Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-07-14
SAN FRAsCIsCO's RIVAL CITY.

i''"alo ~ ihpl' Coulsc ci CONSTRUCTION,
| each to span the continent. One TO con-
meet the waters Of the great lakes with
Puget Sound, the other to connect thu,
navlgahlc waters of the St. Lawrence
with Burrard Inlet, on the Cult of Geor
gia; both to be completed within three
years, one Of them within five months.
Looking southwark about the same dis
lance, we sre = railway travcrsing the
! continent from point on the Gulf of
California, through Sonora. with--trans,
| continental divcrgences to St. Louis,
New Orleans, and all intermediate parts
| of the southwestern States, and even into
Mexico as far as her capital. THIS south
ern railway is but part of system
which, when completed, will bring Quay
mas into direct rail communication with
| Arizona, and so on with all of California
with Sonora and great part of the Re-
public of Mexico; and by the supple
nent of steamships with every country
in and bordering on the Pacific Ocean,
whose American trade up to this date
San Francisco has monopolzed. With
these prospects in view, some of them
almost realized, for the first time in
thirtysfivc years, the man who can see at
all begins to see that San Francisco is not
much longer to be left without COMPETE
tors for the mercantile and commercial
empire OF the Pacific. 1t is an old and
true saying that "Bragwell is a good dog,
bpt Loldtast b.tter." For more than
! thirty years we have been serenely solacing
ourselves with the brsg that this is the
one great occidental city, the "Quecn" of
the Western seas, to whom all others
must bow down. A good deal of tins
time Melbourne was ahead OF us in popu.
lation, and .Sydney in trade but We
chung to the hrag all the same, because
Australia is atar off, and nearer than that
there WAS no rival or sign of one. But
now comes the sudden awakening from
n long sleep to the unpleasant though
that both to the north and to the south
of us we ARE to have competition. On
the one side Guaymas, backed by Boston
capital, threatens to have line of steam>
ships to New Zealand and Australia,
while on the other side it is beyond
doubt that both the Northern Pacific and
the Canadian Pacific railway companies
will have each its own line of steamships
| IN nd no
cilic, in all probability. will have its own
line to Australia, for that will be for emi>
grants from England the preferred, and,
perhaps, the cheapest il not the nearest
| route.
We need not feel much jealousy of any
rival city that may spring up on the
Gulf OF California. 1t is toe hot region
Tor enterprise. But that Puget Sound
will produce such rival is thing al
ready in sight. Portland on the Willam>
cite is not to remain the commercial me
tropols OF the north. 1t is too far inland
-120 miles from the sea-and the nayi-
CATION is far too uncertain. The Colum
|
the best it is not good for more than
eighteen feet of water at mean tides, and
that dsmns it. 1t is not susceptible OF
permanent improvement. The sands
dredged gu, in summer the winter storms
restore again, and again, and forever.
Willard, for this and other reasons, will
net suspend operations on she Northern
Pacific till Ire gets road straight through
the Cascade Mountains to some point at
deep water on the Sound; and there Will
he laid the foundation of n city of the
future which is to enter into sharp com
petition with San Francisco for the COM
merce OF the ocean. 1t may be Tacoma.
Olympia, Seattle, Ship Harbor, or some
new ground at present unthought Of But
it WILL BE. And it may be that the two
great railway companies will agree upon
a common terminus for both-say Ship
Harbor, sometimes known as Anacortcs
If so, then 80 much the greater and more
rapid will be the growth Of our rival.
These two transcontinental roads, with
their many branches planned and plan
ming, will drain the traffic of region
larger than all the present Western States:
a great part of it is as rich IN agricultural
resources as Ohio or 10 va; another part
covered with forests of the best timber
on the continent still another part with
mines of gold, silver. copper, iron and
coal and all of it together constituting
an empire with capabilities for more mill
lions Of inhabitants than all the Western
and Southwestern States contain, in indie
pendence lnd affluence. Such a region
must and will have its metropolis of
commerce on either ocean, hut the great
est one is likely to he on the waters of the
Pacific. Mind, We are not saying that
city, or two cities, of million EACH on
Puget Sound and the Gulf of Georgia,
are going to damage business 10 San
Francisco. Not at all. The more cities
there and on the Cult of California the
better for us. This will always be a cen-