Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-03-20
4 SIGNIFICANT ANNOUNCEMENT.

Il SIGNIFICANT ANNOUNCEMENT.
A telegram from Milwaukee, published in
the GLOBE on Thursday, announced the let
ting of contract for construction of sixty
four miles of the Wisconsin & Minnesota
railway from Colby to Chippewa Falls, to be
in running order by October next and to
give st. Paul one more railway line to Lake
Michigan and the East. The fact thus an
nounced ID confrmatory of the statements
of Mr.. E. F. Drake, Is presented in the
GLOBE of March 2d,snd is significant of the
purposes of the owners of the railways en-
braoed in the st. Paul, Omaha & Chicago con-
solidation. Chippewa Falls is at the term
mus of spur track from the Chicago, st.
Paul & Minneapolis railway, by which it is
one hundred and one miles from st. Paul.
Colby is station on the Wisconsin Central
railway due east from Chippewa Falls. That
this connection will give new railway line
between st. Paul and Milwaukee, about as
direct and practical as the best We now have,
is true, but it is apparent that the Milwaukee
connection is not the first object the
new line between. the Chicago, st. Paul g.
Minneapolis and Wisconsin Central roads
would have been located enough farther
south to make the new Milwaukee route
twenty TO thirty miles shorter than by the
way of Colby. Those who have paid at
tention to Hon. Thad. G.. pounds project,
some time ago talked of as the st. Paul
Grand Trunk, will readily perceive that the
location and letting of. the line
from Chippewa Falls to Colby Is with
a view to the extension Of the new
road to Oconto, on Green Bay, opposite the
Sturgeon Bay g. Lake Michigan ship canal.
rumor, copirmstory of this, is in circula-
ton in railroad circles, to the effect that an
other section of the road eastward, from
Colby to Warsaw, distance of shout thirty
seven miles, will be shortly contracted to be
graded, and probably ironed, this season.
From Warsaw to Oconto is about ninety-fve
miles, and when the new road is built to
Warsaw two thirds of nearly air line from
st. Paul to Oconto will be completed.
While Oconto is quite favorably situated
for lake shipments or for ferrying Lake Mich
igan, and thus connecting with Michigan
railroads, these advantages to be gained are
not 30 much in the way of shortening East
ern connections and for gaining large share
of through freights and travel, as to account
for the present investment of capital in
building the new line across Wisconsin. 1t
may be presumed, therefore, that the pro-
jectors look for their profit to the early de-
velopment of large local traffic. This will
be in lumber. At Colby the new line will
enter upon the great pine regions of central
Wisconsin, and at Warsaw it will be near the
pine forests, at q point where may be col
lected vast amount of lumber from the
forests of the upper Wisconsin and its tribu-
the lumbermen of central Wisconsin by this
new road, through its connections at St.
Paul, over the St. Paul & Sioux City road,
with the treeless prairies and plains of the
West and Southwest.
The significance, then, of this movement
towards realizing Mr.. Pounds project is, that
the GLOBE announcements of the purposes
of the consolidation of the st. Paul & Min
neapolis and North Wisconsin roads, as pub.
lished some weeks ago and based on infor-
nation derived from parties to the consolida-
ton agreement, were substantially correct.
The consolidated company, as was then
stated, will have an independent route to
Milwaukee and short line to Lake Michi-
gan. It will complete the North Wisconsin
to Bayfield,. 1t will perfect the connection
of the st. Paul & Sioux City line with the
Union Pacific at Omaha, and will prosecute
the southwark and westward extensions of the
st. Paul & Sioux City branches. In short,
it will carry out the plans of the st. Paul &
Sioux City management, designed to make
the st. Paul & Sioux City main line one OF
the most important and profitable of trunk
roads in the West.
While it is now we'll understood that the
consolidated companies will in short time
require at st. Paul considerably more ex-
tensive local improvements than those be-
gan last year by the st. Paul & Sioux City
company, yet it would be unreasonable to
expect from the varied and widespread in
terests united in the consolidation any
special devotion to the interests of
st. Paul. 1t would be at least
premature to say that the consoli-
dated companies are planning a st.
Paul system of roads, indepenpent of and
competitive with the Chicago system. But,
confident that st. Paul interests will COM
mand respect because they are in harmony
with those of the new organization, we also
believe that the inevitable effect of the plans
of the consolidation, as here partly outlined,
will be to establish distinctly st. Paul rail-
way system, in which Northern Wisconsin
and Dakota will have larger part than is
now embraced in the projects of the CONSOLE
dated companies, and which will certainly in
time be forced into competition that will be
beneficial to st. Paul and to all the North
west.
POsIOFFICE ROBBERY.