The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-03-16
THp ORIENTAL TRADE.


The shippers and business men OF
Portland are alone to blame for Ore
gon's humiliating Sredlcament with ref
erence Ito the rich and rapidly growing
oriental trade. But for the piggish and
short-sighted policy they have 30 long
and Obstinhtely pursued in impeding
and discouraglng the development of
oregon's superb and only seaport, AS
toria would today be the most natural
and convenient point on the whole Pa
cific coast from which to handle and
control this great trade.
California and the Sound ports have
been quick to take advantage Of a
bigoted and selfish spirit which over
looked its real competitors, and saw
only rival and an enemy in the little
struggling sister city which ought to
have been cultivated as friend and
which might have been developed into
a commercial ally of the most useful
and powerful kind. This narrow and
mistaken policy is now beginning to
bear Its inevitable and legitimate fruit,
While Portland has been wasting her
substance and divertlng her energies In
a vain and foolish attempt TO maintain
an ancient prestige, contrary to the
laws of nature and the modern tenden-
cies and requirements Of business, her
actual rivals on the north and south
have been sapping her resources and
cutting Off her trade, 1t is a sad com,
mentary on the commercial decadence
OF this once proud and boastful metrop-
oils to read in the columns OF one of
her beading papers the ecstatic an
nouncement that car load or two Of
eggs and potatoes have been shipped
east over the mountains, side by side
with a lugubrious wall and complaint
that the enterprlsing merchants of San
Francisco and Tacoma are monopoliz.
ing the cargo space Of outgoing steam
ers from these thriving ports with
thousands of tons of -four and other
products for the markets of China,
Japan and Alaska
Whose fault is 1t that the merchants
of Portland, and the farmers of the
Willamette and Columbia are not par
tioipants IN the revival OF business that
the opening of these new and lucra-
tive markets is bringing to other Sec
tions of the Pacific slope? Who is
responsible for the anomalous condi-
ton that cuts off the greatest produc.
ing region OF the particular commodities
now In demand in the Orient from that
market? 1t cannot be because ma
ture has deprived this vast and fertile
sestion OF an outlet to the ocean. An
examination of the map shows Its pos
session OF the finest and most favored
seaport on the coast. and that at the
mouth OF the second greatest river on
the American continent.
No, 1t is not because OF any lack OF
natural means of transportation, but
because the men who might have pro-
fited most by awaiting themselves OF
these lavish gifts of nature have spent
their time and money in an effort to
thwat the kind offices Of nature, and
produce a condition as artificial as that
OF causing stream to run upward,
There Is enough idle money In Portland
and the Willamette Valley today tc
build two or three railroads to Astoria,
and with the railroads will come steam.
ship lines which from that point Of
vantage can and will control the trade
both with the Orient and Alaska,
The only hope OF the business men
and farmers OF Oregon is in this direc.
ton wdthout this outlet the state
cannot prosper. because 1t is now en-
tirely cut on from the worlds markets
by the commercial foes that Portland's
blind and egOtIsticai folly has per-
mltted 70 creep IN and surround us.
-. -. A.l,.ia n larfainl