The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1883-09-05
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC.
A Southwestern View Of the Great
TranscOntinental Line, as Voiced
by the st. Louis Republican.

tlnental railway will have completed il
band of steel across the country and tn
Northern Pacific have its through train
running to Portland and Puget Sount
In many respect, if not all, this is tn
most remarkable of the railways to tn
Pacific coast. 1t is the only one of al
the lines between the Mississippi vale,
and the Pacific under a single manage
ment and belonging to the corporation
while more important still is the furthe
fact that it is the only line free from tn
grasp of the monopolizing clique which
has heretofore successfully managed t.
possess itself of the Pacific coast end O
all our transcontinental routes. In this
assurance of the long-desired competing
route, the opening of the Northern Pa
cific through to Oregon and find water al
Puget Sound is an event of material in
terest to the mercantile community
throughout the country. Itmeans some.
thing more than the development of the
mineral and agricultural resources of the
far Northwest, for it means that the cap.
italists who own the Central Pacific and
Southern Pacific railways can no longer
exercise powers of dictatorship on the
through trade from and to the Pacific
coast. We shall doubtless find that it
marks the coming of new era in the
transcontinental railway system, an era
in which sharp competition will succeed
to unopposed monopoly. We shall doubt
less see several of the lines, now content
wit: the business gathered by connec-
ton with the two California roads of the
Stanford Huntington clique, extended
over their own routes through to the
Pacific; but to the Northern Pacific be-
longs the credit of being the first COM
pany to build an unbr0ken line from the
great central Mississippi valley to the
sunset waters beyond the Rocky Noun
tains There has been much to justify
harsh criticism in the policy of those
who have had the management of the
Northern Pacific company in hand from
time to time, but the highest need of
praise has been earned by those who have
finally completed an enterprise which
was only the other day commonly re-
garded as chimerical and utterly imprac-
ticable. From Proctor Knots zenith
city of the unsalted seas to the fair Pacific
the iron band will soon be complete; and
the very fact that the work was so re-
Gently regarded as impossible will enable
the country to make some adequate
measurement of the formidable character
of the undertaking, which now stands
another accomplished monument of
American enterprise. We know how
this road has already developed most
unexpected possibilities of agriculture
in the wide plains of Dakota, but it re-
mains for the visitors who will now
throng over the new route to familiarize
the country with the fact that by the
building of one new railway we have
been put into possession of a veritable
empire, ri - Of abundant wealth and
amazing natufal bsauty. The farmer and
the stock raiserare- -Piesaeezs who always
keep little ahead of the iron horse, and
their successes in region we looked
upon as valueless few years ago is
already an old story; but the flood of
sight-seers has just begun to roll out to
the wonderland pierced by our new rail-
way. America has always been the
Mecca of the wealthy who admire the
beautiful and wonderful in nature; but
this road puts within reach new wonders
and beauties greater than any that have
heretofore drawn visitors to our shores
from all quarters of the world. There is
material and business phase to all this
and the managers of the Northern Pacific
are not only working for their own ben
eft, but that of the whole country in
inviting distinguished guests from Europe
and this country, to join in an excursion
over their road. We have few ruins, few
historic traditions of the ast to attract
visitors; but we may yet hope that the
marvellous beauty, the SURPRISING gran
deur and unequaled wonders of our
natural scenery will send tide of travel
this way not much smaller than that
which flows annually over the continent
of T.,