The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1883-07-21
AstOria's Advantages.

Wslla Union, so well presents the
case that we copy it in full:
With the completion of the
Northern Pacific and the erection
of elevators at various points in
the interior, and at the sea ports,
will come change in the mode of
shipping grain. Hitherto all
grain from the Pacific coast has
been sacked, occasional csrgoes,
only, being carried in bulk. In
California the elevator system has
never been inaugurated, the near
est approach TO it being the con-
struction of long, low warehouses,
in which the grain is piled in
sacks waiting for the coming of
the vessel. The same system has
prevailed in Portland, the only
shipping point, up to the present
time, of any importance in the
Northwest. Practical seamen
have declared it every way prac-
ticable and safe to SEND grain from
Portland and Puget Sound in bulk.
Even if experiment should DEM
onstrate that it was not safe, as
has been claimed, to carry wheat
in bulk in ships for so long a time
as 1t takes to make a voyage
around the Horn to Liverpool, it
is evident that it would be ad-
vantageous to the railroad compa-
ny and the farmers to carry it in
bulk from the interior to the sea
ports, and there sack it. Recent
ly, Mr. j. G. Stubs, general
freight agent of the Central Pa
cifc, in an official communication
safe:
"By Eastern roads the grain is
uniformly handled in bulk. 1t is
universally housed after harvest,
and is moved only as the market is
favorable or the necessities of the
farmer require. In loading it usu-
ally passes through an elevator,
being shot into the cars at such a
rate that a full train can be load
ed and moved while one car is be-
ing loaded in California. At the
various termini it is discharged in
TO elevators a car being unloaded
in something less than one min
ute. The economy permissible in
the use of rolling stock by this
rapid loading and discharging of
cars is very marked. Cars have
made two round trips in one day
between Aurora and Chicago, Illi-
nois, a distance of about fifty
miles, a thing impossible here un-
der four days"
If the difference in the cost of
loading and unloading is so great,
it is evident that the bulk sys-
tenn will give the produces a
less freight rate. Under the
present system the farmer is
compelled to buy sacks, or pay
interest on their cost until they
are sold to the grain exporter, and
is lucky if then he obtains as much
for the sacks as he paid. In ad-
dition he has to pay for sewing
sacks, equal to about a cent a
bushel, no part Of which he gets
back, and nearly all of which he
would save if his grain is shipped
In bulk. Another advantage of
the elevator system is that for
very moderate charge the pro-
ducer is enabled to obtain first
class, safe storage, in the market
for his grain, and is given the
further great power of being able,
if SO disposed, TO readily borrow
money or obtain advances OH his
crop, using the handy and reliable
elevator receipts for security. The
future is full of promise for the
producers of eastern Washington
and Oregon. When the farmer is
prosperous all other industries
prosper.
That the present system of ship
ping grain from the Columbia is
inadequate and wasteful, is an in
disputable fact. Under present
conditions it cannot very well be
helped. The completion of the
Northern Pacific railroad must
necessarily inure to Astoria's ad-
vantage. Directly the Kalama
branch is completed the grain
shipment in deep sea going yes
sells must concentrate at Astoria.
Probably that word "must" is too
imperative for some of our con-
temporaries. Let us substitute
"will." The sometime building of
the railroad from Forest Grove 10
Astoria will greatly forward the
inevitable concentration of ship
ping at this point. OF course
some grain will be carried over to
the Sound across the Columbia, as
was done last winter, but it will
be only a temporary diversion
from the ordained laws of trans
portation.
Much is said in reference to the
probable concentration of the ship
ping business at the point the n.
P. Co. has selected to cross the
Columbia. That will depend up
on one thing, and one thing only;
the ability of the vessels to reach
that point. 1t having been dem