The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-09-17
ROADS AN ASSET"
SAYS NlEDFORD MAN

Hood River valley is Gem. We of
the Rogude River valley are inclined TO
exhaust the list of supeflatIyes in
speaking of Jour country. but We are
willing to at least admit that your
district is a real rival.
Such is the comment of fenj. c.
Sheldon, an orchardist near MedfoTd
and one of the active boosters Of that
hustling city, who spent Saturday and
Sunday in Hood River on tour Of in
speetion over the state.
81 am keenly interested in your good
roads work. Keep it up. II Is money
well spent and will bring big return
on the investment. We first voted 81,
500, 900 for good roads in our county.
The Supreme court knocked il out.
Additional legislation followed ard we
tried again, this time voting a bond
issue of $500, 600. This sun Is being
spent this year.
I'VE are building l3 mile scenic
boulevard over the Siskiyou mountains
with a maximum grade of sis percent.
connecting at the California line with
that states section of the Pacific high
way. We havel three full crews at
work on II mile section Of that high
way from Ashland to Medford and on
to Central Point. 1t is of practically
the same construction as city pave
ment.
Southern California has been made
by its tourist CROP. We are after our
share and are beginning to get them.
1t is travel that brings money into a
community and leaves it there. Hood
River should have its share. The open
ing of your splendid Columbia highway
to Portland is your opportunity. The
plan of building a fine loop route
through your unrivaled Except by
Rogue River valley) orchards to the
base of Mount Hood is splendid. Don't
let anything side track that plan. Get
it in shape for 1915, the banner year
for the Pacific coast. If the money
left in Medford by the increased auto
travel attracted there by our good road
work could be collected into one fund,
it would more'than pay the interest on
our good road bond issue.
al have covered about all the state
on this trip. Politics have not warmed
up yet, except in few newspapers.
The governorship, the U. 5. senator
ship and the wet and dry contests Oc-
cupy the field to the exclusion of other
issues. In southern Oregon, from
Roseburg over to klamath Falls and
Lakeview, the people are greatly in
terested in the plan to reopen their
southern Oregon State Normal school.
They are good schools people and
have learned, in many efforts to i'm.
prove school conditions, that the key
to the situation is the trained teacher.
| Fully three fourths of the teachers of
the state are without normal school
training. Over $1,000, 900 is spent an
nually in Oregon on common schools.
How much farther this money would
go in producing actual results if spent
on thorough teachers who had been
trained for their work. On grounds of
economy alone. this school should be
reopened.
Like Hood River, we are wondering
what effect this war will have on fruit
prices. We hope for the best. Our
crop is below normal, both on account
of frost damage and an unprecedented
dry spell. We have learned that the
former can be overcome by proper
equipment intelligently handled. We
successfully combated temperature
of % last spring where orchards were
amply equipped. We hope this season.
dry spell will convince our skeptics of
the value of irrigation. We have water
to waste but have not heretofore in
duced enough of the orchardists to use
it to warrant an extension of the sys-
TEN to cover the whole valley. If that
development follows this season S
drought we could well have afforded to
lose our whole crop instead of about Is
per cent.
"Hood River and Rogue River val
leys-the two fruit banner sections of
the world-Oregon should be proud of
both,