No one who, like the present writer, has often tried to stem the tidal
current sweeping out to sea, can doubt the force and velocity it will
bring to bear; and no one familiar with Yaquina doubts the anticipated
success of the improvement. Once gained, it will be permanent, and then
half an hour will suffice to tug the arriving vessel from the deep
waters of the Pacific to her station alongside her wharf, and the same
time will dispatch her, fully loaded, on her voyage.
To sum up this matter: At present a very large portion of the profits
of farming and of other industries in Oregon goes into the pockets of
the transportation company. The rates of freight bear no proportion to
the benefits obtained, but are fixed simply on the principle of sitting
down to pencil out a list to see how much the farmers can possibly pay.
If this state of things were to be indefinitely perpetuated, the
outlook would be dreary. That a radical change is impending is to me
clear. The country is too rich in productive powers, the citizens are
too fully awake to the needs of their position, the knowledge of what
Oregon is and what she wants is too widely spread, and the president of
the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company has trumpeted forth the
enormous profits of his corporation too loudly, for the failure of the
efforts now in progress to introduce competition in the carrying-trade.
So that I, for one, am at rest as to the result. Oregon will take her
own part in the general movement, now current throughout the United
States, to regulate, if not to curtail, the powers of the corporations.
But I have confidence in the steady and peaceful character of her
population not to carry this matter here to extremes, which might
unduly burden associated capital, and check the flow of its full
current to our State.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Emigration to Oregon--Who should not come--Free advice and no fees--
English emigrants--Farmers--Haste to be rich--Quoted experiences--Cost
and ways of coming--Sea-routes--Railroads--Baggage--What not to bring
--What not to forget--Heavy property--The Custom-house--San Francisco
hotels--Conclusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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