The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-05-26

In loves divinest melody of song.
In honest glory let our voices
dwell,
To echo all the hills and wales among.
Where crystal streams in varied
beauty fall.
Through valleys bright that brighten
as we gaze,
And mountains lift the minaretes
of snow,
And over all wealth of summer
days.
For it's Idaho, dear Idaho.
Gem of the mountain, Idaho.
Where golden sunlight fingers, and
faithful breezes blow,
And heaven bends to kiss dear Ida
no."
Idaho" as defined by an etymol-
ogist means "gem of the mountains"
but to her people tho meaning of
Idaho" cannot be stated in few
words. To them she means oppor-
tunity, wealth, freedom and home.
For Idaho is blessed with a greater
variety of resouces than most states
of the Union. She offers opportunity
to the farmer, the stock raiser, the
horticulturist, the lumberman, the
miner, the manufacturer.
These existing within delightful
climate has made Idaho a cynosure
for homeseekers. And when Idaho's
population is equal to the eastern
states she will far excel them, COM
mercially and industrially.
And why are we able to speak in
such glowing terms of Idaho?
TO whom do we owe her present
greatness.
We owe it to the tireless work of
Idaho's pioneers. That band of noble
men and women who worked, who
suffered, who endured.
But before we speak of their work
it would be best to go back a few
years and learn something of the his
tory of this country.
Until the beginning of the 10Th
century, France owned on the west
of the Mississippi, vast erpanse of
land known as Louisiana. Being
pressed for money Napoleon Bona
parte offered the whole, some 1,00O,-
900 square miles, to the United
States for $15,O0O,OOO. President
Jefferson immed ately accepted the
offer and the United States ccnGrltu-
lated herself at being so fortunate
as to add such vast and fertile ter
ritory to her possessions.
But living in the Rocky Mountains
and on the Pacilc Coast was another
section of country, not so vast, but |
just as important and far richer than
Louisiana.
Congress and the people at large
were not interested in the Oregon
country. To them it was only
name, region of desert or limitless
forest.
Such country attracted only two
classes of people; the trapper and the
missionary. The former went there
for worldly gain, the latter to carry |
the message of Christianity to the
Redmen.
Louisiana was so near that every
one was interested in it. Access to
it was by way of the Mississippi and
its tributaries. Access to the North |
western Territory was extremely diff
lcult, for the way led over bridgeless
rivers, .trackless deserts and snow
capped mountains.
In fact, Oregon was so far away
that the majority of people knew lit
tie or nothing about it.
And as the question of the owner
ship had been neglected until 1916,
when the fishing and the trapping in
dustry made England and the United
States see the value of the region,
and boundary line had to be fixed.
Our claim, based on the work of
the pioneers at this time proved to
be of untold value, and eventually
added to our Union the land that
now. constitutes Washington, Oregon,
Idaho, parts of Wyoming and Mon
tana.
Our claim to this territory was
vague. 1t was eventually based on
three things; the discovery of the
Columbia River by Captain Grey, the
expedition of Lewis and
Clarke, and settlement of it by Amer
leans. Claiming says: ut was not
any one of these that constituted a
valid title to the land, but all taken
together they constituted better
title than any other nation could