distributed. There is some roofing slate along the Rogue river, natural cement, nickel ore, bismuth and wolframite in Douglas county, gypsum in Baker county, fire-clay in Clatsop county, borate of soda on the marsh lands of Harney county, infusorial earth and tripoli in the valley of the Deschutes river, chromate of iron in Curry and Douglas counties, molybdenite in Union county, bauxite in Clackamas county, borate of lime in Curry county, manganese ore in Columbia county, and asbestos in several of the southern and eastern counties. The total value of all mineral products in 1908 was $2,743,434.
Manufactures.—Manufacturing is encouraged both by the variety and abundance of raw material furnished by the mines, the forests, the farms and the fisheries, and by the coal and water-power available for operating the machinery. The total value of manufactures increased from $10,931,232 in 1880 to $41,432,174 in 1890, or 279% in ten years, and although progress was slow from 1890 to 1900 there was a rapid advance again from 1900 to 1905, when the value of factory products increased from $36,592,714 to $55,525,123. The manufactures of greatest value are lumber and timber products ($12,483,908 in 1905). Portland and Astoria are the chief manufacturing centres; in 1905 the value of the factory products of these two cities was 57.2% of that of the factory products of the entire state.
Transportation and Commerce.—For 110 m. from the mouth of the Columbia river to Portland, 12 m. up the Willamette river, is a channel which in 1909 was navigable (20-22 ft. deep) by large ocean going vessels, and which will have a minimum depth of 25 ft. at low water upon the completion of the Federal project of 1902. From the mouth of the Willamette river vessels of light draft ascend the Columbia (passing the Cascade Falls through a lock canal, which was opened in 1896 and has a depth of 8 ft., a width of 92 ft. and two locks, each 462 ft. long) to the mouth of the Snake river (in the state of Washington), up that river to the mouth of the Imnaha, in Wallowa county, on the eastern boundary of Oregon, and, when the water is high, up the Imnaha river to the town of Imnaha, 516 m. from the sea. The Willamette river is navigable to Harrisburg, 152 m. above Portland, but boats seldom go farther up the river than Corvallis, 119 m. above Portland, and the depth at low water to Corvallis is only 3 ft. On the coast, Coos Bay, a tidal estuary, is the principal harbour between the mouth of the Columbia and San Francisco; it admits vessels drawing 14 to 16 ft. of water, and both the north and south forks of the Coos river are navigable for vessels of light draft (the depth at low water is only 1.5 ft.) 14 m. from the mouth of that river, and 8.5 m. on each fork. Farther north, Yaquina Bay and Tillamook Bay also admit small steamboats. The Coquille river is navigable for about 37 m., the Yaquina river for 23 m. with a depth of 13 to 15 ft., the Siuslaw river for 6 m. (for vessels drawing less than 6 ft., 15 m. farther for very light draft vessels) and a few other coast streams for short distances. The beginning of railway building in Oregon was delayed a few years by a contest between parties desiring a line on the east side of the Willamette river and parties desiring one on the west side. Finally, on the 14th of May 1868, ground was broken for the proposed line on the west side, and two days later it was broken for one on the east side; that on the east side was completed for 20 m. south of Portland in 1869 and that on the west side was completed to the Yamhill river in 1872. In 1870 the mileage was 159 m. The principal period of railway building was from 1880 to 1890, during which 931.97 m. were built and the state’s mileage increased from 508 m. to 1,439.97 m. In 1909 the total mileage was 2089.46 m. There is a state railway commission. The principal railways are: that of the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company (controlled by the Union Pacific), which crosses the north-eastern corner of the state and then runs along the bank of the Columbia river to Portland; three lines of the Southern Pacific in the Willamette Valley, the main line connecting Portland with San Francisco; the Astoria & Columbia River, connecting Portland and Astoria; the Coos Bay, Roseburg & Eastern Railroad & Navigation Company (owned by the Southern Pacific), connecting Coos Bay with one of the Southern Pacific lines; and the Corvallis & Eastern (owned by the Southern Pacific), connecting Yaquina Bay with all three lines of the Southern Pacific. Throughout the Cascade Mountain Region and the great semi-arid region cast of those mountains, which together embrace more than two-thirds of the state’s area, there is not a railway.
The state carries on an extensive commerce with the Orient and with the Canadian provinces. Its exports are principally lumber, wheat, live-stock, fish and wool; its imports are largely a variety of products of the Oriental countries. There are four customs districts: southern Oregon, with Coos Bay as the port of entry; Willamette, with Portland as the port of entry; Oregon, with Astoria as the port of entry; and Yaquina, at the mouth of the Yaquina river.
