The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-07-13
RAILWAY CoMMUHICATI0H.

The assurance having at length been given
that. the railroad is to be constructed directly
to Butte, 1t may be worth while to consider
some of the effects likely to follow the estab-
lishment of railway Communication. Con-
, corning our town itself, and It's mines. those
effects can only be beneficial. We all under
stand the advantages of speed and certainty
in the filling of orders for milling supplies and
machinery also the more palpable benefit of
freight rates lower than can now be secured
under a system of combined railway and
wagon t., transportation. These, as well A. the
immense advantages We are sure to derive
from the opening of rail communication by
which those DESTROYS of inspecting or
investing can be brought directly to the
centre of mining activity, we fully
comprehend, so dismissins them from
consideration we shall turn to an amir
ton of other, and less noticeable, but bv no
means unimportant changes likely to follow
the LAYING down of the rail. These will
likely affect others as we'll as ourselves aud,
al first sight at least, they do hot promise un-
mixed benefits. Thus the opening OF rail
communication with Utah will seriously
impair, if not altogether cut off the Butte
market from our fellow citiz- IS of Mis-
soula county. At present Butte offers the
best market for the produce raised in Mon
tana's Garden of Eden, the Bitter Root
valley. The trade now carried on IS very
considerable and highly advantageous to both
sides but it is questionable whether it can
compete with the Msrnsn trade as soon as
rail communication is offered. OF course, it
would be far more agreeable for us to buy of
Montanians if such a thing were possible, in
the face of ap unfavorable market; but such
matters are regulated by the memorable laws
of exchange. 1t has been said, speak
ing of a wider field, that men
will fight for their country, will even
die for their country, but that they will
not make pig iron for their country so with
regard to our friends OF Missoula. In case of
danger, or need of assistance from any other
cause, none would respond more quickly or
more willingly than the people of Bn'te to a
call for help, but for all thai the ranchers of
Aissoula must not think hard of us if they
find us purchasing imported produce
when offered at q lower price than it
can be freighted by wagon from Nissoula.
Butter, eggs, bacon, flour, etc, from Nor
mondom will likely be laid down cheaper at
Butte than it would be possible to wagon the
same articles over the execrable road from
EewTan's to Missoula City, and if so the
latter will inevitably be excluded from the
market. 1t will be useless to look for any
thing else, or expect anything else, and it
might be well to begin now to make ,repara-
tions for such a change. But the evils to re-
suit from thisc change will be only temporary.
Our inland commerce will soon re-adjust it.
self to the new conditions; with the locoms-
tive will come greater travel into the territory
by way of the Aullan road Industries az yet
unknown Ill Montana will be successfully
prosecuted, and it will be but a very short
time before the benefits of the railroad will
be shared in by Missoula fully as much as by
any other county of Montana. To one thing,
though, we would call the Missoulians' atten-
ton. The extension of the railroad to Butte
will practically sever their interests with all
portions of the territory lying further to the
east. With Butte a railroad town they will,
of course, be unable to carry on any trade
with districts still more remote than Butte.
Their interests will extend to this place and
centre here, but will extend eastward no fur
ther. With this prospect in vie~ it might he
we'll for the Nissoulians to ask it a continu
ance of their old policy is advisable. Hith-
erto they have had the reputation of acting
something like the hunter who, when out on
the chase, took so wide a range Of vision and
looked so far away that he altogether lost sight
of prizes which would have been easily yisi-
bic had he only looked closer at home.