The San Francisco call., 1897-10-17
Eastern Capitalists Interested
in DiVerting Trade From
This Coast.
PROHIBlTIVE Tariff PUT ON FREIGHT
History of the Combine Which Seeks
to Control All of the Eastern
Freight Traffic,

The merchants of this city are united in
a supreme effort to break the power OF
the Eastern capitalists who control the
Oregon Improvement Company and the
Oregon Railway and Navigation Com
pany, and will endeavor, by putting on
competing line of steamers between this
city and Oregon, TO get back some of the
trade that has been diverted from here by
those interests.
The Eastern capitalists who are con-
trolling those corporations are interested
in diverting the traffic of all Eastern
freight toward Portland and shutting out
California trade By putting in force a high
tariff between Oregon points and this CITY
which prevents California merchants from
securing a part of the Oregon trade, 10
which they are Justly entitled.
1t iS supposed that the Oregon Railway
and Navigation Company and the Pacific
Coast Steamship Company have secured
from the Eastern roads such a figure as
would insure them against any loss in
Cured should they not secure full cargoes
from San Francisco. IL is said that the
southern coast business has been handled
in about the same way through the har-
monious working OF the Southern Pacific
with the Pacific Coast Steamship Com
pany.
1t is for the purpose of breaking the
com blnation of these powerful corpora
tlons and to pr event them from diverting
The trade that rightly belongs 3 ere that
the merchants are Girding their IONS TO
do battle for the sake of Caifornia's in
terests. They are endeavoring to secure
and place on the northern and sou hern
coasts line of steamers that will carry
freight at figure whereby no loss shall
be incurred by the steamers TRANSPORTING
such freight.
1t is a fight in which all the merchants
should feel interested, and it Is hoped
that should they succeed IN breaking the
com bination and reducing freight rates
the merchants 10 man viii stand by the
new order OF things and not desert to The
enemy.
The state OF affairs which exists at the
present time and which has called the
merchants of this city to arms was
brought about in the following manner.
Some fifteen years ago Henry Willard
calico on Boston capitalists for a loan of
$1,000 600 to be invested in Pacific coast
enterprises. The money was given to
him to spend he deemed best for the
interests OF the capitalists. he invested
part OF these millions In purchasing
Seattle coal mines and vessels owned by
Captain Sam Blair. Besides this he
bought the Pacific Coast Steamship Com
pany's steamers, paying for them some
thing like 81, 200 900. This purchase in
Guided the Pacific Coast Railroad.
running from Port Harford inland down
through the Santa Maria Valley. Among
his purchases was a lot of i'm ber land in
Coos County, Or. The steamer AK was
bullt in the East and brought out here,
but when she arrived it was found that
she drew too much water to cross tae
Coos Bay bar
Willard sold the sailing vessels which he
had bought from Blair, but incorporated
all the other interests, which included the
FnaI oIF1nc he
Coos Bay Lumber Company, the Pa
chic Coast Railroad Company and the
Fatrhaven Railroad Company in Wash
lngton, under the name of the Oregon I'M
provement Company. He then had
constructed in the East the steamers
Umatilla, Walla Walla, Willamette and
Mississippi, which latter was afterward
burned at the dock in Seattle
In 1879 the Oregon Steamship Com
pany, which had a feet including
the Ajax, Orifiamme. City of Chester
George w. Elder, Columbia, and river
steamers, with he railroads running
out OF Portland and through Oregon as
lar south as the California boundary line.
was Incorporated under the name of the
Oregon Railway and Navigation Com
pany with Willard as manager The in
corporation is still in existence with the
exception that the name was changed
from the Oregon Railway and Navigaiion
Union Pacific Railroad Company. The
change was brou2ht about bv an agree
ment between the Oregon Railway and
Navigation Com pany and the Union Pa
cihc. This gave he Union P,cific a
through line from the East into Oregon,
with the headquarters at Portland.
AS matters now stand the Oregon Rail-
way and Navigation Company is control
ling the Ocean Division the same as here
lolore, having done away with the name
OF the Ocean Division of the Union Pacific
Railroad Company. The steamers now
on the Portland line are the Columbia.
owned by the Oregon Railway and Nayi-
CATION Company, and the State of CaIifor-
MIA, which belonged to the old Pacific
Coast Steamship Company. which has
since been absorbed by the Oregon I'm.
provement Con- panv.
Under this state of affairs the mer.
chants OF California are at the mercy of
the Oregon improvement Company and
the Oregon Railway and Navigation Com.
pany.
STARTED RIGHT,