232 LESLIE M. SCOTT
long wished; Huntington was willing to build; the $200,000 subsidy was raised by Astoria citizens in twenty-four hours (Oregonian, May 8, 1890) ; Huntington supposed the deal consummated and put surveyors on the route in June, 1890, and promised by letter soon to begin construction. The As- torians approved the terms of Huntington, but wished to get rid of Reid, and in their pulling and hauling, lost Huntington. In commenting, eleven years later, on this fiasco, Reid wrote in The Oregonian (May 24, 1901) : "Astoria never got its railway into the Nehalem Valley, via Hillsboro to Portland, I lost the $155,000 I had invested in that railway and Mr. Hunt- ington lost his pet scheme via Nehalem to Portland."
Astoria thus lost a rich opportunity in the Nehalem country. This route undoubtedly would have brought larger advantages to that city than the Columbia River route did later ; besides, the river route probably would have been built soon afterward, thus affording two railroads and the opening of much tribu- tary country. This loss will always be a source of regret; it was unnecessary; the railroad was Astoria's, but for the approval of a contract which Huntington had signed and to the terms of which Astoria had agreed. And there was no man so able to build the road as he.
Much criticism and abuse were heaped upon Reid for what was called in Astoria his "grasping" nature, or stubborn re- sistance to Astoria wishes. But it is fair to say in his behalf, that it was his money, and only his, that carried forward the Hillsboro-Clatsop division, up to the Huntington negotiations, the amount as he later stated it being $170,000, some $15,000 of which was afterward regained (Oregonian, June 27, 1891 ; May 24, 1901 ) . Besides, Reid advanced to the Seaside division $8,000 which was returned to him on his separation from the project in 1891. Reid's operations made a big real estate boom in Astoria, from which some of his critics "realized" hand- somely, but others suffered losses in the resultant "slump." It seems at this historical distance that Reid was entitled to better treatment in exchange for his service in enlisting Hunt- ington and in investing heavily his own funds. "Not a soul,"
