The transportation question--Its importance--Present legal position
--Oregon 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 existence
--Their 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 competition--Tactics in
opposition--The Yaquina improvements--Description of works--The
prospects for competition and the farmers' gains. 271