Portland Moves to Steal Seattle's Alaska Trade
Twenty-five Oregon merchants meet to charter steamers to Juneau — and to cut Puget Sound out of the North's growing business.
Seattle's prestige in supplying the wants of Alaska has aroused a movement in Portland, where the merchants are anxious to capture a part of the trade to the far North. Last Friday in that city a meeting of about twenty-five leading business men was held in the Chamber of Commerce to consider the question of establishing a steamer line to Juneau. C. H. Dodd presided and told how Portland had opened the trade with Alaska many years ago, when Seattle was only a sawmill site, and had kept the trade until Seattle began to feel her strength. The trade, Mr. Dodd said, had now gone to the Sound, more through Portland's neglect than anything else. Alaska, he declared, was developing more rapidly than any other section on the Pacific coast, and consequently the trade was growing fast. The question was, would Portland merchants have to raise a subsidy to secure a steamer to make monthly trips?
Other business men spoke in favor of the project, and some of them became enthusiastic, not forgetting the advantage of Seattle in being nearer to Alaska and having an ocean waterway free from obstructions. Yet the Portland merchants argued that Alaska now takes some 2,500 tons of merchandise a month from the Sound, and they thought they would be able to wrest a part of the shipments away from Seattle. A few of the speakers suggested that two boats a month be started, to go to Alaska direct, without visiting Seattle. Finally the meeting decided to appoint a committee to see how much monthly subsidy could be raised. If enough is subscribed, a steamer, it is said, will be chartered at once.
“Seattle's prestige in supplying the wants of Alaska has aroused a movement in Portland, where the merchants are anxious to capture a part of the trade to the far North.”
The Seattle–Portland rivalry for the Alaska trade was already old in 1901, and Seattle's head start as the gateway to the North shaped its economy for a century. The conviction that a port must fight to hold its hinterland is precisely the argument Seattle and Portland still have over shipping, cruises and tech. Then as now, the winner was often the city that moved first and built the infrastructure.
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