The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1873-03-07
ASTORIA VS.. PORTLAND.

greatly alarmed at the farmers move.
ment' in favor of Astoria (the only
seaport town in Oregon) becoming the
mart and the shipping
point for this State. And it is not
to be wondered at, since Portland's
wealth and prosperity has been real
lied by levying tribute, year after
year. upon our interior producers and
consumers-not only of the William
cite valley, but of Eastern Oregon.
Not pound of our freight, either
for purposes of import or export, Is
ever allowed to pass out upon, or
in from the high seas, without being
wharied, drayed, shipped, boate d and
reshipped through all the multifari-
ous avenues which the Portlauder's
ingenuity can invent for the pur-
pose of extracting percentage there
from and thus filling his Golfers with
the money which should of right go
into the hands of the hard working
producer and the poorly Paid con-
sumner.
The facts and figures which have
been recently published in the DEMO
Graf, from the pens of various cor
respondents, have set our people to
thinking upon this subject, and al
ready We hear the mutterings OF the
coming simoom which is TO sweep
over Portland and scorch its pros
perity with withering blast which will
not leave vestige of that glory and
tinsel which was paid for out of the
earnings of the interior people.
The commercial editor of the Her
aid, on last Friday, in answer to a
correspondent who is in favor of
Astoria becoming the commercial en-
trepot of Oregon, says: "There is n
broad, deep water channel extending
from the Bar of the Columbia to this
city, which can be navigated at all
seasons of the year by vessels draw
ing sixteen feet .or more, and with
some slight improvements vessels of
seventeen feet draught could come
up TO this city without difficulty"
We certainly think the Herald
over-states the case Il is we'll un,
dersiood by mariners that there is
only eleven feet of water at Tongue
Point Gust above As,oria) save At
high tide, and as to the "broad deep
water channel extending to Portland"
there is surely some exaggeration
The channel is understood 10 be in
very many places narrow, shallow and
tortuous, and can only be navigated
by pilots of long experience in those
waters. Tugs, lighters, ETC., must be
in constant attendance upon sea YES
sells of even ordinary draught, and
then scarcely any of these vessels
will start from Portland with over
half cargo. These facts are so
notorious as 10 need scarcely repe,i-
ton from Us.
And again: Do vessels sail mp the
Columbia and Willamette rivers to
Portland? Certainly not. No mat
ter how wide and deep the channel
of those rivers may be made by Gov
ernment appropriation and Govern
aent improvement, there is the ex-
pense of towage from the sea to Port
land. always to be extracted from the
pockets of the shipper. Scarcely
less than $500 per vessel is ever
charged between Portland and As
tora. This is cost that must always
be met, no matter how deep and
wide the channel.
We entertain no hostility to Port
land. We woald be glad to see it
prosper, but not at the expense of
the hard working tlller of the soil
and the interior consumer of impor.
tations. 1t must be patent to every
one that until seaport emporium is
built up somewhere on our Oregon
coast we can never. expect to take the
place. to which our natural advan-
tages assign MS among the great sis
terhood of Commonwealths.