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O. L. MILLER, Baker City, Or. ADOLPHE WOLFE, Portland, Or., ad Vice-President of the Board of Directors
States seeking homes and business investments. Some time in 1900, the suggestion was advanced that Congress might, if asked, be induced to give Portland a share of the appropriations it was passing around for fairs. The Chicago World*s Fair was still fresh in the minds of the East, the Omaha Exposition had only lately closed, and, with the Buffalo, Charleston, and St. Louis Expositions in prospect, the chances for Portland did not appear to be worth the effort. Besides, Oregon and Portland were then asking the government for large sums for river and other public improvements of great importance and it was deemed unwise to imperil these by making new demands upon Congress. The proposal to hold a fair would most certainly have died of inanition if the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Lewis and Clark expedition had not come to the rescue and furnished the historical basis, the real reason for a celebration of some kind. This aspect of the subject appealed to the Oregon Historical Society and formed the nucleus of the present movement. Without it we should have no reason for an Exposition and perhaps no Exposition; with it we have the means of acting ourselves and of inviting the world to participate with us.
The Oregon Country has been committed to an Exposition from the moment when the Historical Society, at its annual meeting on December 15, 1900, adopted the resolutions of the late L. B. Cox, "recognizing in the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Coast not only the chief of those romantic and adventurous movements which have ever characterized the advance of the American pioneer spirit, but also an event of the highest practical value, both disclosing the worth and recources of the vast region traversed and constituting one of the strongest links in our chain of title to the 'Oregon Country.'"
The further resolution of the Society on this subject follows:
That this Society will undertake to erect, during the year 1905, on the site of Fort Clatsop, an imposing and enduring monument to this great achievement in our national history, and to the memory of the brave men who accomplished it.
That in connection with the erection and dedication of this monument, the Society recommends the holding of a Northwestern Industrial Exposition at Portland, which shall fittingly portray the progress and wealth of the region with which this expedition is inseparably connected, and its relationship with the other States of the Union as well as to foreign countries.
That the Governor of Oregon be, and he hereby is, requested to submit to the approaching session of the Legislative Assembly this action on the part of the Society and to urge upon that body a cordial and effective support of the movements contem-
