The morning call., 1893-05-14
OUR MERCHANTS SMILE.
They Are Pleased With the Prospect
Now Offered.

NOW OIISTSQ.
81 shall be much pleased to note the ar
rival in this city of the merchants of the
Willamette Valley" said James II. Har-
rold Of the firm of Wheaton, Breon & Co.,
land l think we San Francisco merchants
should give them hearty welcome.
GU see, it is this way. The merchants
of San Francisco need business badly,
and everything that will tend 10 improve
and extend trade ought 10 be considered
by US. Our distributing points for products
OF California are exceedingly limited 1t is
that Limitation OF scope that is running our
business day by day.
Therefore, it becomes our duty as mer-
chants to entertain these men when they
come here and show Them around so that
we may come to some arrangeme with
them which will result IN our mutual ben
eft, and l would suggest the formation of
OF committee of business men of the city
10 meet these merchants and take nego-
tiatons IN hand.
Yes. on the whole, 1 cannot see how
the proposed scheme can do aught but
benefit Us. We are not doing the business
that our geographical position entities us
to Go. In early days We did plenty of
business with Oregon. but now outside
competition has ousted us from the con-
test Why, there are some towns in this
very State that fad j: cheaper to send to
Salt Lake City for their goods than to
come to US. Aud all because Of the exor-
bitant rates charged by the Southern Pa
ciic. Let us by all means reopen trade
with Oregon and thus extend our distribu-
tive radius"
Mr.. Brigham Of Brigham. Hoppe & Co.
said that he liked to see enterprise every
where. He had noticed of late years a
considerable lack of enterprise in San
Francisco among coast traders and cup
posed that the railroad monopoly was the
cause of all the trouble
81 don't know that it will affect us
much" said Mr.. Brigham. I'VE have our
established trade with Portland, and il the
retail merchants of the north send to Port
land instead of here l do not see that we
are much hurt. At the same time our
trade may be Influenced by the proposed
scheme. and anyway wa should be glad TO
welcome any venture OF such an enterpris-
ing description.
Sound the loud trumpets and let us
welcome the Oregon trade" smiingly said
Eugene B. Beck of the firm of w. F. Beck
& Co. We'd like to have it. We'd have
had all the Oregon business long ago but
for the railroad. You see 1t is the only
means of transportation.
Suppose that 20 down to the Southern
Pacific and say | want to ship a certain
lot Of goods to some place on the coast.
They say, well it'll cost you SO much If
l object and say l can't stand their charges
all the satisfaction get is the answer, all
right, don't ship the goods. If you've no
goods TO ship others have and it costs
twice as much to send carload of stuff 10
Tulare, only $50 miles away, as TO ST.
Louis.
well, then, opposition will be good
thing and if YaquIna will only work in
with US a tremendous trade VIII be the
consequence. Trade must naturally CRAWL
tate to the larger market. providing there
are no insurmountabe obstacles In the
way. /, for one. shall be pleased to hear
what the Willamette Valley merchants
have to propose"
Levi Strauss, Of the firm bearing his
name. says that he has never yet thought
of trading with Oregon and the north. No
one will buy goods from his firm when they
can be purchased so much cheaper in other
towns. not quite so FAR away. But he will
be glad TO seq the proposed scheme carried
through, as by reason Of it trade must of
necessity receive flip that may be last
ing.
The same opinion is given by Murphy,
Grant q Co., another large dry-goods
house.
'The trouble with u.s." said one Of the
firm, ''is this: We can land our goods here
as cbeaply as the merchants OF any other
town. but we fiud it costs such lot to dis
tribute them. We cannot possibly confne
our trade exclusively 10 San Francisco, and
yet interior merchants can Ill afford to
purchase from US when they have to paw
such high rates. So that sets the jobbing
trade at disadva ntage.
1.-THE same principle applies to what is
now proposed-the reopening of our trade
with Oregon and the coast. Nothing but
a healthy opposition, we'll backed, will do
for US. Why, only recently. when an op-
position line was started to ports on the
southern part of the coast rates fell one
half. So that IL the same occurs by reason
Of the Willamette Valley en- terprise We
shall be glad to extend our trade in that
direction"
at the same time most of the merchants
of the city are apathetic. They have not
yet begun to closely study the question.
When the visiting merchants arrive, then
and not till then will merchants realize
what difference to their trade the scheme
Will make. Most of the great houses here
have branches in Portland and are salts
fed with the way things have been going
on. All the tobacco firms are represented
in Portland. and their establishments in
this city are not interested.
But every scheme that Is floated in oppo-
sition to some disastrous monopoly is
bound to find favor. as when business
men are hemmed In within narrow limits