The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-08-26
SOMETHING TO DO.

|
The ocean steamers every trip down have
more freight awaiting them than they can
carry. The o. r. & N. Co. are moving 1000
tons of wheat to San Francirco for nj. G.
Moore & Co., of Walla Walla-about a
thousand tons at time. -Oregonian, Aug.
| 14th.
It is notorious fact that a large
proportion ofthe wheat crop of Ore
gon finds its way by steamer to San
Francisco. There was time when
the chief objection to Yaquina Bay
as shipping point came from those
who argued strenuously against pay
ing tribute to San FRANCISCO. Meth
ing short of deep sea vessels, capable
of carrying Oregon products direct to
foreign ports, would meet the re-
quirements of trade.
This was true both In principle and
fact. but ever since the O. r. q N.
Co. undertook the control OF the car
rying trade of the Columbia river
routes, there has been growing
scarcity of foreign bottoms, and 1T
has been found ESQ apologists sayJ
economical to ship by the company 8
steamers to California and re-ship to
Europe, mainly for the reason tstated)
that better rates could be obtained IN
San Francisco than Portland. 1t this
is true, there is no reason why wheat
cannot be delivered in San Francisco
via Yaquina Bay by steamers OF 25oo
tons burden cheaper than 1t can pos
possibly be done + om Portland, par
ticularly is the case with the William
cite valley and eastern Oregon.
But the friends of Yaquina asked
for an Improvement of tie bar, long
before the railroad was certain. Had
the Oregon Pacific designed business
system, the profit Of which is youched
for. from time to time, by the state
ment of earnings sent abroad by the
O. r. & n. Co., they would have
never spent both time and money to
secure an appropriation for the bar;
on the contrary class OF vessels such
as ply with regularity over bars on
the southern coast, where the best
water is only twelve feet, could be
built carrying 25 to 2s hundred tons.
Fortunately, however, the people
have strong and faithfal friend III
the managers of the Oregon Pacific,
one disposed and anxious to assist IN
procuring farther AID in improving
the harbor, and the producers inter-
ested now, as they never have been
before. have hard struggle ahead.
The aggregation of railroad capital
bitterly antagonistic to 0. T. Il. 4.
as well as any effort made to give the
central portion of Oregon shorter
and cheaper ronte to the seaooard,
and will be ably represented on the
floors of congress by a lobby alike
earnest and scrupulous.
Thoroughly understanding this,
what should be done to secure proper
attention? Our representative IS
staunch friend and advocate OF river
and harbor Improvement, believing
that these will act as a check on mo-
nopolier. Senators Grover and ola-
ter have stated publicly that if the
Oregon Pacific was assured, there
would be no difficulty in obtaining
further recognition from congress, SO
their influence can be counted on as
certain. Now | submit to all candid
person if any better argument or
stronger appeal could be made before
the committee on commerce than the
statement, substantiated by reports
of the engineer department. that the
people of the Willamette valley had
contributed moiety of. their hard
earnings to carry forward the works
until further assistance was rendered
by the government, this would show
confidence in the plans and furnish
the best possible evidence OF the
peoples necessities and the great OBJ
iect sought, and in my opinion would
carry sufficient weight to complete
" swamp the o. r. & Cos lobby in
a body, and plant the question Of an
appropriation far beyond the chance
of failure. As the Secretary of war
has kindly consented to act with the
means furnished and give vouchers
for the same, it necessarily follow
that there should be organized action,
hence the Grangers are the proper
parties to take this in hand, and the
sooner the better, and every man,
whether Granger or otherwise should
feel specially called upon to contrib
ute something to obtain relief from
the monopoly that is settling down
on this young state with cruel earnes--
ness. RIALTo.
Newport, Aug. %.