Population.—The population of Oregon was 13,294 in 1850; 52,465 in 1860; 90,923 in 1870; 174,768 in 1880; 317,704 in 1890; 413,536 in 1900, an increase of 30.2% in the decade; and 672,765 in 1910, a further increase of 62.7%. Of the total population in 1900, 347,788, or 84.1%, were native-born, 65,748 were foreign born, 394,582, or 95.4%, were of the white race, and 18,954 were coloured. Of those born within the United States only 164,431, or less than one-half, were natives of Oregon, and of those born in other states of the Union 128,654, or about seven-tenths, were natives of one or another of the following states: Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, California, New York, Indiana, Kansas, Washington, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Nearly three-fourths of the foreign-born were composed of the following: 13,292 Germans, 9365 Chinese, 9007 Scandinavians, 7508 Canadians, 5663 English and 4210 Irish. The coloured population consisted of 10,397 Chinese, 4951 Indians, 2501 Japanese and 1105 negroes.
The Indians are remnants of a large number of tribes, most of which are aboriginal to this region, and they represent ten or more distinct linguistic stocks. Most of them have been collected under five government schools; the Clackamas, Cow Creek, Calapooya, Lakmiut, Mary's River, Molala, Nestucca, Rogue River, Santiam, Shasta, Tumwater, Umpqua, Wapato and Yamhill, numbering 145 in 1909, under the Grande Ronde school, on the Grande Ronde reservation in Polk and Yamhill counties; the Klamath (658), Modoc (216), Paiute (103), and Pit River or Achomawi (56), under the Klamath school on the Klamath reservation (1362.8 sq. m.) in Klamath and Lake counties; the Alsea, Coquille, Kusan, Kwatami, Rogue River, Skoton, Shasta, Saiustkea, Siuslaw, Tututni, Umpqua and several other small tribes, numbering 442 in 1909, under the Siletz school, on the Siletz reservation (5 sq. m.) in Lincoln county; the Cayuse, Umatilla and Wallawalla, numbering 1205 in 1908, under the Umatilla school, on the Umatilla reservation (124.73 sq. m.) in Umatilla county, and the Paiute, Tenino, Warm Springs and Wasco Indians, numbering 765 in 1909, under the Warm Springs school on the Warm Springs reservation (503.29 sq. m.) in Wasco and Crook counties. Most of the Indians are engaged in farming and stock-raising, but a few still derive their maintenance mainly from fishing and hunting.
Roman Catholics are the most numerous religious sect in the state (in 1906 out of a total of 120,229 communicants of all religious bodies, they numbered 35,317). The rural population (i.e. population outside of incorporated places) is very sparse, only about 2½ in 1900, to the square mile, and while it increased from 203,973 in 1890 to 229,894 in 1900, or only 11.3%. the urban (i.e. population of places having 4000 inhabitants or more) together with the semi-urban (i.e. population of incorporated places having less than 4000 inhabitants) increased during the same decade from 113,731 to 183,642, or 61.5%. The principal cities are Portland, Astoria, Baker City and Salem, which is the capital.
Administration.—The state is still governed under its original constitution of 1857, with the amendments adopted in 1902, 1906 and 1908. This constitution may be amended: by a majority of the popular vote at a regular general election, if the amendment has been passed by a majority vote of all the elected members of each house of the legislature; or by an initiative petition; or by a constitutional convention, which may not be called, however, unless the law providing for it is approved by popular vote. The right of suffrage is conferred by the constitution upon all white male citizens twenty-one years of age and over who have resided in the state during the six months immediately preceding the election, and upon every white male of the required age who has been a resident of the state for six months, and who, one year before the election, has declared his intention of becoming a citizen and who has resided in the United States for one year and in the state for six months prior to the election. Idiots, insane persons and persons convicted of serious crimes are disfranchised. The clause excluding negroes and Chinese from the suffrage has never been repealed, although it has been rendered nugatory by the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Another provision which has been annulled by amendment to the Federal Constitution, but which still remains in the state constitution, is a clause forbidding free negroes or mulattoes, not residing in the state at the time of the adoption of the constitution, to enter the state or to own real estate or make contracts and maintain suits therein, and bidding the legislature provide for the removal of such negroes and mulattoes and for the punishment of persons bringing them into the state, or employing or harbouring them. The constitution provides that no Chinaman, not a resident of the state at the time of
