The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-09
advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic j. Haskin)

/ - ~ASNA NoAI SSpOHleuCE, tc0DYElgn
by Frederic j. Haskin.)
| PORTLAND. Ore. May 24.-The peo
pie of this fair Rose City are enthusi-
astic students of geography. The
stranger soon finds that while the con-
versation may begin with the weather
| or the roses, it always ends in geog-
raphy-''it's down hill to Portland from
everywhere. The population of Port
land is ninety-four per cent. purely
American, which is said to be a higher
proportion than any other American
city can show. AnotI4.. significant
popularity Is that it is man.2ined
almost entirely by local capital. there
being only three buildings among the
larger commercial structures of the
entire city that were not built by home
money. While these and other distinc-
tive points are always brought out
during the process of inoculating the
stranger with admiration for this am
bilious metropolis, the little lecture on
geography is always the argumentative
ace of trumps-"no matter where you
come from it's down hill all the way
to Portland
Not long ago a parson from Balti-
more was taking little jaunt through
the West, and dropped off at Portland
to look over the town. OF course, he
had not been there but a few hours
until he encountered the usual mono
logue on geography. His attention was
called to the fact that owing to the
lay of the land everything that breaks
its mornings in these parts naturally
rolls right down hill into the lap Of
Portland. The reverend gentleman
took kindly to the idea; in fact, he
wrote a piece for the paper in which
he pointed out that Portland's topo-
graphical position was almost identi-
cal with that of New York He made
such a strong case in showing the SIM
ilarity that it seemed the only way
the people of the Western city could
escape becoming a second Gotham |
would be to change the face of nature. |
This clever bit of municipal palm |
reading made such a hit in Portland |
that the Chamber of Commerce gave |
the parson a prize of thousand dol |
lars. He said in part:
Portland is remarkably like New |
York in several particulars. 1t lies on
the shores of the Willamette River. just /
above its confluence with the Column
5ia. The great tongue of land between /
the Willamette and the Columbia, run
ming down to a point at their inter-
section, is strikingly like Manhattan !
Island. on the west bank of the
representing Brooklyn,
now stands the business center Of /
Across the river. on this
I1at ic Dor 10 4
spreading every day outward and
downward until it will finally reach the
Columbia and face the city of Van
,ouver, now resting on the northern
side of that river in the same relative
position which Jersey City sustains to
New York.
Portland is already a notable port.
She is the o-l.y fresh water port on
he Pacific, and fresh water is strong
advantage to a port, as the water 1T
,eif cleans the vessels from barnacles
md other foulness, thereby saving
much time, labor and expense. The
government is now building jetties
Town the Columbia, and making other
which will give Portland
. clean waterway of forty feet out to
he Pacific. The Columbia and Will
annette are both navigable already far
Lbove Portland, and thus she has one
f the natural advantages which have
made New York supreme-namely, a
inc waterway both in and out.
But Portland has also the other I
.reat advantage which New York has
ntoyed-a most favorable topograph-
,ai situation. Sixty-five years ago ]
few York began its great change into
big city At that time Albany was
Furnishing. 4 railroad was planned to :
o down the Hudson from Albany, but
he papers, thinking that New York !
7as to always be simply a gangplauk {
0 Albany, ridiculed the undertaking !
5 foolish. The railroad was built,
owever, and its terminus has now {
ecome the greatest city in the United
tates. Why? Simply because it had I
fine port and was a natural gateway :
nat was down grade from every 9
here.
commerce in our country breaks {
way from the great dividing wall c
lie Rocky Mountains-and flows east {
nd west along the lines of least re-
stance Apart from the Mississippi i
alley in the east, il moves prevail /
Civ along the line of the Great Lakes, Y
trough the Mohawk Valley to the val c
V of the Hudson and down that river I
!, New York Hence the New York f
today The traffic could not go to q
oston without crossing the Catskills, h
Dr. could it go TO Philadelphia with Y
IT expensive grades. so it went to a
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