The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1892-1907, 1901-11-16
poLUMB1A RIvEn IMrnovEMENrs,

necessary appropriations oV col-
gress 10 make the needed inn
provements and remove the few
distractions to its becoming yalu
able to the people as means of
transportation An effort is being
made by the people to secure yecog-
milton from congress in the shape
of just appropriations for this pur,
pose. If the distractions that now
make the river practically v2lueiess
as means of transportation were
removed il would become the scene
OF heavy commerce in carrying the
products of the tributary country
to the sea. The railroads would
meet this competition and the re-
suit would be a more rapid settle
ment Of the country, a correspond
ing increase in traffic and business
enough for both railroads and
steamboats, at rates that would be
Just to all parties. The Seattle
Post Intelligence has covered the
ground completely in the following
editorial comment:
How little attention is paid to
the necessity Of opening this great
inland waterway to navigation is
shown by the estimates made by
the chief of engineers. These esti-
mates include 5000, 900 for the i'm
provement of the mouth of the
river; $325, 600 for improving the
channel between Astoria and Port
land, and barely $50. ooo for the
canal around the distractions at the
Cascades. The amounts asked fer
the upper Columbia are 50 small
that they are not considered of suf-
fcient importance to figure in the
telegraphic summaries. Nearly
81, 1000, 600 is thus to be devoted to
improving the harbors and the en-
frances TO them, to which the
freight which originates in the val
ley of the Columbia is now brought
by rail, but not enough to do any
substantial good toward removing
the Instructions which prevent the
use of this magnificent waterway
as route for freight from the farm
to the ocean.
THE $325,o 900 to be devoted to
the improvement of the channel
from the mouth of the river to
Portland is of not the slightest ben
eft or advantage to a single pro-
ducer in the entire valley of the
Columbia. 1t would not make the
difference of dollar to them, in
dividually and collectively, if the
attempt to keep channel for deep
water ships up the 100 miles OF
river to Portland was definitely and
finally abandoned. Indeed, the
probabilities are that they would
receive better price for their pro-
ducts if loaded on shipboard at the
mouth of the Columbia than al
Portland. The farm products now
have to pay the expenses OF the
long delays is getting up and dowr
the narrow and tortuons channel,
the heavy cost of literage, the tow
age and pilot charges, the addition
al insurance and the wasteful ex.
penditure of time necessitated by
sending ships to an artificial harbor,
kept open only by the extraordin.
airy expenditure of public money,
instead of using the natural harbors
which already exists at the mouth
Of the river.
'In making UP the rivers and
harbors bill, as is we'll known, nc
waterway can be expected to receive
more than a certain portion of the
whole appropriation to be expend-
ed. Thus every dollar which IS
devoted to the improvement of the
lower Columbia is in fact diverted
from the improvement of the upper
river The money which is wasted
III tearm of years In the endeavor
to keep open deep water channel
to Portland, if expended on remov-
ing distractions from the Columbia
waterway TO the interior, would
have made that river navigable by
river steamers from the ocean to
the furthest border of the state oil
Washington. The present expen.
ditures on the lower Columbia are
i'll the interests of one single city,
pr rather in the interests Of the
agents of foreign grain buyers and
foreign ship owners who make that
city their temporary headquarters
Expenditures which would opef
the upper Columbia to steamboat
navigation would bling an immed.
late return in dollars and cents &c
every individual who lives in the
great pluteRti between the Cascade.
and the Rocky Mountains. The
one community which profits by
the expenditures as now made con
trolls the entire Oregon delegation
i'll congress. Hence the. misappro
priation Of the funds for the i'm
provemeEt of the great columbi;
waterway which has gone OH for ;
generation. and which should cease
Every dollar expended on the Co
lumbia river from this time OF
should be devoted to the purpose o
opening il as a trade route from IN,