The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1893-06-10
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Closing the doors of the bank OF
Spokane will cause no financial panic
in the northwest. Mr.. A. M. Cannon,
the president, is well able to pay all
liabilities and have large fortune
left. The people of Oregon and
Washington, while for many years
acknowledging the phenomenal growth
Of that city, have not considered it on
the most substantial basis. 1t pos
sesses cheap water power, but this is
the only natural facility it has for
prosperity and development. The
Ceur d. Alene mines are not contig-
uous or naturally tributary to its
wealth, and it has little extent of agri-
cultural country to make it center of
trade. Generous, enterprising bust
ness men have pushed the city at the
falls far ahead of the country sur
rounding it. and have attempted to
supply natural deficiencies by ener-
getic, tireless work. Spokane has
profted by such efforts, but its growth
has always been considered of the
mushroom kind. Of course, the busi-
ness men, who have pushed it for
ward, have accumulated princely for
tunes, and are now enjoying the legiti-
mate results of their labors; but the
city was never founded upon rock
that it could withstand any and all
financial shocks. The failure noted
may be the first of many, and it will
be no surprise if values in that locality
depreciate very considerably. 1t
will only be a repetition of the
history of many such places that are
not firmly grounded on the substan-
tial development of the surrounding
country. If large acres of contigu-
ous'land had been cultivated, making
it market for productions of the soil;
if factories had been established, turn
ing raw materials into useful fabrics
and supplying foreign demand; if it
had cheap water communication with
the ocean, giving it commercial su-
premacy, Spokane would have always
maintained its supremacy whatever
storms may have ragged around it. AS
it is, the business enterprise of enet-
getic men has made it city of 35,-
1000 inhabitants out of an insignificant
hamlet, and they have been amply
remunerated for their outlay. The
city they have created may fall to
ruins during these times of financial
distress; but their labor has not been
wasted, neither have they worked and
toiled in vain. There is one place, not
far distant from the head of naviga-
tlon on the Columbia, that if one
half of this enterprise had been ex-
ercised by its business men for its ad-
vancement, 1t would to-day be more
populous than the phenomenal city of
Eastern Washington, and cheap river
transportation would have placed it in
communication with the markets of the
world, where its fabrics, It's fruits, grain,
wool and fish would find ready sale.
1t would have rested upon the most
solid of all foundations, its capitalists
would have become millionaires, its
citizens prosperous and happy, and no
financial storms could have wrecked
its prosperity. But the energy was
not exerted-growth was not i'm
PEELED, and it remains to-day, with ten
times the natural resources, where
Spokane was ten years ago. II the
city of the falls, founded by the in
dountable energy of business men, 60
down in financial crash, its existence
will have been more glorious than if it
had remained simply sleepy country
town like the one near the head of
navigation on the Columbia. Strong,
sactive life, at the risk of courting dis
asters, Is preferable to a half-dead ex-
istence inside walls guarded from acci-
dents.