The population of the valley counties, properly so called, is 83,549-this leaves Portland and Multnomah County entirely out. The taxable property of these valley counties is $23,735,262.

The population of the whole of Eastern Oregon east of the Cascades is but 39,099. The value of its taxable property is only $8,958,724.

The population of that part of Eastern and Northeastern Oregon which is in any sense tributary to the Columbia or Snake Rivers is 28,180. The value of their taxable property is $6,256,547.

The average taxable property of the population of the valley counties is $282.68; that of the population of Eastern Oregon, $228.96.

These figures will be seen to have an important bearing on the subject of the next chapter.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The transportation question-Its importance-Present legal positionOregon Railway and Navigation Committee's general report-That company-Its ocean-going steamers-Their traffic and earnings-Its river-boats-Their traffic and earnings-Its railroads in existenceTheir traffic and earnings-Its new railroads in construction and in prospect-Their probable influence-The Northern Pacific-Terminus on Puget Sound-Its prospects-The East and West Side Railroads -"Bearing" traffic and earnings-How to get "control"-Lands owned by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company-Monopoly -How threatened-The narrow-gauge railroads-Their terminus and working-Efforts to consolidate monopoly-The "blind pool "-Resistance—The Oregon Pacific-Its causes, possessions, and prospects -Land grant and its enemies-The traffic of the valley-Yaquina Bay-Its improvement-The farmers take it in hand-Contrast and comparisons-The two presidents-Probable effects of competitionTactics in opposition-The Yaquina improvements-Description of works-The prospects for competition and the farmers' gains.

FROM all that has gone before, the deduction is plain that on the solution of the transportation question in the interests of the fixed and industrious population of the State depends absolutely the growth and prosperity of Oregon. Nature has done her part.

The words of Messrs. George M. Pullman, of Chicago, and William Endicott, Jr., of Boston, in their report of August 1, 1880, to the stockholders of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, will be echoed by every man who is now or has been in Oregon with eyes to see. They wrote as follows:

"Our observations afforded, in the first place, ample confirmation of all we had previously heard and read of the propitious climate, great attractions of scenery, and wonderful agricultural resources of Western and Eastern Oregon, and Eastern Washington Territory. We believe that in these respects those regions are not surpassed, if equaled, by any other portion of the United States. It can, indeed, be safely said that nowhere else in this country do rich soil and mild climate combine to the same degree in insuring such extraordinary results of almost every agricultural pursuit as regards quantity, quality, and regularity of yield. . . . The striking evidence of past and present growth which we found everywhere, forced at the same time the irresistible conclusion upon us that we were beholding but the beginning of the sure and rapid progress in population, productiveness, and prosperity which will be witnessed in the immediate future within the vast stretch of country watered by the great river Columbia and its numerous tributaries."

The reader of this book will, I think, admit that the facts herein detailed go far to justify the conclusions summed up in these few but carefully chosen words.

How does this transportation question now stand, and what (if any) matters are in progress or contemplation to affect it?

In the first place, the companies are all free to manage their own business in their own way; they charge what they like, favor what persons and places they choose, and load on others burdens heavy to be borne.

I have before indicated what was the purpose of the bill introduced in the Legislature of 1880, to prevent discrimination by common carriers. "The Oregonian "