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iK. THE HISTORY OF THE OREGON AND CALIFORNIA RAILROAD* By JOHN TILSON GANOE Introduction A country, if it is to survive, must have a social solidar- ity. In producing this oneness perhaps there is no more important factor than that of communication. The better the means of social intercourse, the greater the sense of union felt by the different groups of people. United States is now a vast nation stretching from coast to coast, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. With- out communication such a nation based upon republican principles would be virtually impossible. Isolation pro- duces a group solidarity and a desire to be independent. To preserve a nation's unity care must be taken to de- velop those things which will bind the people together into a closer union. United States in 1846 was faced with just such a prob- lem. She had gained a new empire by forcing to a con- clusion the diplomatic negotiations in which she had been engaged off and on thruout almost her entire exist- ence. In 1848 the Mexican War secured her California. She now had a vast territory 3,000 miles from the seat of government, and not only was there the ele- ment distance with which she had to contend, but there was also a great barrier the so-called great American desert and the Rockies. Without communication, geo- graphical isolation would have seemed to have also called for political isolation. The discovery of gold followed by the Civil War, brought those upon the Atlantic coast to see as never be- fore the need of communication—and no wonder, for during that period there had been talk of a new nation

• A thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the

University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, June, 1924.