Year: 1866

bloom, but invariably at the sacrifice of the
health of the plant. So, too, by the use of
capital and resort to clap>trap imaginary
town sites may be forced into temporary
importance, and for the time being be made
to assume the appearance of healthy de-
yelopmeni. But as the plant of hOt-hOuse
growth Immediately wits and withers with
the extinguishment of the 6res in the fur
mace, 80 the town that has Ueen forced into
existence-having no natural advantages
languishes and pines the moment the foster,
ing hand is Withdrawn. We are led to these
remarks in view of the persistent efforts
being made to force the building of town
at White Bluffs "A point destitute Of all
natural advantages, and enviroued by belt
of sand, variously estimated at from ten to
twenty miles in width, over which teamsters
find it difficult to pass with empty wagons.
On this dreary, God forsaken spot, situated
on the confines of an American Sahsra, tho
monopoly that controls the navigation of the
Columbia River has decreed that town shall
be built, and accordingly every means that
capital can command is unsparingly applied
to the carrying ont Of project that could
only have originated in the brain of luna>
tic. As an illustration Of the means used to
force the building OF a town at White Bluffs,
take the tariff of charges for transportation
on the Columbia River. The distance from
Wallula to White Bluffs is sixty miles, for
which the charge is 81 so per ton. From
Wallula to PalOuse Landing, the distance is
sixty>two miles, but this not being favored
town site, the charge is s27 50 per ton. On
freight through from Portland the dispropor-
tion is the same the charge to White
Bluffs being $40 per ton, against $50 to Pa,
louise Landing. In other words, on freight
which shippers desire to follow the direct
route tax of $50 per tod is imposed in or
der to force the building of town at White
Bluffs. In all our observation of the impo,
sitions on which honopoIies occasionally
venture, We have never known any thing
quite SO glaring as this. A policy, too, de>
iberately entered upon at time when every
exertion should be used to attract trade to
the Columbia River route rather than drive
it away by the imposition. of unnecessary
charges. If White Bluffs enjoyed any su-
periOrity as point of transhipment for the
Montana trade, this discrimination might be
tolerated but that it does not is sufficiently
evidenced by the fact that all the material
and supplies for the Lake steamer have been
landed either at Wallula or Palouse, and
thence made the overland trip. It thus


seems that whilst the steamboat monopolists
offer premium of $40 per ton in favor of
White Bluffs, they are careful that their own
freight follows the more direct route. This
attempt to build up town by means of tax
upon trade is in the last degree reprehen.
sible, and stamps its origiDators as governed
by the instinct of the Eolc. Such short.
sightedness is unworthy of men who aim to
control the trade of whole country, aud
cannot too soon be made to give way for a
more liberal policy. As between points on
the same river steamboat owners should
never discriminate, but leave shippers to fol.
low the route that leads most directly to their
place of destination. A contrary policy may
give an Out-Of the-way place temporary i'm.
portance, but the reaction is sure to come,
and in the end the originators of the imposi,
tion are the worst sufferers Mere adventures,
with every thing to gain and nothing to lose,
may venture upon an experiment of this
kind with impuDity, but it i'll becomes an
association of men, whose ambition it is to
control the navigation of a River that drains
half continent, to thus league themselves
in with a fraud that is calculated to iDjure
the business interests of a whole country.