The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-04-19
Friday, April l9. 1878.
GET THE POSITION.

The Portland OregoniaH. in lead
ing article, truthfully remarks that
Washington Territory, in particular,
will become one of the greatest States
in the Union" Why not +: II our
Territory shall become one OF the
greatest States in the Uuion. IS 1t
will, it logically follows that its metro
polls must become one of the greatest
cities i'm the Union.
Seattle occupies that position by al
unsurmountable law. II is the natural
collecting point for all the wealth OF
the Territory. and starting point OF
settlement and enterprise. There will
be throughout the future, year by
year. a silent, steady. perhaps I'M
noticed, but cesseless tide of population
setting in upon this city, and gradually
widening its borders and overspreading
the suburban forest-ground. more and
more. Like Briareus, Seattle is stretch
ing out her hundred arms of enterprise
in steamboat lines and roads, toward
every point of the compass, each re
turning day by day freighted with the
tribute of busy farms and camps
Only for the temporary financial dersn.
cement that now pervadcs the whole
country, owing to national causes that
will soon pass away, she would already
have had her railroad trains passing
over the mountains and bringing to
her harbor the immense trade of the
Columbia basin q result that is yet
only n question OF time. and might now
very soon be brought to pass if only a
determined effort were make to accom-
plsh it.
Seattle is the largest town in Wash
ington Territory now, and it is pretty
certain always to be SO. for without q
railroad TO the Sound. Walla Walla, as
a city, can never become more than a
one-horse place. playing second fiddle
to Portland, and bound hand and foot
to the o. 8. n. monopoly of the Column
bia river portages.
4. --se-"'s vary neculiar and lit
might have been" sensation to one who
walks the granite paved streets of San
Francisco, and reflects that within his
own memory those blocks which it now
requires thousands of dollars per front
foot to buy. were forbidding waste
and going begging as it were, Henry
Clay said, Experience is to most men
only like the stern lights of a ship,
serving but to illuminate tho track they
have passed over" Certainly it is q
valuable faculty to be able to see ahead
o little. as well as behind.
We do not to. day see the dense
trunks of the forest darkening. as . few
years ago, the busy streets through
which rolls the heavy currents of our
commerce; nor yet in the damp and
gloomy shades that now cover our sub
urbs, the trim aud slightly avenues and
homes Of refinement that will adorn
them q few years hence.
This harbor being a natural point
to command trade aud centralize bust
ness of every description. there is a
natural aud constant conveyance of
people aud wealth to this point and a
steady aggregation of population and
capital in consequence. This tendency
is bound to increase more rapidly il
the future because Washington Ter
ritory. its climate, soil and res ources
have been underestimated in the past
and San Francisco and Portland over.
estimated in comparison. These, there
fore, who succeed in securing inside 10
cations in this city. or what, as the city
spreads will become inside locations
will make prudent choice.