The railways of Oregon are the Oregon Central, from Portland tb St. Joseph, 49 in., leased to the Western Oregon Railroad Co.; the Oregon and California railway, from Portland up the Willamette to Roseburg, 199 m., successors of the Oregon and Central Railroad Co.. chartered by congress July 25, 1866, and owners of a land grant: the Willamette Valley railroad, from Dayton to Dallas, 35 in.; and the Oregon Railway and Navigation Co., from Wallulu to Celilo, 100 m., with branches, viz.: the Danes and Des Chutes railroad, around the lower cascade, 6 m.; the Dallies and Celilo railroad, 14i in.; the Walla Walla and Columbia River railroad, 32 in. ;- and Whitman and Weston, 20 m., making a total of 172 miles. This company commenced business July 1, 1879. It is a strong corporation. controlling the Oregon Steamship Co. and the Oregon Steam Navigation Co., including portage of the Columbia river (one in Washington territory around the lower cascade), and the Walla Walla and Columbia River railroad. It owns -4 ocean and 28 river steamers, 5 barges, and 7 wharf boats. The controlling managers -of this company arc in Boston, New York, and Chicago. They are pushing a road up the valley of John Day river toward the s.e. part of the state, to meet a branch of the Union Pacific, now under construction from Ogden through s. Idaho: which roads are likely to be completed to make a transcontinental road eastward from Oregon dur ing the year 1882 or 1883.
The number of .manufacturing establishments given by the census of 1820 was 969, employing 2,184 hands, $4,376,849 capital, paying $1,120.173 for wages, consuming $3,419,756 of raw material and producing $6,877.387 value of manufactures. Flouring mills produced of this $1,530,229, lumber, $922.576; woolen fabrics, $492,857. In 1874 the exported part of the flour-mill products amounted to'about $4,000,000; the lumber and timber to $3,000,000, and woolen goods to $1,000,000. Iron foundries, machine shops, rolling mills, quartz crushing mills and smelters, wool and paper mills, linen fac tories, extensive tanneries, and factories for making building lumber, agricultural imple ments, and wooden ware, indicate the direction of the manufacturing work of the state. The fish-canning factories have been referred to.
The constitution was adopted in 1857, and authorizes any male citizen of the United States 21 years old and six months a resident of the state to be a voter, and any like foreigner who shall declare his intention to become a citizen one year before an election, and have been a resident of the state for six months. The governor, secretary of state -(who is auditor), and state treasurer are elected for four years, and ineligible four out of .any period of 12 years. The legislature has a senate of not more than 30 members elected for 4 years; and a house of representatives of not more than 60 members elected for two years. They meet biennially. The judiciary consists of a supreme court of six or more judges, having appellate jurisdiction; six circuit courts, each presided by one of the judges of the supreme court, having civil and criminal jurisdiction, and appellate ..jurisdiction from the county courts; and county courts with one judge, elected for four who is also judge of probate. An act was passed by the legislature in 1878 creat ing a separate supreme court of three judges. The circuit court judges are elected one third every two years. One or more justices of the peace are elected in every town ship or mining district, and have jurisdiction in cases involving $250 or less. Judges of the supreme court can be removed by the governor upon the joint resolution of two thirds of the legislature. A state- printer and superintendent of public instruction are elected every four years. General elections are held biennially on the first Monday of June of even years. To amend the constitution the must pass two succes sive legislatures, and be approved by popular vote. The constitution prohibits the legis lature from contracting any state debt exceeding $50,000, or assuming the debt of any county, town, or corporation, and limits each county to $5,000 of indebtedness except " to repel invasion or suppress insurrection.' The salaries of governor, secretary of state, and superintendent of public instruction are $1,500 each; treasurer, $800; and memberS of each house $3 per day, and $3 for every 20 miles of travel, not making more than$120 to any one member.
The board of education for the state consists of the governor, secretary of state, and .superintendent of instruction. County superintendents and boards of district school officers are chosen at the biennial county elections. The foundation for the public schools of Oregon is exceptionally strong. An irreducible school fund of $500,000 fur nishes a part of it. A large body of swamp lands was donated to the state by the United States, and has been placed at the disposal of the board of school commissioners to be sold so as to make the mostof their value. The number of children in the public schools in 1859 was 32,715; of school age 56,464. The very sparse settlement of a large part of the state makes the maintenance of schools difficult in many places, so that the average duration of schools in 1875 was only 41 months. Value of school property the same year, $332,764; nuniber of school houses, 555; number of teachers employed that year, 860; average salary of teachers, $40 per month. The total receipts from all funds for public schools was $204,760, made up as follows: District tax, $47,243; state appor tionment, $31,589; county apportionment, $87,573; into bills and subscriptions, $34,672, other sources, $3,683. The university of Oregon established by the legislature in 1872, is under the control of nine directors, six of whom are appointed by the governor, and is endowed by the state at the start with $50,000, called the university fund. The following colleges were in operation in 1874. The Pacific university and Tualatin academy at Forest Grove, not denominational, had 8 instructors, 124 students and 5,000 volumes in library; the Willamette university at Salem, Methodist Episcopal, 9 instructors, 322 students, 2,500 volumes; McMinnville college at McMinnville, Baptist, 6 instructors, 150 students; Christian college, at Monmouth, Christian Brothers, 9 instructors, 180 students; Philo math college at Philomath, United Brethren, 6 instructors, 134 students, and Corvallis college at Corvallis, Methodist Episcopal, 6 instructors and 134 students. The Pacific university, Philomath college, and Willamette university admit women. A medical department of the latter had 11 professors and 14 students. Ninety thousand acres of the congressional land grant for school purposes were given in 1872 to endow a state agricultural college which was grafted as a department on Corvallis college, where it has -a farm, and receives an annual grant of $5,000 from the state. The number of libraries in the state, public and private, in 1870 was 2,361, with 344,959 volumes; of which about one-fourth were public, and classified as follows: State library, 3,578 volumes; town, 1,161; court and law, 180; school, college, etc., 4,400; Sabbath-school, 33,547; church, 10,420; benevolent associations, 1,096.
The number of newspapers and periodicals in 1880 is 64. In 1874 there were 41, viz.: 4 daily, 1 triweekly, 33 weekly, 1 semi-monthly, and 2 monthly. The aggregate circulation was then 45,750. The church organizations and relative strength are given below from the census of 1870: Organizations, 220; edifices, 135; sittings, 39,425; value of property, $471,000.
Partial statistics for 1879 show of Baptist churches, 77; Roman Catholic, 18; Congre gational, 28; Jews, 1; Presbyterians, 27; Protestant Episcopal, 34; Seventh Day Adven tists, 7; Unitarian, 2; Universalist, 5. The number of the Methodist churches is not stated, but there are 3 conferences of 5,500 members.
No public building for state charities bad been erected up to 1875. A school is main tained for deaf mutes, an asylum for the insane, and another for the blind, under state control, in buildings leased for the purpose. In the deaf mute school in 1874 there were 29 pupils; in the blind asylum, 8; in the insane asylum, 195; of whom 140 were males and 55 females and 124 natives of the United State and 71 of foreign countries. The penitentiary was erected in 1874 and has a farm and commodious yards connected with it. The convicts are employed at brick-making, or on the farm, or let out to contractors. In 1779 they numbered 200.
• The tax for state purposes in 1870 was $177,653; for county, $362,753; and for towns and cities, $4,530; total, $580,596. Total public debt, $218,486, of which $106,583 was state, $105.903 county, and $6,000 town. The liabilities of the state in Sept., 1878, were $651,595. Balance in the treasury at same date, $112,895.