Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/37

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The Social Evolution of Oregon.
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other sections of the East. Smaller lines were constructed to the productive valleys and seaport towns, and the different parts of the state were joined together and brought nearer to the markets and points of shipping. That the change was realized is evident from the following words of the president of the Portland Board of Trade, spoken on the occasion of the completion of the Northern Pacific in 1884: "At present we are in the very midst of a commercial event of phenomenal importance; an event which welds us forever to the other parts of the country,—the union of the East and the West. The significance of the change is yet scarcely apparent, but a rapid adjustment of our business methods to the new order of things is necessary. Hitherto we have occupied what might be called an insular position, with insular advantages and insular prejudices; but now we are incorporated with the rest of the Union and must adopt the methods that elsewhere prevail." The popular approval and appreciation was manifested by a monster procession in which the principal object of interest was an old pioneer caravan with every detail depicted in realistic manner. Old weather beaten wagons were prominent; household utensils were mingled with tow-headed babies and bear cubs; men walked beside the wagons to protect, with their rifles, from imaginary harm, while a band of Warm Spring Indians followed with war whoop and flourish of tomahawks.

From the completion of the transcontinental lines the growth of industrial life has been steady and permanent. Isolation has been destroyed. Remoteness of location, however, has not been entirely overcome, and the process of evolution is not complete. The law of social growth has signified in the past that every step toward progress requires the taking of another, and already the interest