Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1917-02-20
TELLS OF new ENGLAND
LAMAR TOoZE WRITES HIS I'M
PRESSIoNS OF THE YANKEE
People Are Very Provincial and
Consider Trip to New York of
Unusual Importance.

Lamar Tooze has written an intel
esting letter to a Dallas friend gi,
ing his impression of the people Q
Massachusetts and their customs an
in which he compares the enterpris
and initiative of western people wit
conditions which restrain the Yanke
in his ambitions. His letter follows
It's good thing that the Pilgrim
some three hundred years ago frs
settled in the east and not in th
west. Because, if they hadn't, 1 fea
that the east-New England particu
]arly-would have had hard time al
tracing emigrants from the west i
the same way the west has draw
people from the east. The principa
advantage the east has over the Yves
is her better harbors and shippin,
facilities and even this advantage i
becoming of less Importance due t.
the projection of the Panama cana
and the deepening and improving Of
Pacific coast harbors.
AS regards climate, Oregon ism Z
to be compared with Massachusetts
There are only two seasons here-win-
ter and summer. The winters are
very cold and the summers extremely
hot.
AS regards people: again Oregon
has an advantage. Here in Massa-
chusetts, everything turns on family
connections. II your great, great
ETC., grandfather's uncle came over
on the Mayfower, "Yours is the
earth and all that is in it," Here
you are regarded upon the basis of
a family coat-of-arms; in Oregon you
are regarded on the basis of what
you, yourself, are.
If your name is Lowell or Cabot or
rockingham, you can get anything or
60 anywhere. In fact they have a
little saying that runs like this:
"In the sovereign state of Massachu-
setts-
The land of the sacred cod,
Where the Cabots speak only to the
Lowells.
And the Lowells speak only to God. .
The people, l find, are very provin-
cial. Most of them, as compared
with the average westerner, have
Travelled but little. A trip to New
York is an event Of unusual impor-
tance. They don't seem to realize
there is anything else worth while
in the United States except the ter
ritory east of the Mississippi. Imag-
inc my surprise the other day while
talking to an easterner--a college
graduate-when he, in answer to my
query as to how far west he had been,
responded in a very matter -of-fact
tone that he had been as far west
as Philadelphia. Taking advantage
of his ignorance I decided to have a
little fun at his expense. "What is
the capital of OMAHA" | queried.
He thought for several minutes and
replied that although he had heard
of the estate" of "Omaha,' he had
forgotten the capital.
4 The people are not SO enterprising
here as in the west. They haven t
nearly so much initiative. This may
be due to the smaller opportunities
available for men without capital to
become Independent. In the west the
cheaper lands make it possible for
the small capitalist to start up for
himself. The laboring classes here
although fairly well-paid-have no
such opportunity and consequently
but small per cent of them ever
dream of becoming independent.
Business conditions are most excel
lent here. Mills are running over
time, work is plentiful and there's a
general feeling of prosperity. OF
course it is an artificial prosperity,
due to the war. 1t is my opinion
that this prosperity will continue ev-
en- after war is concluded. 1t will
be then that the west will come in
for its share of the foreign business,
Europe will have almost completely
exhausted her supplies of raw mater
ials and manufactured articles and
will have to depend upon the United
States, particularly, for these pro-
ducts.
My brother, Leslie, and | are regis
tered in the Harvard Law school. Sol
Herzog, a former Dallas hoy, is also
enrolled in the school.