Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-02-02

no doubt increase the waste OF -this
fund from the time the debt was
contracted until the bonds were all
takeniup, to several thousand more
The last mentioned interest 1 have
no correct data only for the two
years mentioned.
We find that there was by officia
report up to 1882 S574, $50 worth OF
improvement land sold. And ac
cording to Gov. Thayer's computa
ton there would be left, after re
deeming the outstanding lock bonds
at that date $4,000, showing that
to complete payment on the original
5000, 900 worth of bonds has cost the
people of Oregon out of this fund
alone S55O,35O and perhaps $25, ,OOC
more that was taken out of the
swamp and overhowed land fund,
aggregating in all S55O,OOO.
OF course there was some expense
attached to the locating and selling
of this land that reduced theamount
absorbed by the bonds. But we can
hardly conceive how our public of
ficials could have consumed as ex-
penses S31S, $50 in selling public land
enough to pay the original bond
that only amounted to 100000. l
once heard of man who built a
house 15X20, and his fireplace meas
ured 20X24. The gross mismanage-
ment in the payment of this debt
and the saleof half million dollars
worth of land to meet it approx
mate to the same proportions.
BY the official report of the lock
commissioners for the year 1882,
taking those two seasons for an
average, the gross earnings of the
commissioners from 1870 to the pres
ent of S472, 500, then add the five
hundred and fifty thousand dollars
that they have already cost the state
and it would seem like the COM
missioners could we'll afford to keep
and operate them.
But there is a new era dawning in
the history of the upper Willamette
river carrying trade. At the time
the locks were built, they appeared
to be the gateway through which
the export and import trades of the
whole Willamette valley must neces-
sarily pass to and from the sea,
while to-day we have three railways
leading northward to tide-water,
t h fourth in contemplation
And with the continued improve.
ment at Yaquina Bay, and the in
creasIng trade of the Northern Pa
citic and 0. G. Railway leading
southwark, the products of this val
ley will be so scattered in their
transit to market, that the insignifi.
cant trade through the locks will
bear about the same proportion of
future profit to its owners that
Barnum's elephant Jumbo did to
the profits of his great show. Do
the people want them? No, it's an
and the company well
know it. For the people to own
them, judging the future by the
past, it would take large share of
the land west of the Cascade noun
tains to finally pay for them. One
of the strongest evidences that the
state should not buy, is the COM
pany's anxiety to sell. Men are
not generally anxious to part with
a business whose future looks prom
ising,
1t is generally understood by |
those who know. that the locks af-
ford one Of the best water powers that |
probably could be found in the state. |
This the company we'll understand, |
and of course propose To reserve.
But to repair and keep the works
up is an expensive thing. Now if |
the people buy the locks they are
buying the privilege of
into series of expenses
from which but little or no return
to the state will ever accrue.
We are just reaching period in
the history of this Northwestern
country, where a water power of
such magnitude as the falls of the
willamette, located SO near the sea,
will be bonanza to its owners and
more especially 80 ifit can be OBJ
.ained by selling the carcass and at
the same time reserving the meat.
The locks have been built nearly
twenty years, and the company
nave had the benefit of them
through the best paying season that
probably will ever be, and it is quite
evident that the timbers used in