The next generation of Oregonians will not be found wanting in their ardor for the welfare of the state as a whole, in patriotic zeal for the betterment of all the conditions of life here and in aspiration to give the Pacific Northwest leadership in social progress if the schools are furnished the story of the Oregon opportunity as it was made and realized. This, as told by the actors themselves, should be compiled and distributed to the districts. The highest pitch of emulation to the mastery of this story and interest in the aims of the exposition may advisedly be secured by a system of prize essays on important topics pertaining to Oregon's development. This outline of the features that the exposition might include does not debar from it popular and recreative attractions. It does not slur the exhibition of the remarkable products of the farm, the orchard, the mine, the river, the forests, and the factory. The ideas emphasized will only give these products multiplied significance, bringing them into vital relations with life that is more than meat, drink, and wear. An exposition thus rationally planned will be the poor man's greatest hope. If he loses the aid it would give him toward the right solution of the social problem the odds are terribly against him in the race for an equitable distribution. Such an exposition would go far toward securing an open door to an equality of opportunity for all in Oregon. To block the organization of such an exposition would not be far from social suicide for the masses. The dominance of economic forces in progress is becoming more and more exclusive. It devolves upon the people to comprehend fully the living forces, and, by comprehending them, put themselves in position to control them and mold them to the higher uses of conserving an equality of opportunity for all. The Lewis and Clark Exposition lends itself wholly to this great mission. It is hard to see how a means quite so propitious will be available again. F. G. YOUNG. THE EDUCATIONAL HISTORY OF ASTORIA, OREGON. The study of the school history of Astoria is of interest to the student of education in that it reveals a condition different from that of some of the other cities of Oregon, particularly those of the Willamette Valley. In the latter, private and public schools struggled for the mastery, with the private school far in the lead for many years.[1] In Astoria, on the contrary, the public school idea had a firm hold from the beginning and asserted itself as soon as the establishment of a public school was possible. The history of Astoria's educational progress, covering a period of fifty-two years, is chiefly the story of the beginning and gradual development of a system of public schools. There is traceable, however, something of the conflict, so prominent elsewhere, between the public and the private school idea. PRIVATE SCHOOLS.