The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1900-12-28
Great Future for this Section.

Kingston, NJ Y, Dec. Is, 190O.-Editor
Glacier: Through the kindness of friends
in White Salmon l have had the pleas
ure OF receiving the Glacier for nearly a
year past. l think it bright, clean
and newsy little paper and credit not
only to the editor but to the town in
which it is published; and although |
take regularly two New York daily and
one local (Kingston) daily paper, often
drop them to take up the Glacier, as it
keeps me in touch with part of the
great West in which am feeling good
deal interested. About eight years ago
| made visit to that section, taking the
steamboat Regulator at The Dalles, stop
ping at White Salmon for week, Wis
tied Portland, Willamette valley and
Puget sound cities. Iagree with Charles
Francis Train, though he may be a
crank, that the Hudson river and the
Rhine merged into one can not equal
the grandeur of the Columbia. believe
that section-already noted for its fruit
has great future before it, rich in re-
sources, and the ideal home for the man
Of moderate means. The immense water
power of the great Columbia will some
day be utilized for generating electricity,
the same as Niagara has in the East.
Its immense forests of valuable timber,
now just beginning to be in demand :
its rich lands, where wheat, hops, cattle
and horses can be raised for the market
cheaper than anywhere else, with the
opening up of trade with the Philippines
and the open door in China, your section
of our great country must advance more
rapidly than any other portion OF it.
And the man who hangs ON and grows
up with it will make no mistake.
The great danger to our country, both
East and West, in my opinion, is in the
centralization of capital, community of
interests Gas they are now calling it here
in the East, toput it plain, in the power
OF the trusts to enrich few at the ex-
pense OF the many. An enormous deal
has just been consummated in New
York whereby three or four persons con-
troll the output OF the whole anthracite
coal production, enabling them to fix
the price to suit themselves and where
by every ton of hard coal used will cost
from fifty cents to one dollar more on a
ton than formerly. This was done by
tIic Erlt hdllrudu ID. IleTpOnt NOfgan1
purchase of the Pennsylvania Coal Co.,
for which they paid $4,000, 900, and
wiping out all the independent miners
who could make any show of fight.
Next to the Standard Oil Co., which al
ready owns one-eighth of the wealth of
the United States, this is the worst blow
that has ever been struck at the poor
man and the man of moderate means,
and in my Judgment il this deal had
been made before election, Mckinley
could not have carried New York. An
other deal has been made, through a
compact made yesterday between ].
Pierpont Morgan and Jas, j. Hill. These
two men placed themselves in absolute
control of the East and West railroad
business of this country. Passenger
and freight traffic from the Atlantic to
the Pacific is absolutely in the hands of
two former rivals who now are friends
in an agreement to show the world some-
thing in the way of railroad manage
ment never before seen in this or any
other country. john Fl. 0vERsAUaH.