The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1890-11-28
WHILE WE SLUMBER.

1t is not pleasant duty to speak fre.
quently of the plodding methods of so large
proportion of Oregon's population, but it
requires awakening. We are too conserva.
tive-too much like the man who does not
advertise doing business alongside the man
who does. We say, in effect, to the out.
side world, eff you wish to buy some
goods drop into our store and we will look
about and see if we have anything you
want" But the customer does not come to
US when he knows what he wants is in the
adjoining store. This 'moss'we carry about
is to our state as the cobwebs are to the
store which is too conservative to make
show of what it has in stock.
| The truth is that we need stirring up.
The conditions now are different than when
sour stock and grain were growing while
we slept" While we now sleep our neigh
bors are enjoying the morning sun of pros
rerity and advancement at our expense.
While we slumber our neighbors on the
south are garnering our wheat and shipping
it as California wheat; taking the products
of our gristmills and branding it "Cali-
fornia Flour plucking our prunes and tla-
beling them tCalifornia Fruit" gathering
our apples and naming them ''California
Mountain Apples" Upon the cars in this
state otlr apples, .pears, and peaches are fire.
quently sold by the train boys as California
fruit. Oregon potatoes go east as Califor-
MIA product, etc. Not satisfied with ap-
propriatiug our products, Cali fornia robs us
of the good name of those things for which
we have established high reputation.
California dog salmon are canned and label
ed ''Columbia River Salmon" all while we
slumber. Our latest production, cascara
{ segrada, or chittem bark, is known in the
market as solely California product. Up
f wards of twenty tons of this article of COM
merce has been shipped this season from
Benton county alone. ''Now that the cas-
care segrada has become of more exalted
=, value" says the Florence West, ga we'll.
known druggist of Eugene wrote to firms
in New York as to the price they would pay
for the bark shipped direct from that town,
and was not little astonished when the re-
y ply camel back that the kOregon chittenl
bark was worthless, and they only pur-
Y chased that sent and raised in California.
Such a leaf from true historic page of
i events in one article raised in this state for
II which another gains the credit"
The fact about chittem is that Western
l. Oregon produces almost all the bark of this
) kind that is gathered on this coast.
It Our neighbors on the north are not less
II active, but more scrupulous than our Cali
fornia friends. By their system of financial
If legislation Oregon is being drained iof its
a available capital by Washington, which also
j. attracts the large amount of eastern capita
: now seeking investment in the Northwest
Again, Washington isHan energetic adver
!, tlsng competitor. 1t does not believel tina
X, the money invested in a large sign is 81
. much capital wasted. The Washington
-. merchant is wide awake while too many o
our Oregon business men arestaking al con
servative nap.uponsthe counter, "allowin
u the business to run ITSELF"
Nature has done her part by Oregon ant
- it now rests with the people whether 1
ie shall be the grandest state in the Union o
become distanced in the race for CONNER
u cial supremacy.