Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1881-04-21
THE EFFECT OF THE SUIT.

TdllIodu iHuii"ScIS, VIC "HoiO pCOPiS
cast of the Cascade mountains and
north of the 45th parallel have the
deepest interest, and their future well
fare depends upon the result of that
contest for supremacy. The people
generally may not now foretel how they
will be affected by the result, but they
will see how they are affected soon af-
ter the result is reached. We have
no Partially towards either Billings
or Willard and the companies which
they represent, further than what
their respective plans promise to the
people of the Columbia basin, and
hence what we have to say in relation to
them is not said in hostility to either,
but is the result of our reasoning upon
the propositions of each as developed
in the document sent by Willard to
Billings and Billings reply. From the
first we deduce as the logical conclu-
sion of the entire statement of Willard
Notwithstanding his fiat denial of the
fact), that the prime os well as the
ultimate object he had in seeking con-
troll of a majority of the stock of the
Northern Pacific was to delay the
building of the Cascade division of the
Northern Pacific road till the o. r. L.
N. Company had perfected their road
to Portland and secured the complete
traffic of both roads to the sea via of
Portland and the mouth of the Co.
lumbia river. Neither Mr. Willard,
nor his friends, nor any other man of
knowledge of what a published state.
ment means can place any other con-
struction upon hisstatement to Billings.
We of the Columbia basin must concede
this interest. IF Willard is successful
in this, whether by fair means or foul
it makes no difference in the results,
we of Eastern Oregon and Washing.
ton and North Idaho will be left, for
a long series of years completely at
the mercy of the o. R. Il N. Company
respecting freight and passage between
this and sea board without means of
escape, whose tender mercies have
been foreshadowed by list of rates
Of transportation averaging much
higher than were those of the O. s. N.
Co., during the last three years of
their administration. But that is not
all, we will be compelled to pay heavy
toll both upon our goods and our
products to the business men of Port
land in the shape of wharfage, storage,
commission and carriage, and further
on we will have to pay pilotage thence
to the sea, and much higher rate of
insurance than would be demanded if
shipped via Puget Sound. Now the
question is fair one, are the people
ready and willing to quietly trust
themselves and all their transportation
rights solely in this direction3 Is
this the outcome of all that has been
said and done by our people, our news
papers, our legislators and our men in
congress in behalf of cheap transpor-
tation' Are all the hopes of those
who for long years have looked for
ward to the Northern Pacific to give
usa competing outlet to the sea over
the Cascade mountains to be thus
blasted by one stragetic movement OF
Mr.. Willard in the interest of the City
Of Portland and Western Oregon
alone? So far as we are concerned,
1t matters not who shall win in the
technical suit that Willard has brought
against Billings and the Northern
Pacific management, we protest in be-
halt of the whole people of the Coium-
b'a basin, against any suspension or
delay in the work of giving US rail
road across the Cascade mountains to
the Sound. Congress who granted the
charter to the company demanded this.
The people have always demanded
this and the whole burden of their
against the former manage
ment of the company, and the ill re-
puts gained for the company on this
whole northwest coast among the PEG
pie is to be attributed to the fact that
70 many years were allowed to pass by