The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1907-07-14
VIA ASTORIA!

The day is not far distant when most
people, and the vast bulk OF marketable
merchandise, will come and 60 via As
toria. not only from home sources to
continental destinations, but to and from
the farthest ends of the commercial
world. She is already the seaboard
terminus of one trans continental rail-
way and the gate-port of one trans
Pacific steamship line. and when the
great City Of Portland shall come to her
senses and 30 her sea-commerce rom
this perfect harbor, this port will stand
without rival on the western coast.
Among the logical developments inher-
ent in the northwestern situation, this
consummation stands conspicuous and
irrefutable and simply awaits the belat-
ed conception of the people most nearly
affected by the program.
The commercial marvel Of the hour
is Portland's dogged blindness to the
immense leverage lying at her hand in
this proposition; an obtuseness measure
able and proveable only by the incal-
culable access she must take on once
she grasps the opportunity and applies
her enormous wealth and prestige to
its expansion.
She does not need the ships at her
own docks to command the maritime
situation on this upper coast 1t is
we'll within her province to take supreme,
permanent control of this vast trade,
dominating it from this place, holding
the machinery within her own municipal
lines, and using this as depot and entire
pot. Nor does it follow that the Co.
lumbia should be abandoned between
Portland and Astoria in such an event.
Light draft vessels would steadily ply
the river for minor cargoes coastwise
from the metropolis, but the great
ships and steamers could be held at the
port Of instant despatch and meet their
cargoes within ten short miles of the
ocean, in every way expediting the
traffic and minimizing the cost Of
handling ....a,.... . .-s.s..
The plans Of James J. Hill are the
problems of the hour, as to his real
use of the mouth Of the Columbia in
the near future, but It 10 not beyond the
Portland influence to align the interests
OF the city and state with those plans
If she will but 60 about 1t. Az On sx-
pAnsionist Mr.. Hill Is famous sor Che
readiness with which he meets and ab.
serbs the practical and clever whereso-
ever it halls from and, Portland is rich
enough and strong enough commercially,
to engage the keenest attention of this
builder of empires and join him heart
lily and honestly in the launching Of .
new commercial domain, with Portland
as its capital and Astoria as Its port
in-chief for all time to come. .r
VIA ASTORIA is the slogan here;
and we care not who shall direct the
worlds traffic in and out our doors, so
long as it comes and goes this way; 50
long as our channels and docks are
utilized as nature and common-sense
dictate; we will lose nothing by Port
lands supremacy in the financing of the
great project to hold the commerce of
the northwest on Oregon rails and in
Oregon channels; Astoria will take and
make her own growth from the impetus
inherent in the sole advantage of being
the gate through which shall pass, both
ways, the stupendous traffic of the fu-
ture, with the Orient
--0-
THE CONVENTION PRINCIPLE.