The Northern Pacific's Iron Grip on the Territory
An scathing editorial decries the railroad monopoly for partitioning Washington into 'trade territories' to serve their own interests.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
If there has been any doubt all along as to the truth of the proposition that the Northern Pacific Railroad Company regards the people as its serfs and puppets, such doubts ought to be effectually dispelled by the telegram from St. Paul. The company has partitioned off the territory between St. Paul and Portland, stating: 'Such a part belongs to St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the other moiety belongs to Portland.' The rights or interests of the interior towns along the line do not enter into their calculations at all. They discriminate in our rates so that the interior people are obliged to patronize them whether they like it or not. The railroad was not built to afford Oregon and Washington an eastern outlet after all; it was built only to boom Portland and further enrich Portland merchants at our expense. Voters of Umatilla county, how do you like the situation? This is a question of whether we are to be land-owners or tenants-at-will—whether we are to be serfs or freemen.
“The company has partitioned off the territory... and says: 'Such a part belongs to St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the other moiety belongs to Portland.'”
In 1884, settlers felt like 'serfs' to the Northern Pacific Railroad's freight monopoly. Today, the struggle has shifted from railroads to the digital and logistical platforms that dictate the terms of trade for modern small businesses in the Pacific Northwest.
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