Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1895-11-01

as to be absolutely prohibitive. 1t costs
the farmer aislshipper of Wateryille
8 cents bushel TO ship wheat by boat
to Orondo, nine miles away, and conse-
quently the productive soil of the Big
Bend is Of little value to the outside
world.
But there soon will be change in this
condition of affairs. and 1t will be made
by the construction of railway. That
done. the harvests of one of the rich
est agricultural sections of the state
will be given to the outside market.
If the o. r. g. N. Co. could secure the
Central Washington, a little construc-
ton work would send the grain down.
the Columbia to be shipped from Port
land. Could it be brought to Seattle,
there is no reason why the elevator
now here. and still another elevator,
should not be filed.
Just think of the situation" was q
remark made yesterday by railroad
IMAM. Seattle is at least cent and a
half cheaper for cargoes than its COM
petitor, yet in the face of that fact
two-thirds of the harvest of the Palouse
country and eastern Washington Is car
ried by the o. r. & N. That country
is tributary to Seattle, and the grain by
natural right should come here. Seat
tile is nearer and transportation is ma
terially cheaper.
When the matter of railroad rates
was before the last legislature the roads
pleaded that to make a lower rate
would bankrupt them; yet it is in evil
dence that last winter the o. r. & N.
Co. paid bonus of 100000 for the grain
traffic, and that the money was hand
ed over to Portland firm. I claim
that If the railroad can pay that
amount it should be forced to make
reduction in the rate. When the trans
continental lines were built everything
was sacrificed to easy grades, the the
ory being that feeders could be built
into productive sections. The time has
come when the great trunk lines APP
pear to be robbing the small corpora
tons of their legitimate share of the
grain traffic.
What the state needs is a good local
railroad system, and the opportunity
for such system at the present time
was never better. Less than 200 miles OF
road would connect the Central Wash
ington with the Lake Shore at Woolley
and an extension of only II miles at
the eastern end would connect the line
with the Spokane G. Palouse. BY talk
ing proper steps Seattle could gain the
entire trade of section naturally trib-
utary to it, but which at present sends
only rs per cent of it's products here
The competition would be strong, but
| Seattle, with it's low rate for shipping,
ought to gain the day. Portland, it is
true, has five grain shipping houses
| two Of them branches of houses in San
| Francisco; but it is fact that as mat
| tiers now stand some of the grain of
| eastern Washington is sent to San
| Francisco before being put aboard ship.
| Il would say in reference to the
| Northern Pacific receivership that the
breaking of the road in two will prove
the great productive wealth of Wash
| ington. Heretofore, the eastern end
of that system has been credited with
showering upon the road its wealth,
while the western end has been called
poor and far from self-sustaining I
| am prepared to say that each mile of
road in Washington is worth 20 miles
in many portions of the route through
| the states eastward and this separate
receivership will show to the world the
place Washington should occupy as a
productive state. And yet the North
ern Pacific has never given us any
thing but an Office building. 1t has
| logged ali our products away, and has
| given the credit for producing them to
| the eastern end of the system. The
| time has come when this state can af-
| ford to be independent"