The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1892-10-28
Is 1t Any Wonder That People Become
Restive Waiting For Locks?
WITH TEE oAscADE CANAL OPEN
Portage Then Aroand The Dalies
River Regions.
From The independently


H1LLsBoRo, Or, Oct. 21.-At the last
session of the legislature, sixty thousand
dollars was appropriated for railroad
portage on the Oregon side of the Colum-
bia around the cascades. With $4,000
of that sum, narrow gauge road was
built over the government reservation
on the outside of the canal and locks.
This expenditure includes the equip
ment of the road with the locomotive,
passenger car, box cars for freight, and
the purchase of terminal grounds. The
length of the road is % of mile. The
property of course belongs to the state,
that will carry freight for any one who
offers it. The freight rate at present is
forty cents per ton. This little portage
railway made it possible for competing
transportation companies to be estab-
lished and live on the Columbia. One
company. The Dalles, Portland and
Astoria Navigation company was or
ganized in 1891 and was candidate for
traffic later in the same year. On the
opening of the 1892 season fierce rivalry
sprang up between the new company
and the q. p. r. steamboat line. Fares
| were put and maintained at 50 one way
or So for the round trip from Portland to
The Dalles by the D. P. & A. N. Co. The
monopoly put passenger fares down to
half dollar over the same route. This
| imposition continued for a time when
the old line tied up its boats and left the
river in possession of the new company.
what Effect on Freight Rates?
kThe old rate on wheat from The Dalles
to Portland was $5 per ton; afterward it
Now the river tariff is 1920, of which
forty cents, as before stated, goes to the
state for transportation across the port
age at the cascades, leaving $1.80 per
ton for the boat. The rate for horses in
car load lots for 30-foot car, into which
j sixteen horses can be placed, was $35
The new car rate is $3.50 for 30-fooi
car. By the river, in lots of fourteen tc
/ twenty, the rate is $1.25 each. For lots
lover twenty the rate is 81 each. The
tariff by rail on single horse is SO
THE boat carries it for 81. On the car 6
shipper pays $3.50 for farm wagon SCI
Iup. On the boat he covers the same
distance for So. An emigrant to th'
Inland Empire on the cars will pay 70,
his wagon, team and self $32.70, but h'
can 90 on the boat for $12. Before th'
state built it's portage road there was al
arbitrary rate of $40 per ton on wool
Inow the same service costs 81 per ton,
clear saving of Sc per ton. The clip
stored at The Dalles warehouses thi
year, is estimated at $3.50, 900 pounds
equal to 3,125 tons, which at the lowe
freight rates puts $1s, ,750 into the pock
cts of the wool dealers. The estimate c
wheat stored in The Dalles is 10000
bushels, or 45, 900 tons. The gain ther
is $4,000. In these two principal indus
tries there are saved to the Vase
county farmers in one season $72, $50,
sum much larger than the cost of th
little railroad that has been the NEAR
of such saving.
Is 1t Any Wonder
/That the people living east of the Ca
cade mountains both in Washingto
and Oregon are restive over the delays
, completing the locks at the Cascades
When these locks are finished the rat,
! will be even lower than by the preseI
VI arrangement since the forty cents por
age will be removed as well as e,
lC pense of handling the freight twic
Y TOT course when the locks are opene
the state railroad may be abandone
These advantages are enjoyed only
Wasco county and that part of Was
ington whose outlet is by Dalles cit
for there are other obstruct1ons in Il
river, the dalles of the Columbia al
Cello falls. Unfortunately the san
kind of portage road there will n
bring the same advantages to the shi
r per. because the expense of the ty