Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1888-04-23
LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS
Itenized Account Of DOings in City and
Country.
DIR NATURAL RESOURCES.
Laudseekers Still Pouring Westward
LET us Attract a Portion Of
this Human Tide.


nassing through by the hundreds
every day to the Sound, are very
onxioustoobtain information regard
ing Washington Territory, and
some means should be adopted to
furnish them information about
Central Washington. They 60 to
the Sound, and failing to find a
country ready for the plow they
are disappointed"
About the passage of hundreds of
immigrants daily there is no ex-
aggeration. A friend in Missoula,
NJ, r., Ia Northern Pacific station,) }
writes this editor: "I often wonder
where all the people come from who
pass through here, and where they
90 to. Long passenger trains with
twenty coaches, and half of these
emigrant sleepers, stop here on their
way to the Sound; the cars as full as
they can hold, and most Of the
passengers going to take up land"
This immense passenger business IS
no accident. The people in Wash
ington Territory have spent money
freely in advertising their resources,
in the east, pamphlets have been
scattered with a profuse hand, and
"bOom editions of their best news
papers have filled many a score
mailbag. Agents for the Northern
Pacific railroad have taken advan-
tage of this liberal use of printers S
ink, they have circulated through
the western and eastern states
setting forth the lumber, fishing,
mineral and agricultural resources
of our neighbor territory, their inn
agination supplying many of the
facts theyso temptingly displayed;
and the result of their enterprise is
the steady outflow of population in
the direction of the Sound.
The people of Oregon know that
these thousands of homeseekers
have been started on a wrong scent.
In Washington Territory the towns
have been doomed till they are
overdone. In Seattle, Tacoma,
Spokane Falls and other places,
building lots are dearer to-day than
they are likely to be five years from
now. "a country ready for the
plow" is hard to find there; the
fishing, numbering and mining in
dustries are in the hands of rich
companies, and settler with the
proceeds of small farm in his
pocket had better use caution before
he invests in any such undertakings.
In Portland, Salem and some
other Oregon towns, the people have
awakened to the fact that they have
lands and climate to offer the settler,
which rather "overlay" the best
that can be found in California or
Washington. While our neighbors
have been in the field shouting, with
stentor voice, to the whole world to
come, our landowners have been
lying back in easy indulgence, feel
ing that they have a good thing,
and selfishly grudging the advent of
strangers to divide up natures
bounties. Some feel like the Ken
lucky backwoodsman, who moved
out when a settler came within
seven miles of his cabin, because he
wanted elbow room.
But they now feel that the k-Santi-
tul Resources of nature are beyond
their power to utilize, and since pop
ulation keeps up its unceasing flow
westward, they see the wisdom
OF diverting a portion of the current
IN this direction. Hence we have
money subscribed in this city and in
Portland, and pamphlets and folders
printed which are now being cir
culated through the mails. This
must be kept up with unabating
activity. 1t would be very useful
also to send two or three good men
east to talk Salem and the Wallam-
cite valley, to distribute our adver-
using literature quite literally, and
also to get up excursion parties, pro-
curing special rates to Salem and
return.
The opportunities for successful
settlementin this unsurpassed valley |
so lar exceed anything to be found |
IN Washington or California, that it |
Is duty we owe TO the human race
70 make them known, and no en-
oeavor should be spared TO diffuse
the knowledge in every direction. |
we would like 10 see the board Of /
fade intensely stirred up over this
business.