Ashland weekly tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1919-1924, 1920-12-29

, RADIO and in Alaska.
In order, however that may b.
concrete examples, startely the peo
pie of America from actual fact
: to the enormous possibilities of de
veloping this industry, let me quote
Figures recently received from Cali
fornia.
have a circular before me in which
It is shown that the annual orange
crop is $62.500,000, the deciduoui
fruit chop, $15, 900, 900, lemons $11,'
000, 900, or a total of $sS,500, 900
The cotton crop is $l9,500, 900, wheat
$14,500,O00, barley $l1,500,000
beans $14.5OO, 900, or a total of the
seven products of the soil of $14S,'
500. 900.
In the same circular, but not given
the prominence by any means as the
figures have just mentioned, is the
statement that the tourist crop pei
annum is One Hundred and Fifty
Million Dollars, sum exceeding the
total value of their seven resources
of the soil.
In statement which | have given
out several times and which have
in my office, supplied to me by the
Bureau of Statistics of the U. s. gov
ernment, | have been informed that
the tourists spend one million dollars
a day in California.
In Nelson. British Columbia, a few
weeks ago, after delivering an ad-
dress before the Good Roads League
of British Columbia, Mrs. Thompson,
the only lady member Of city coun-
ell in the province of British Colum-
bia, and perhaps in Canada, said:
"Mr. Cuthbert, you have given me
an entirely new thought and have
awakened an interest in me in the
tourist business most illuminating
and fundamental, that our beautiful
foliage, our mountain streams and
creeks, and the snow-capped peaks
themselves, may produce greater
revenue from people who pay to en-
Joy seeing them than the minerals
In the hills themselves"
HIS ID TIC hcyuOtC VI my duuicoo'
It is the thought ! want the Ameri-
can people to get, that these things,
all that goes to make up scenery,
can be source of wealth to any
community that possesses them.
Briefly let me say that all over
this American continent we have
the raw material for the tourist in
ldustry, some states more than 9th
ers, in which we might enumerate
Florida, Colorado, California, Wis
Iconsin, Minnesota, etc.
In the Pacific Northwest, Oregon,
Washington and British Columbia,
we have six hundred thousand square
miles of country that is all scenery.
Can you imagine It? We have noun
tain ranges and individual peaks
thirty times the area of Switzerland,
one thousand miles of inland seas,
as beautiful as the Mediterranean,
two thousand miles Of coast line in
dented with bays and SQUADS, and
the mouths of mighty rivers, more
majestic and more wonderful than
that of Norway and Its fiords. There
are thousands of miles Of primeval
evergreen forests containing twelve
hundred billion feet Of merchantable
timber and a lake system more ex-
tensive and greater than the lakes
of Europe.
All these are the raw materials for
the tourist industry and this Is one
of the great advantages of this in
dustry. that its raw material is not
confined to one particular place.
There are Pittsburghs, Bethlehems,
and other centers Of the iron indus
try, and there are centers Of our min
Ing, agriculture and fishing indus
tries, but the raw material for the
tourist industry is anywhere where
the people will employ capital and
labor in putting in road or trail
or erecting hotel or In providing
transportation.
There are four essentials in the de- |
velopment of the tourist industry, |
transportation, the building Of high
ways and good roads, first class ho-
tel accommodation and publicity.
In the Pacific Northwest today we
need twenty million dollars to be
spent in hotels. This is part of the
capital | have referred to. 1t en-
ploys the labor l have referred to.
Let me illustrate:
One hotel of 200 rooms stated the
other day that their payroll is $780,
900 year, and they spend in sup
plies, amongst the farmers, the busi-
ness men, poultrymen and producers
generally, 100000 year.
Increase the number Of these ho-
tells and see how You increase the
employment Of labor and the ex-
penditure amongst your farmers and
producers. That is all that can be
claimed Of any other industry. In
the Pacific Northwest we are spend
ing sixty million dollars in highways
and good roads.
The one great need in the develop
ment of the tourist business is pub
licity. Previous to the formation of
the Pacific Northwest Tourist asso-
citation, which ! represent, we were
getting scarcely any OF this busi-
ness. It was going to the older tour
ist centers because they were better
advertised and no attempt had been
made to draw them to the Pacific
Northwest. Within four short years
! estimate that we have increased our
revenues from the tourists from seven