Pioneer Charactbr Orbgon Progress 267
people of Western Oregon. They were established on the prinritive or pioneer basis. But long ago die primitive people of Western Washii^on were overrun, submerged, drowned by the incoming flood. Frank Henry's "Old Pioneer"' remains a literary monument over the grave of the early settler there.
Two things have pushed the State of Washington ahead of the State of Oregon. First, the rush of the railroads to reach Puget Sound. Second, the transformation from pioneer and agriculttual conditions to commercial conditions, the more rapid sulmiergence ot the early settler in Washington than in Oregon, and the outburst of Alaska. The inundation in Washington thus far, therefore, has been more rapid and com- plete. Yet doubtless we still have people in Oregon who regret even the slow change here. But the movement is inex- orable. Our push clubs have its impulse; the Rose Fair at Portland is a manifestation of it ; the eagerness of increasing numbers of our people to get into the current instead of drift- ing about in the eddy attests it. Oregon, too, therefore, presses forward to the mark of its high calling, forgetting the things which are behind! Not forgetting them, either, for that is not necessary. But the new and cmcoming generations must set their faces towards the morning. The old existence was idyllic, indeed, and may be remembered as ideal; but no state or stage of life, especially in a new country, is fixed and permanent; nor ought it to be. Yet the old principles of industry and of prudence never with safety can be abandoned.
Oregon now is feeling the rush of new tides of life. There has been progress always, indeed, but the current at times has been checked ; even at times there has seemed to be almost a refluent movement Prudence sometimes outdoes itself on one side, as ambition often overleaps itself on the other. But it is apparent that Oregon is making greater progress in these ten years than in any other two decades of its history. The significance of this fact is apparent, and, moreover, it is pre- sageful. Still, there is one fact: Till Oregon obtains the railxpad development that Washington has, our state will
