The Daily Astorian

The New Situation.
Portland not the Master any Longer
Until the Mastery is Made.

From the Daily Oregonian.

Since there is now a probability that the Oregon Steam Navigation company will sell out its whole property, people who appear to have never thought of it before are beginning to talk of the great advantages that have accrued to this city from the fact that so important a line has been controlled by men whose interests have all been here, and who have caused all the business of the upper Columbia region to be done through Portland. "This has been the only life of the communication between two great sections of country. It is a monopoly; and certainly it will not be less a monopoly should it pass into other hands. It has made money, too, for its owners; but the money has been used in improving and extending facilities of transportation. This line has now reached a point of excellence which never was surpassed by any similar line of transportation in the United States or elsewhere; and though it has formed the sole avenue of communication between two great divisions of country, both sections have prospered. Portland, as the center of a depot of the trade, has profited by it to an immense extent, and the interior country is developing through it into a populous and productive region. What changes may take place under new directorship, should the line pass into other hands, it is impossible to forecast. The country, beyond doubt, will continue its career of progressive development, since the interests of the new owners will be identical in that behalf with what those of the present owners have been. As to Portland, the question may be somewhat of another kind. Under new conditions that would be likely to result from change of ownership in a property that bears an important relation to the interests of the city and the country at large, as well as under the new and larger development that will undoubtedly come as a result of great enterprises that cannot much longer be delayed, there will be new problems for the business men of this city to consider and solve. There will be a new situation of which they will not be masters till they make themselves master of it."