Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-08-12
THE sLEDGE-HAsDIER BLOW.
n. +. Throne Offers Few Thoughts
On Railroad Matters.

switch. Coos Bay to be bridged by
the railroad monopoly of southern
Oregon, unless the people fight tC
retain that great natural and open
harbor for their own benefit.
The Panama canal is already con.
trolled by the railroad interests
Steamship lines afford no competi
tion or relief from robbing rates be.
tween this coast and the east, be
cause they are controlled by the in.
terests that control the railroads
Southern Oregon stands still while
no new business can be undertaken
while it is dominated by a railroad
monopoly. The Creator made Coo!
Bay for the benefit of mankind and
not to be bottled up and controlled
by transportation monopoly. 1t is
right at the door of all southern Ore.
gon, a free and open highway tC
every port in the world, that south
ern Oregon has not as yet taken ad.
vantage of using. The people that
are isolated on its shores are sc
anxious to get railroad to it that
they are about to surrender the
great advantages it affords as a har-
Dor, for a branch line of railroad
that can do them no good on account
of the long detour it makes to con-
meet them, with what? Portland and
the Willamette valley.
Public hearings are soon to be had
by the United States engineers to
decide if the people want to surren-
der Coos Bay for a railroad, to learn
objections, if any, to bridging the
bay at the turn in the neck between
the storm-swept opening to the sea
and the real bay. OF course the Coos
Bay people will surrender the ad-
vantages of free and open navigation
for the privilege of riding out to the
Willamette valley to pick hops and
prunes. What do they care if every
ton of freight coming or going
through troublesome drawbridge
has to pay extra on account of the
added cost of insurance to vessel and
cargo on account of the hazard in
passing through a drawbridge-a
toll gate on the peoples highway
that is absolutely unnecessary and OF
no benefit to anyone except the rail
road company planning to destroy
the advantages to the people of wa.
ter transportation and to tighten the
cinch on the saddle they are riding
the southern Oregon people with;
AS Coos Bay is southern Oregon's
| greatest asset, should the isolated
people who live on it's shores be per.
mitted to surrender it forever to 9
railroad combine?
Coos Bay will be there offering ar
anchorage to the largest steamers
from all over the world long after
all the timber in western Oregon has
been cut, provided it is not made use
less by railroad encroachments.
1t is up to southern Oregon tC
protect its advantages. VIII the
people surrender without a protest
or a struggle because so far they
are shut in like rats in a trap? Any
other place in the United States you
would see the people ready to fight
to finish any attempt to steal a
harbor like Coos Bay. Even if they
did not expect to use it themselves
| they would protect it for their chill.
| dren. But southern Oregon sleeps
while the moss and whiskers grow
The eastern man has lot of ambi-
tion and grit when he comes here
but he soon loses that and becomes
as stupid as a Mexican or an Ore.
| gonian. Many southern Oregon peo
pie do not realize the value of Coos
Bay to them because the railroads
have deprived them of its advan
tages; they do not realize that ma
ture made only one such place be
tween San Francisco and the Colum
'bia river where large vessels can sal
in and land, and while the railroad.
nave for good reasons avoided build
ing there, we have been shut of
from its advantages. Many business
men know that with 65 miles of rail
road to Roseburg and 100 miles
more to the Rogue river valley, al
of Southern Oregon would save a
least so per cent in freight rates
which would make these valleys more
prosperous and cause immediate de
velopment of our decaying forests
| open our mines and our minds, and
cause an increase in immigration tC
develop the idle lands that cannot
70 uoOu lOW CACCpJ lOl lit
policy of the government in the past
has been to refuse permission to any
railroad to bridge navigable bays
but the power of the combines In
politics is now so great that they can
get what they want while the people
are asleep. Coos Bay is so situated
that it is just as far around it as
| across it, hence the glaring gall of
the attempt to shut it in | have no
land on Coos Bay or in Coos county,
but | appreciate the value of the bay
to the Umpqua and Rogue river val
leys, whose people should be more
interested in it than the isolated
people who live on its shores and do
not appreciate it as they should.
Protests should be made to the rep
resentatives in congress and the war
department and committees should
be sent to protest at the public hear
lngs to be held there soon. Rose
burg, especially should waken up
and get busy. N. F. THRONE.