Valdez daily prospector., 1912-02-01
PORTLAND MEN
 ARE AMBITIOUS
Now Considering Plan of Oper- ating Their Own Line of
 Steamers

The business men of Portland are now tigIring on the forma- tion of a corporation capitalized at half a million dollars with which 10 place line of steamers on the run between their city and Alaska points.
 The Portland Journal, which subscribed $5,OOO for advertising the proposed line in the east, is devoting front page space to the enterprise. The following is talk cn from it's columns of recent issue:
 "rhis city should begin to lay defbnite plans for a large corpor- alton of S5OO,OOO or a $l,OO0, ,OOO for the purpose of buying and building modern steamers to ply between Portland anrl Alaska ports, Portland and British Co., fumbia ports, and Portland American cOasiwiSe ports and TSOuth America; this company al so to take over and operate the fOpen River line steamers into the 1 interior anu su have steamers on the lower Columbia and Villa mette rivers In other words form company large enough to make il known to the world that Portland has q commercial steam ship line owned by it's people, a people who have faith in the mar itlmc possibilities of this port"
 This broad statement of Port lands Alaska and other trade ex- tension obligation andsopportun- ities were made recently by w. s. SmallwoOd manager of the trans IportatiOn committee of the cham Der Of commerce. Mr. SmallwDOd has been authorized by the trans portatiOn committee to definitely learn if f'he business firms of Portland will meet the 200 tons per trip freight guarantee asked by F.. II. Dodge of the F. J. Dodge company Between Portland and Alaska ports on Bcring sea. Mr. Van llrckeren of the committee is canraSsins the merchants to learn what amounts each will furnish.
 I'll Is d reflection upon the !wealthy people and business men or this city that we must depend upon san Francisco for the bOais to bring merchandise to our stores and io take the merchandise from this city into Alaska and other Pacific coast purlS,," continued Mr. SnallwOOd.
 '"True, We have maintained the Open River line, which is 'becom- ing a greater benefit each year to tn" people, and this small en- terprlSe has won us national praise and is spoken of very high ly.
 | Therr was, for instance, an attempt made some years ago to establish a direct line from Port land and guarantee of tonnage was made by number of the Portland houses, but the attract i've rail rate of 10 cents per hun drcdwcight froptoPortland to Se- attle with tbe reduced rates put in by the steamship lines from Seattle diverted the traffic via EScattle.
 What l am afraid of at pres ent is something of this same nature. F.. II. Dodge, speaking for his company, tells me that they will positively charge no more from Portland .than they wfll from Seattle, or have been charging from Seattle in past sea- sons. Now in the event that com- peting steamship lines from Se- Iattlc should make sweeping re- ductions in their rates in order 10 put the Portland line out of business, it is doubtful whether our Portland shippers will stand by the direct line where a saving in freight can be effected by ship ment through Seattle. There is a decidedly selfish proposition back of all of this, particularly where houses arc represented in both Seattle and Portland, for by making shipments from the Port land branch the Seattle branch feels there is cncroaohmcnt up- on their territory and naturally complains, and justly SO.
 While I am endeayorine first of all to bc very sure of the rates both out of Portland and Seattle, not only over tho Dodge line, but every line contemplating onerat-