Pioneer Character Oregon Progress ; 269
inal settlement, has made slow progress. Portland is its one large town. Development of the coast region of Oregon has lagged from want of roads and railroads, and, for the like reason, the ports of the coast region have been neglected. Progress, indeed, all the time has been made by Western Ore- gon, but it has been slower than might have been supposed ; while Eastern Oregon yet contains an immense region that scarcely has been more than visited! by explorers, or at best partly occupied by herdsmen.
There is a difference between Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington, much in favor of the latter. The elevation of Eastern Washington is much less; it is better watered; the Columbia River traverses the whole breadth of it, and, with its tributaries, has cut down the general level of the country below that of Eastern Oregon. Again, the great railroad systems, terminating at Puget Sound, have covered Eastern Washing- ton with a network of lines and branches; while in Eastern Oregon there has been no railroad to compare with it. These facts explain why Eastern Oregon has fallen in its develop- ment far behind Eastern Washington. In Western Wash- ington there is little agriculture compared with that of West- em Oregon, but exploitation of the resources of timber and coal have been much greater; and Puget Sound has the bulk of the Alaskan trade. By the census of 1900, the population of Oregon was 413,536; that of Washington was 518,103. The difference, then, in favor of Washington was 104,567. It will probably exceed 200,000 by 1910.** Washington first appeared in the census of 1860, with a population of 11,594. Oregon, which had become a state in 1859, had, in 1860, 52,465. Washington first passed Oregon in 1890; its population then was 349,390, while that of Oregon was 313767.
From 1870 to 1880, the growth of population in Oregon was 93,865; from 1880 to 1890, 138.999; from 1890 to 1900, 99769. The increase during the presetot decade may be esti-
so The census of loio wm: Oregon, 672,76%; Washington. 1,141,900. ji By the censos of 1910, Washinifton pofmlstion exceeded that of Oregon by 46g,jJS.
