the two most vital needs of mankind, after production, that is, transportation and power, are to be provided at a low degree of cost not hitherto conceived of. As a backward glance in our own section it is well nigh incredible to call up that the cost of transporting a ton of freight by steamer with portages at certain points from Portland to Wallula has run from $10.00 to $60.00, and from Wallula to Walla Walla, by wagon, from $8.00 to $20.00 or $30.00, and by the first railroad from $4.00 to $5.50, while at the present time the railroad rate (which we think is high) on wheat from Walla Walla to Portland is $2.85 per ton, and only $1.65 by steamer from Wallula to Portland. Our imaginations are strained almost to the breaking point when we recall that experience on improved rivers in Europe and the older America shows that by continuous improved rivers, supplemented by good roads, it may cost not to exceed a dollar, possibly not more than half a dollar from Walla Walla to Portland. That new era is near at hand.
GARDENING IN OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY