Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1871-03-25
OLYMPIA. SATURDAY MORNING, MAR. Is, 1871
Commercial Centres.

A vigorous writer and expert special
pleader is employed by the enterprising
real estate dealers, Stitzel e. Upton, to
write up Portland, for publication in the
Real Estate Journal. From one of these
advertising articles VIC extract the follow
ing:
There are many sites on Puget Sound that
can and will be points of ocean transit, each
having like facilities; bu. there never will be
a commercial center there, because the nature
of the soil forbids density of adjoining popu-
lation, and the topography Of the country pre-
vents any scheme of centraliZiRg railroads at n
designated site. Portland will be the distrib-
uting centre of trade for the whole North Pa
cfc coast, and also the depot of maritime
commerce, because Portland is the only port
on the whole North Pacific coast that can fur
nish return cargo, which will cause frcghts to
Portland to rule lower than to ports where
shipping leave in ballast.
For an advertisement for real estate
spectators this does very well; but as an
essay upon the commercial advantages Of
the country, it lacks the necessary elc-
ments Of truth and common sense to make
it reliable. If the nature of the soil for
bids the density Of population necessary to
create a commercial center, Rhode Island
would be the poorest instead of the richest
State in the Union in proportion to geo.
graphical Dimensions, and New England
would be without commerce, for it exports
little or no products Of its soil. And if
the products of the soil were the chief ele-
ments of commercial interchange, Charles
ton, Is. CO. would have been the CONNER.
cial metropolis of the United States, it be-
ing the most convenient shipping port to
the chief staple product which entered
into the commerce Of the country; the ex-
port of cotton, prior to the overthrow of
the old Union and the establishment of the
q" New Nation" being equal to four-ffths
Of the entire exports of the country.
1t is not true that Portland is the only
port on the whole North Pacific coast that
can furnish return cargo. The tonnage
employed in the Puget Sound trade at this
time is not less than twenty times as much
as the tonnage employed by Portland in all
its foreign commerce, and many times
greater than the tonnage employed by
Portland in all its carrying trsde, both for
eign and domestic, in which the latter is
almost wholly tributary to San Francisco.
And this relative advantage is bound, in
the natural course of things, to be main.
tanned by the Sound over Portland in all
future time. The exports of lumber, coal
fish, and the manufactures for which I'm.
parallelled facilities are here offered, will
forever employ many times the amount Of
shipping necessary to transport all the
surplus agricultural products Of the Will.
lamette Valley when all under cultivation
The superiority claimed for Portland
over the Sound as depot of maritime
commerce, is simply absurd, having less
foundation than would the like claim Of
Albany over New York, or Sacramento o,
Stockton over San Francisco. Puget
Sound offers the safest entrance and the
finest harbor in the world, with abund
ance Of water and ample anchorage, and
is on the direct line of the shortest circui,
around the globe touching the chief com.
mercial centres, and is surrounded by in.
eKhaustible supplies of the great staples Of
commerce, lumber, iron and coal, to say
nothing Of its fisheries, which will eventu.
ally be greater source of revenue than
the gold fields of California, or all the
agricultural products of the rich valley Of
the Willamette. Possessing all these un.
rivalled advantages, how supremacy ride.
ulous appears the proposition that all these
are to be made exclusively tributary to q
little interior fresh-water town hundred
miles away from an ocean port, only acces.
sible by steam, and at times cut off from
all communication with the outer world by
Ice and snow for weeks. Think of a ship
from China, Japan or the Indies, freight.