Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-02-16

lation is increasing faster here than
elsewhere. If you want to manufact
ure something they can fix you out
on that, or if you simply desire to
hear the broad, general merits of the
country they will ciet you a string OF
beWildering statistics.
1t makes no difference whether the
| booster has made his money, is maxim
| it, or hopes to make it. Everyone
/ of them is an optimist, a booster who
boosts eternalIy. Today every Oregon.
ian in the territory that stretches
from the Columbia river to the Cali
| fornia state line is the widest kind
of an optimist. He thinks his coun-
try is coming into it's own. Likewise
he conceives it to be his duty to
make everybody else think so.
1t makes no difference where he
lives. He may be in a little village
fifty miles from railroad. If he is,
he has the grandest climate, the best
crops, the greatest mineral resources,
the finest advantages, and presently
somebody will stroll along and leave
the railroad in his place, and then:
Watch us grow!
If he lives in Roseburg, Grants Pass
Medford or Ashland, he sings the
same song essantly-louder, per
haps, but with no more enthusiasm.
They think they are under way at
last, and, to hear them tell it, it wont
be long until Portland is a mere su-
burb of this enormous and fruitful
est stage of development 1t is in
their blood. They are excited, ex-
ultant over the awakening of the coun
try. They have visions of a string
of great cities from Portland to Ash
land, flanked by a farming district
that will produce most of the fruit
grown on the continent Having these
visions, they translate them for you
They tell you of the tremendous
development of the past and of the
still vaster development that is plan
ned and under way. They cite you
their ocean ports on the Pacific and
they go into rhapsodies over the in
terror They can find you mines if
you want mining, oil if you want oil,
gas if you are in the gas business.
If you want to manufacture something
they can quote you prices, cost of
power, rents, taxes, and all that.
''Ls it cold in winter?"
Not in this particular spot Cold
elsewhere but here is the finest eli
mate in the world. OF course, the
thermometer gets down a bit in the
winter and coal is pretty expensive,
but it is the damp cold that you do
not feel
How about the water?"
"Oh, the finest water in the world,
finest water in the world, right here
in this spot. Of course, there are
places where water is pretty scarce
and places where water is too plenty,
but here we have the finest water
in the world. Can't be beat"
And so it goes; schools, trade, fruit,
wheat, everything the finest in the
world The Oregon booster does not
stop with among the finest" not he.
His is the finest, none to compare.
From one end of the state to the 9th
er, it is wild hurrah, for Oregon
1t may be there is a little jeal-
ousy here and there, but the spirit
is generally good. OF course, if you
talk about Eugene to a Medford man,
you are likely to get few remarks,
from the Medford man, about a city
that is mostly bluff and doesn't COM
pare with Medford. And if you men
tion Ashland to a Grants Pass man,
the chances are that you will get a
dissertation on Ashland that will
make you think, until you see it, that
Ashland is principally mud huts. So,
too, it crops out here and there among
enthusiastic citizens of various place;
but all agree and all boost to the