The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1890-12-20
A FEW PLAIN, FACTS.


ary. There is a fine opportunity for
them to act conformity in those matters
which are of interest to both states.
Two years ago the Oregon legislature
was petitioned to appropriate $4,000 for
building and equipping about half a
mile of railroad from the head of the
site of the Cascade locks to their foot.
The legislature could not be persuaded
to grant the request, but expended a
much larger sum in aiding wagon roads
to be laid out, some, no doubt good,
some, averaging six on scale OF ten,
and some utterly useless. The benefit
to the local communities was in some
cases appreciable, but taken all together,
the benefits from these wagon roads was
but trifle compared to that which the
railroad at the Cascades would have re-
turned. Eastern Washington, as well as
Eastern Oregon is interested in this work
and to at least as great an extent. The
secretary of war has given his consent
that the road be built, the right of way
is therefore assured. The two states by
pooling their issues could easily build
this road and they onght to do it.
Eastern Oregon uncomplainingly paid
her portion of the taxes that went to-
wards building the locks at Oregon City
and felt an honest and neighborly pride
in the prosperity and good fortune of her
Willamette valley brothers. The honest
and neighborly pride the Willamette
valley returned with thanks at the first
opportunity, slightly damaged by ex-
posure to the webfoot rains and warped
by the summer sun, but still it was ours
and she returned it. The $50, 900 for the
railroad was not returned with it. How
long will two vigorous lusty common
wealths put up with governmental de-
lays and red tape? Either state could
have afforded long ago to have built the
locks entirely, and yet both stand like
the mendicants they are asking the pitiful
dole from the government that has been
handed out of the back door to them, as
though they were tramps. 1t is true the
but as long as Indiana and New York
hold the balance of political power and
the western boundary of the United
States is thought by eastern congressman
to be the Mississippi river, that long the
work will be kept as a nest egg for appro
priations and their absorption. A tax of
five cents bushel on the wheat that
now lies in the Inland Empire, decreased
three times that amount in value by
lack of shipping facilities would complete
the locks. 1t is time to stop our impor-
tunities and to help ourselves. The
OregOniGns recent advice was good medi-
cine, though decidedly nasty to the
palate, and if the present generation ex-
poets to see the waters of the Columbia
carrying boats through the locks at the
Cascades they must take hold of the
work themselves.
The recent awaking of the Board of
Trade and the Chamber of Commerce, in
Portland and their sudden conversion to
the doctrine of an open river are suspi-
ciously sudden, and remarkably near the
opening of legislative session. We do
rather carry the gun while we travel in
their company. Eastern Oregon and
Washington have lost this year by the
decrease in the values of their wheat
alone $2,000,000. The loss has been oc-
casioned by lack of transportation facil-
tiles and it is high time the people who
are suffering this loss do something for
themselves. The direct loss is 81, 600, 600
the indirect loss is treble that. The
growth of the country is retarded, land
values are forced down, business in all its
branches is at standstill, banks are
drained of money and on the ragged
edge of suspension, and the outlook for
the sections east of US that depend on
the wheat crop alone, is blue indeed
This stagnation and financial embarrass
ment arises because the wheat cannot
be moved. There are six or seven mil
lions of dollars lying over the country il
wheat sacks, but none available, because
it cannot reach the markets of the worlC
and be put into solid coin. 1t cannot bt
moved because of a half mile obstruc
tion at the Cascades, and about mil,
and a half at The Dalles. Are the peo
pie of the two best states in the Uniol
going to put up with this state o
affairs?