Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1878-10-03
THE ANsPORTATION PROBLEM.

AT HOME, September S1, 1910.
To the Editor Of the Herald:
There is no doubt bu. that the question OF
cheap and certain transportation is one OF
paramount importance to Montana in general
and more especially to the city OF Helena
the commercial and financial centre of this
Territory. This question is one. too, that
will admit of no prolonged delay in its solu-
ton: it must be determined at once, for our
commerce cannot longer languish under the
present oppressive and unreliable system OF
ghting. Were Col. Voolfolk to have
added to the thirty two dollars (average freight
of last season. the losses incurred by actual
damage to the goods en- route and the losses
by delay; not to mention the consequential
damages of loss of interest, etc, necessarily In
cidental on such a state of affairs, he would
have arrived at such sum as would make
| most of our rural citizens open their eyes
with astonishment, and set to work at tigur-
ing out how many sheep or cattle they could
buy or how many feet of fiume they could
run Herewith. The evil is patent, but what
is the proper remedy Is it, as Col. Voolfolk
in his brilliant peroration, says: ITO harness
the car of progress to the wild waters of the
Missouri" or is it to hitch up ''the angel OF
the dawn p Quein Sabe One thing is certain
that if the u. N. Railroad Transportation
Company carry out their present design, the
result cannot but be advantageous to Mon
tana. Such schemes, once put in practice,
succeed as rule, in the end; although it often
happens that the primary inceptors have but
little share in the final consummation. There
is one thing that river transportation alone
cannot accomplish, and that one thing is an
essential to the rapid and prosperous growth
of this country, viz the settling up OF any
great portion of our best arabic and stock
raising lands, which cannot be reached by
water.
Now. also have scheme and one which
l will advance to you only as such, in the
hope that 1t be found practicable by those
busy workers, who having once the right
idea, can readily grasp the substance, it may
conduce to the lasting welfare of Montana,
and knowing that if it fall fruitless to the
ground it will at least have done no harm.
And this scheme, or dream? Is railroad
from some point on the Missouri below the
Dauphin and Drowning Mans Rapids to Hell
ena! All! see your look of astonishment
and disgust; "What, after all this talk, the
fool just proposes what every sensible man
in the Territory has thought of, pondered on,
and finally rejected as impracticable on &C.
count of expense ?"
Say no more, my dear sir; can see what
you are thinking of rails, crossties, bridges,
grades, and embankments. You are right;
they will never do. There is the Belt Range
to cross, q nearly insurmountable object in
itself, not to mention the numerous other lit,
tie ranges and divides, or the black mud
which 10 nearly swallowed up the Diamond
sR"
+ But your thoughts are, in this case, mo-
mine, for whilst you are intent upon imagih'
ing an ordinary rosd-bed for the fiery steed,
l am aiming at raising him up on posts and
making him ride q seraddle of . rail, in very
! |smuch tho Same manner ssdarise the late un1
p3esssuthsss; refractory soadiers used to b
amounted on the wooden horse. 4 lnAlecttr(
: delivered before tho Unibsd Service Instisn
ton, London, sfew months ago there M.
leiven adetailed account Of anew and hove
: method Of constructing military railroads
| Since then, . section of railroad made &C
cording to this plan has been put mp in Eng
land and successfully operated, and At tn,
:; present moment, there is = similar road build
ing, and in operation, at the Cape OF Goot
Hope. The track upon which the engine ant
cars run is composed of single woodel
beam which Is raised on posts TO about fou