Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1874-03-21

from the hand work OF the energetic class
They are veritable drones, curse to any
community, disgrace to manhood, and a
dead weight to the best interests of any
country. No doubt you have just such
men among you. To force them into line
must be your first duty ; aud this cannot
be better accomplished than by obtaining
as large subsidy from your county as pos.
sible, consistent with the probable cost of
the road; but instead of giving this sub
sidy to foreign company who will draw
interest and principal from your county,
draining you of the very means necessary
for your proper future development, give
it to your energetic and cnterprising class
who use the very taxes collected to build
mp the country, and by 80 doing you will
tax the drones forcibly, the energetic vol
UNFAIRLY, and use the collected means for
the prosperity Of the country at large. If,
as you tell me, you have coal of good
quality in abundance at your dosr, and
can, by building this road. lay it down
here at the wharf for Sc. so per ton, the in
vestment will be one of the best paying on
the Pacific coast. The means necessary
can nearly all be obtained on credit with
the exception of the grading, you do not
need dollar to build it. Grade your
road, take the 5000 acres of land which
belong to your company, take your mort
cages which you receive in exchange for
stock, take your bonds of subsidy from
the county, as much or as little as is neces-
sary, borrow thereupon what money you
want, say $4,000 or 100000, at 10 per
cent. interest, and with this money pur-
chase your iron and rolling stock. Finish
Your road and offer inducements to anyone
who wants to mine coal. You can afford
to transport coal for year or two at cost.
Build up your trade by offering the coal
at your door for S2.5O to $500 per ton, and
sailing vessels and steamers will be glad to
establish lines between Olympia and San
Francisco. All the subsidy you will have
to offer, all the bonus you need to grant
will be cheap coal, and vessels will be as
plenty as blackberries in summer time.
Do not sell your subsidy bonds, as you
might have to sacrifice too largely on ac-
count of the sparsely settled state of your
county. DO not sell your mortgages, for
the same reason. and by all means do not
sell your lands, which in consequence of
the very improvements you are making
will, eventually, he worth more than the
cost of this entire railroad. Use oil these
assets as collaterals. The interest to be
paid by your county on SIS 900 will alone
pay all the interest You have to pay on
your entire Indebtedness, and leave mar
gin in your treasury. BY the time you
have finished your railroad, you are ena-
bled to exchange Mt any time thecollaterals
which you gave as security for the money
to build the road, for the railroad as secur-
ity itself, and by proper management your
stock should be worth in less than two
years three times its nominal value.
You must bear in mind that these sug-
gestions are based upon your statement
that you have large coalfelds at your door
the product Of which you are enabled
to otter at your wharfs or on board vessels
at price not to exceed 50 80. To show
you the correctness of this position you
must understand that the freight of coal
from Seattle to San Francisco has been,
for 1872 and 1873, at the average rate of
81 20 per ton, ranging from So 50 to
So 25; when l inform you that of the
entire amount of coal shipped from Seattle
to San Francisco, only 1900 tons were
landed at the wharf of the Seattle Co.
during the year 1873, all the balance being
sold before its arrival; and when I
further inform You that the price of Seattle
coal can be safely stated to range from
50 so to $40 80 per ton in this city, it will
be clear that coal of an equal quality
with Seattle coal which can be had down
here at price from 81 so to 50 50, will
find more than ready market.
To meet your argument that the coal
market might be overstocked by too large
supplies from the coast coal mines, let ne
state to you that the supply of coal re-
ceived at San Francisco from all the mines
on the coast, exclusive Of the Rocky Noun
tains, is about one. sixth of the total re-
ceipts of San Francisco. Five-sixths of
all the coal shipped to this city. come from
Europe, South America, Australia, Asia,
and the Rocky Mountains. The lowest
price paid for inferior coal from Coos Bay
and Mount Diablo is eight dollars and
fifty cents; consequently, your coal equal
to Seattle coal will always find ready
market at paying prices, when the differ
ence between Seattle and Coos Bay coal is
81 per ton.
In my opinion it is against your interest
to have any coal company own any railroad
which is to bring business to your city.
A railroad owned by coal company would
be apt to be used to create q monopoly in
that commodity, excluding other coal COM