The Great Grain War of the Columbia River

It is announced at Portland that the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company will very shortly put tug-boats on the Columbia river bar and a system of tow boats on the Columbia and Willamette rivers; and that it will reduce the charge for lighterage in the rivers to fifty cents per ton. A rate for towage from the sea to Portland and return has been fixed, reducing the charge for this service about one-third. The object is to equalize the difference between shipping charges in the Columbia river and on Puget Sound—in other words, an effort to make it as cheap to ship grain via the river as via the Sound. This movement is of itself a confession of disadvantage, made now for the first time in an open and practical way. The judgment is at last confessed, but it remains to be seen if the corrective measures will overcome the advantages possessed by the Sound. In our judgment they will be found inadequate. The difference between the towage and lighterage rates proposed by the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company and those heretofore prevailing will not be sufficient to make up the disparity which during the past year has made wheat worth twelve cents per bushel more at Puget Sound than at Portland.