Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1883-06-21
DOES THE WILLARD COMBINA
TION OWN THE NORTH WEST
TO THE EXCLUSION OF
OTHER COMPANIES

north Of the California line and west OF
the Rocky mountain range. 1t is where
rolls the Oregon and its Tributaries and
the coast west Of the Cascade and coast
range. 1t embraces the great producing
country On the whole Pacific slope. 1t
contains more uf the natural
elements Of wealth than any
other section Of the United States of
equal area, and its production. arc more
varied and adapted to the building up Of
an empire Of wealth. 1t has an extcn-
sivc sea coast, with some Of the best in
land waters to be found on the Amcri-
can continent. 1t has the best forests Of
timber, and the most extensive coal fields
1t has some of the wcalthicst mines. 1t
has an area equal to all of the New Eng
land States, with New York and Penn
combined. With all these advantages in
this progressive aye, to us it seems a
great undertaking for one railroad man
agcmcnt to assume the right to furnish
adequate transportation for this whole cm-
pirc. 1t seems unjust to the people that
they should be charged with blame if
they seek to induce other railroad man
agements to assist in furnishing railroad
facilities for this vast extent Of country,
and be considered as enemies Of the first
which makes the attempt. The Nation
al Government projected one great trunk
line to cross the continent, and cross
through this great north west to the Pa
cific. Its progress has been exceedingly
slow, much slower than the emigration
which has been induced to come and
occupy the country in advance Of the road
and subdue the hostile tribes Of Indians
and pave the way for the pcaccable work
of the construction Of the road When
Congress granted this FRANCHISE and the
large gifts of land, it was expected that
the land would more than pay for the
construction of the road, and that a great
or part of it would be built in advance of
the settlements, aud greatly aid the set
tiers in rushing this far off country from
the great ccnters Of population in the
eastern aud middle states But the long
delays in the management of the road
have compelled the settlers to seek other
means Of reaching here, and at great ex-
pense, and they were here, and in pos
session of the country, and had the hos
tile tribes subdued long before the North
Pacific managers put in their appearance
and we think they have some rights that
should be respected, and if they forsco
the Northern Pacific management cannot
supply, or it they can supply, and are not
disposed to supply, adequate railroad IA
cilites to meet the rapidly growing de-
mands Of the country, and that others
can, and will come to their relief, we say
they are not the enemies Of the Northern
Pacific, if they do encourage some other
companies to occupy some portion of the
unoccupied land 1t is the rapid dcvol-
opemcnt Of the country the people want,
and not the long occupancy of railroad
routes without ever building, and the
long tieing up of the best lands by re-
serves from settlement, which keep the
country back for years aud almost ages.
If we are not mistaken in the number,
the Willard combination have some 80
projected railroads in the north west, and
not one them has ever been completed,
and about % of them have never been
commenced, and the majority of them
have never had preliminary survey
Yet these all have been heraldcd in the
newspaper organs over the signatures of
their officers as a part Of their system,
and as we can best infer for no other
psSpose than to signify to the other com
panies that they are already occupants of
the whole north west by railroads. Be
cause the liberality Of our government
did seventeen years ago grant franchise
for trunk line through the north west,
and land to pay the expense Of building
it, that grant carries no authority to
usurp all of the railroad business Of the
north west, and thus keep the people of
the north west, who have come here in
advance of them and settled upon the
lands add subdued the country, bottled
up at their pleasure for another II years,
or until such time as they can and will
come to the relief Of the people with such
transportation facilities as their neccssi-
ties demand We want no dog in the
Manager policy encouraged If there be
unoecupied ground for railroad in this
north west and there thousands of miles,
and other companies than the Willard
management desire to occupy any por-
ton OF it we say let them do SO and en-
courage them in so doing. They, when
they examine the country, are as capable
of judging of their prospects of being paid
for their Investments as other railroad
men. We say the field Is large, and
while we never would encourage an en-
terprise which We thought would be a
financial failure, yet We are free to say
that we think that three parallel trans
continental railroads crossing the north
west between APO aud 400 north latitude
cannot more than do the business
Of the north west, which will be
developed before the roads are completed.
and the North Pacific from Pen de- |
Oreille pass to Ainsworth would have
the least of thcm all in local traffic We
have not lived between the Cascade
mountains and the Bitter Root - years