, 1881-01-29
The Locks at the Cascades.

|, il admitted on nil sides tina, the m
turc welfare Of the whole c,a7sTy eas. Of
the mountains dere-,ts to great extent
upon ,hc opening OF the Columbia river
al the Cascades. To this end, fo~ some
years past. appropriateness oy the general
royrrnrn mt f,rr locks have been made and
the work is progressing as favorab!y as the
amount Of money appropriated VIII adm't
l. would very naturally be tho"sht that
public necessity If tn. kind woa:d meet
with ,be unanimous roynmendation Of
every citizen from tie Rscky mountains
10 tide water, hu; such unfortunately is
net the case.
The color bind editor of The Ore9o1.lan,
who car see nothing outside Of Portland,
begins to place Instructions III the Wy by
calling the proposed appropriation OF
500, 900 for eo=t.nued work virtual
waste ct money. For years and years the
whole upper country has paid tribute to
Portland, anl nov that tho O'egoh'dn
finds that the country cas-. "i them Is fast
becoming a staisar, young empire IN II
sell. ard hss outgrown the leading strings
hy which mother Portland has 81 long
held us. 1t naturally wishes to dictate - us
for all time W order "a ia-taer It's own
selfish interests
Portland, heretofore, has absorbed al
the profits Of our hard working popula-
tion. The money which by the very na-
ture OF things shoald have gone :n:n ne
pockets Of our farmers srd merchants has
gone to swell the already enriched Golfers
Of Portland capitalists Were this ne
c.ssity no one would grumble. A com
iuercial capital would be an advantage TO
all Of us, but Portland IS situated too far
out of the way to be an advantage any
LONGER The time was, before progress
made such STRIDES. and trade was
bu, lin,i.e,i, that Portland was handy and
was used as convenience, whereas, now,
with the new lie infused into us by the
vast operations Of the Oregon Railway
and Navigation Company the country
has awakened from its Rip Van Winkle
letharev and feels the strength of young
giant. The Company has done much Tor
us: It has placed us all ten years ahead
since they commenced operations, and
from the libe-alty and enterprise II has
shown IN al its dealings, our citizens are
inclined to belle and hope that they
will 20 still further and rlac. us in direct
communication with some other shipping
poirt, and by that means save our far
mers the vast amount OF the present use
lessS expenditure caused by carrying our
staple products many long miles away
from its destInati II.
Las, year, i: IS estimated tha: sbcnt
40, 900 tons Of gram were carried over
the Walla Wa,ls and Columbia River
Railroad The greater portion Of this
was taken down the Columbia river and
then l. miles Ip the willamette, only TO
be carried down that stream again, 10 be
taken TO astoria for shipment. At the
lowest calculation, the extra handling can
not be done for less than 81 - per ton,
in round figures this counts up some
S.0,0G0, of entirely useless expenditure,
for carrying our farmers produce an en-
tirelv unnecessary distance.
Our bread makers are already getting
discouraged at the small profits they re-
ceive for all their york, and it is an open
question to-day, whether or not they
would not he he;ter off II they were to al
low their land 10 remain idle instead of
cultivating II iGr the benefit Of city
which has never in the past assisted this
country in The slightest degree, III return
for all the fortunes It's citizens made out
Of it. The Company evidently do moth
ins by halves, AID Judging by their action
in the past. it IL natural to suppose that
the present state Of affairs VIII be rene
died in the near future, and in spite Of
the kicking OF the OregOnian, Portland,
as 4 port OF entry, so far as the upper
country is concerned, will he among the
the things that were