Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/186



168 T. C. ELLIOTT

OREGON STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY WINTER ARRANGE- MENT

"Steamers Nez Perce, Chief, Webfoot, Tenino, Owyhee, Yakima, Spray and Okanogan; Captains E. F. Coe, C. C. Felton, J. H. D. Gray and Thos. J. Stump.

"One of the above boats will leave Celito for Umatilla and Wallula on each Monday and Thursday and Saturday. The Passenger Trains to connect with steamers at Celilo will start from the Railroad Depot, Dalles City at 4:30 A. M., Returning, a steamer will leave Wallula . . at 5 A. M. on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

"For Portland : Through in one day. Steamers Oneonta or Idaho; Capt. McNulty will leave Dalles daily (Sundays excepted) at 5 A. M., connecting by Cascade Railroad with Steamers New World, Cascade, or Wilson G. Hunt; Capt. J. Wolf, Commander.

Frank T. Dodge,

Agent."

The Oregon Steam Navigation Company played a conspic- uous and important part in the pioneer growth of the Inland Empire. It took much from the people but it rendered service when service was hard to render. It should be judged in the light of the conditions then existing and in the knowledge that corporate greed exists today in the same proportion that it did then. And while it is true, as stated in a "Brief History of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company" in the Oregon His- torical Quarterly for June, 1904, that the members of the corpo- ration "took every possible advantage of one of the most ex- traordinary opportunities that ever fell into the hands of men to amass fortunes for themselves," some of that gain has already come back to the people through direct and indirect benefactions: Reed College at Portland is the most notable instance. Any censure should be against the greed of the individual member rather than against the monopoly itself.