Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-05-20

VI t'O Il oSIilS 'ShdIICl
Tacoma is such port. Portland is
not a seaport. Portland is a river,
side town, not on the Columbis
even, but up the Willamette, O trib
utary, and 100 miles from the sea
The bar at the mouth of the Colum.
bia is the worst on the globe. The
river inside of the bar is incurabls
troubled with shifting shoals and
other Instructions to deep.draf,
ships. Portland is the most oh.
structed and most expensive port oi
entry in the United States. It's com.
merce is exceptionally afflicted with
excessive charges'for pilotage, tow
age, lighterage, and use of cables
Portland, not q seaport, is yet the
seaport of the Oregon Railroad and
Navigation Company, and the only
seaport it can ever have. It's San
Francisco line of steamships goes
there. It's Willamette and Colum-
bia River steamboats, run there. It's
Columbia River Railroad terminates
there. It's lines of railroad running
north and south through Oregon,
terminate there.
AS l have said, the charter of the
Northern Pacific Railroad Company
in spirit demands seaport access
ible from the sea on all days and in
all hours, uninfested with bars,
breakers, shoals, and drifting sands
a sea port so safe, so roomy, SO
easily entered and easily gotten out
of, that commerce to it will forever
be free from exactions and expenses.
Such seaport is Tacoma, the des-
ignated western terminus of the
Northern Pacific Road. At low tide
there are 25 feet of water alongside
its wharfs, at high tide 35 feet. The
entrance to Puget Sound is 13 miles
wide; its depth is 600 feet. From
the entrance-way to Tacoma, on
Commencement Bay, there is not a
reef, rock, a shoal, to harm ship
in the channel, or to require pilot.
At Ainsworth, on the Columbi \,
where the Oregon corporation pur-
poses to pocket the great Northern
Pacific enterprise for it's own benefit
and the profit of Portland, it is lso. g.
miles nearer to tho ene"n'h ~ T~etfia
than down and around by the Col
umbia river. The coal from the
Wilkeson coal. field required by the
treeless and coalless district east of
the Columbia, would have to be
hauled twice as far around by Port
LAM; as by the Cascade range route, if
permitted to be built. Every bushel
of wheat raised in Eastern Washing
ton Territory for the foreign market
would be taxed by the Portland route
to the ocean in the proportion that
it is $50 miles longer than by the To-
Gated road over the mountains to
Tacoma, plus the Columb;s river de-
lays, charges and expenses If the
Oregon Railway and Navigation
Company would graciously please
not to nulify an set of Congress, and
tuck the Northern Pacific Railroad
into the folds of it's little State cor
poration at Ainsworth, on the east
bank of the Columbia river, the far
mers of the vast region this side of
that stream would escape all those
brrdensome taxes. Tacoma and Pu-
get Sound and The Northern Pacific
Road do not overtax agriculture or
commerce..
But the farmers of Washington
Territory feel as do, that this will not
be a good year for monopolies, and
they stretch out their hard, labor
cracked hands and place them with
an unerring instinct of salvage on
their Government, the third party
that will appear unbidden at the feast
in which the Northern Pacific is to be
swallowed. The Government will
say to the Oregon corporation: "This
national company is bound to me to
carry my mails by continuous
route to the Sound-continuous on
the line of its going when it reaches
the Columbia Ri ler. 1t is bound to
carry my troops and munitions OF
war. 1t is bound to carry there my
supplies for the Indians, for my
lighthouse service, my ships of war
and revenue; for any and every need
l have on Puget Sound. 1 own
nearly all the land in Washington
Territory west of the Columbia river.
| wish to sell it and settle it. This
Northern Pacific Road is under bonds
to me to be a national highway
through this land, so that people
can get into it and out of it, and find
markets both east and west. And
l am the Trustee of all the merchants
and travellers IL the United States
who wish to reach the Pacific Ocear
by the shortest and cheapest 'con.
tinuous' line of railroad; the Turstet
of all those who wish to conduc
commerce with Japan and China OIL
the most favorable conditions O
route and distance. l will not per
NIT a diversion of the Northern Pa
citic enterprise from its appointed
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