Oregon grows a fine grade of flax fiber, yet mills have come and gone for fifty years. In 1935 an Oregon Flax Committee was appointed to investigate the industry and make recommendations. In October of that year the Works Progress Administration consented to earmark money to build three flax-processing plants in the state. In December the Agricultural Adjustment Administration granted a federal subsidy of $5 a ton to flax growers. Committees which were granted WPA funds for plants, furnished land and contributed cash to the enterprise, while farmers and business men, backed by their bankers, organized cooperatives. The state engaged experts to supervise construction of the plants and to help the cooperatives get started. The WPA agreed to construct the plants and run them for one year, whereupon the state assumed responsibility.
Oregon exports, like the state's commerce in general, depend on the activity of the timber industry, which in turn influences agriculture. The bulk of water-borne shipments consists of lumber, flour, wheat, paper, and canned goods, including salmon, in the order named. Next in rank are logs, apples, dried fruits, pulp-wood, hides and leather; then plywood, cereals, doors, milk, vegetables, cheese, and butter. Cattle, sheep, horses, and hogs on the hoof, poultry and poultry products, and wool in the raw, are shipped chiefly by freight car.
The total commerce of the Port of Portland, Oregon's chief commercial terminal, which handles by far the largest share of the state's shipments, was 7,353,378 tons in 1938. Some 1717 vessels entered and cleared, carrying a tonnage of 5,556,535 tons. Total port commerce value in 1938 was $273,258,096. Commerce along the inland waterways and by train, truck and electric line, with shipments from Tillamook and Coos bays, added vastly to the state's commercial figures.
The Bonneville dam on the Columbia, forty miles east of Portland, completed by the Federal Government in 1937, had an immediate capacity of 115,250 horsepower, and foundations for 576,000 additional horsepower. This gave inestimable impetus to Oregon industry and commerce. The largest development to date (1940) is that of the American Aluminum Company that has purchased a 300 acre site and has scheduled the opening of a plant in 1941. Public Utility Districts for use of Bonneville power are being organized in many parts of the state, and many private companies are negotiating for the use of power from the dam.
LABOR: Romantic historians of the great migration to Oregon have woven a stirring tale of a land-hungry yeomanry carving an em
