The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-10-29
THE pALLEs roRTAeE.
a citizens Views as to why 1t should
BE Built on the North Side.


been quiet on The Potomac at one time, so
much so that it got to be a by-word.
Here, in The Dalles, the situation is in
verted and ererytiing IS noisy on the Col
una6id. We all know that our town
originally achieved;its importance from
two GAUGES, the first one being that we
were practically the head OF navigation
for many years, and the second that
from this point a very large area of
country extending away into Idaho and
into the remote parts of Oregon and
, Washington, was supplied by our mer
chants. With the completion of the
Union Pacific railroad 20. r. & n. Coz
and the Northern Pacific railroad con-
siderable damage was done to the COM
mercial interests of this point, because
many points which were formerly
reached by wagon roads from this place
were brought nearer to railroad transpor-
tation than they were to The Dalles, and
consequently the trade was lost. OF
course the settling up of the country i'm
mediately around us, in measure made
up for the losses we sustained in more
! distant portions; our trade territory has,
however, been growing smaller and
smaller. To offset i'll a measure the
steady decline of our trade we have or
ganiZed q steamboat line to Portland, n
thing which was made possible by the
opening OF the Cascades by means of a
portage. The difficulty with this enter
prise, hover, is that there is very little
traffic between here and Portland, and
what business our steamboat line gets
is practically confined to this city; the
Union Pacific has reduced its rates from
here to Portland, and will undoubtedly
keepit up until our steamboats, are pos
sibly run off the route. All our eggs,
unfortunately, are in one basket, and
that basket is right here. If our boats
had some connection ,riH narigdtiO1 east
Of the dalles and along the Upper Snake
and Columbia rirers, they arould receiUe a
traffic from points aeItich are not reached
by the: Union Pacific railroad at all; a
traffic sufficient to more than pay expenses
and to help the navigation company
through periods OF hostility With the Union
Pacific. 1t is all very well for us to kick
against the opening of the Columbia
river, simply because we cannot get the
portage road on the south side of the
river. If any of our citizens who are so
shortsighted and so loud in their de-
nunciation of a portage railroad on the
north side of the river could take trip
east, or to some large city and discuss
the situation with persons who have no
bias ond no local interests, they would
find that no capitalist would invest his
money in Il portage road ,on the south
side OF the river, for the simple reason
that the investment would become ut
terly void the moment anything was
done on the north side of the river; this
is because whatever developments are
likely to be made, either by the United
States government or by some large sys-
tenn of railway, will happen on the north
side, portage on that side would
become part of such system, or
would become necessary to the United
States government and the investment
will be safe. l will not enter at this
time upon the question of the merits,
from an engineering point, of either the
five mile route or of the scheme of par
alleling the Union Pacific with the port
age. To my mind it is immaterial, as a
financial proportion, whether such
schemes are practical or not. Now, as
see it, the benefit which would come to
our people by the establishing of ter
minus OF a portgge road here is very
little, and would amount to nothing
more than the wages of a few hands used
in making the transfer from the portage
to the steamers. which would amount to
but few hundred dollars per month
not enough to make any noise aboute
but let us see how it would effect this
city if we had cheap transportation by
some rival line, both from Portland here
and again from here into the interior of
Oregon and Washington Assuming
! that our merchants have the capital, the
industry and the qualifications to COM
mand tho trade, (and they have, could
! they not by means of competitive roads
extend their trade further than they are
doing now, and ii in connection with
this we should be able to build narrow
gauge road into the country, would it
not be better to do that than to persist
in fighting the-opening of the Columbia
/ river? Whether the Columbia River
and Navigation company builds its
portage road on the north side of the
river or not, it is quite certain. that
somebody will build it sooner or later,
and if not y private. corporation, the
United States government. OF course
some of our residents would prefer not to
see the river opened at all, but even