d-wagon pioneering, the first railroads spanned
the continent in 1869. But the Union Pacific and Central Pacific were
more the concern of California than of Oregon, for the Northwest had no
iron trail to link it with the parent East until in 1883 the Northern
Pacific Railway, under the leadership of Henry Villard, reached
Portland.

So Oregon was discovered by sea and land, and finally, as highways of
steel replaced the dusty trails of the emigrants, she has come into her
own. From within and without she has builded, and what she has done for
her sons, and offers to her settlers, has established a place for her in
the respectful attention of the world.

Now, in the year nineteen hundred and fifteen, a new era is dawning for
Oregon and for all our Western Coast, through fresh enterprise, this
time again by sea. The waters of the Atlantic and Pacific have been
joined at Panama, our continental coast line, to all intents and
purposes, being made continuous, and the two Portlands, of Oregon and
Maine, become maritime neighbors. Our East and our West have clasped
hands again at the Isthmus, and comparative strangers as they are, there
is need for an introduction when they meet.

Not strangers, perhaps; better brothers long separated, each unfamiliar
with the attainments and the developed character of the other. The
younger brother, the Westerner, has from the very nature of things
changed most. His growth, in body, mind, and experience, is at times
difficult for the Easterner to fathom. A generation ago, he was such an
immature fellow, so lacking in poise, in accomplishments, and even in
certain of those characteristics which comprise what the East chooses to
consider civilization; and his country, compared with what it is to-day,
was so crudely developed.

The Easterner this year is the one who is coming to his brother of the
West, because of the Canal, the Expositions celebrating its completion,
and an immediate inclination to "see America first" impressed upon our
public for the most part by the present war-madness of Europe.

It would be rank presumption for any one person to pretend to speak a
word of explanation to that visitor on behalf of the Coast. As a fact,
no explanation is required; the States of the Pacific are their own
explanation, and their people must be known by their works. Secondly,
the Coast is such a vast territory that what might be a reasonably
intelligent introduction to one portion of it would