Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1885-10-27

The Rainsus Policy Of the Company
Lsia Bare on the Occasion OF
the ytstt Of the second
Vice President

Yakima Farmer.
On Sunday q special train brought IN
LIB Williams and family, OF New 1osA.
Mr.. Williams Is the second vice preS1
dent OF the Ssrthern Pscinc halroao
Company, and this sss his nrsi your OF
INSPECTION over the road. lie mas seen
IN the employ of the company s4nce
1S-g A. which time be was the private
.eer.,ary of Presideu; Frederick Bill
lirgssfHe purchased all the mater AIS
ased ID constructing the ROAD IfOuI DIS
rnarck to North Yakima.
The editor Of Tbe Fdrrssr asked nim
Can YOU tell rs anything about the
Drooraun Of construction from here
across the Cascade rsount2ins:
He answered: well, no; much; l sm
ont more TO hear sthers talk than 10 DO
talking myself | want TO learn as well
as can, on hurried trip, the neeessi
ties and requirements of the road, and
above all things TO so shape our course
a. 20 VIII the friendship of the people
along the line for oar company.
We answered: We'll, II that - yonr
aim. Mr.. Williams, IN gOoc faith, you
are the first visitor We have had repre-
sentIne the railway people, who mas SIN
O. reIy marked ont such course. Your
CORPORATION, We are very sorry TO say,
has pursued line of action which has
autasoniZed almost every soul IN tue
Yakima valley. Ii seems to have adopt
ed the policy of breathing the word OF
promise to the ear and breaking 1t TO
the hope"
1t comes among our people enriched
with millions of acres OF land wrong
fully taken from the people By grant.
the terms of which have not been COM
piled with.
Ii located this grant by the Skseit
route in 1873 hseted it TO the Suoqualmis
routs in 1873 and attempted TO float II
to TIE Yakima and Stampede route IN
1884.
Ii seems to think il makes no differ
ence whether 1t completes the road IN
the time stipulated in the charter or III
or - years thereafter.
Ii charges cultivators of the soil ex-
orbitaut figures for odd sections which
the settlers think under the charter they
should have at 81 30 per acre.
Ii goes into our local Legislature and
SO warps bill on tax3tisa of railroad
lands that the company ia forever free
from taxes on them because 1t provides
that no railroad lands shall be subject
to taxation until they are LEASED, sold.
or contracted to be sold or leased" and
whenever they are so contracted the
second party il required by the terms
of the contract to pay the taxes.
On taxation of the railroad proper
under the gross earnings law" of
Washington Territory, all its millions
of dollars worth of timber, coal, iron
mines, shops, bridges, stations, road
bed, rolling stock and lands in belt
| so miles wide, are exempt.
The object Of the Government in sub
sidizinc the road was with view to
stimulating settlement, but the policy
of the company is to wait for settlers to
| fill up the country, so as to render the
road a paying institution by its net
earnings, and then when it does build
to go through the country, disturb and
In many instances ruin the values of
settlers, by program of greedy speeu-
| lations in townsItes and in other ways.
IL has come into this valley after 1t
| had been settled twenty years, destroy
ed the legal and commercial capital Of
| the settlers, in order to meroenarily build
upon its ruins another town, the profits
frem which speculation goes into the
pockets. not of stockholders, but syn
dictate constituting wheel within the
system of that great clock, whose hands
indicate on the dial plate the wreck of
private fortune and the blasting of the
hopes of frontier settlers.
Ii controls the timber trade, the coal
trade, the lamber trade, the elevator
business. the grain trade, beef trade,
and nearly every avenue of business is
made to pay homage aud revenue to it,
and any man who does not fawn and
crook the hinges of his knee in oxaven
obedience is ostracised by this power
ful tyrant.
The whole country is terroriZed by
the multiplicity of evils continually
sprung by this hydra headed monster.
Ihe people bear the burdens of taxa
ton, and the great railroad firm in New
York receives the profits of the peoples
labor, and proves by its acts that it has
not for US the sympathy that formerly
existed between master and slave, but
that 1t is continually whispering to itself
in the language of Vanderbilt: " The
PEOPLE be id.
In this county it disturbed ard disar-
rar ged our entire mail system, reducing
old established rentes from daily to
tri-weekly and disseminating others
that had long been maintained.
Its rates of freight are so high that
farmers, miners, and stock growers find
it profitable to freight by wagon $50
miles from The Dalles on another rail
way, to the head of the Yakima along
side of the n. =. X. r., to the inconven-
fence of settlers and to the detriment of
merchants who were induced by gilded
misrepresentation to locate in the town
of North Yakima: and the ether day
| when First Vice President and General
Manager Cakes was here, he ordered
a temporary transfer point made three
miles above here for freight for the up.
per country, An example unprecedented
in the building Of transoontinental
lines, withou. pretex. of reason and
without a motive unless that motive be
a mercenary one.
The people now in North Yakima
were assured that If they would build
this town, the terminus should remain
here until the cars run through to Ia
coma; and in less than six months
after they built here their values are
unsettled sHd their hopes of prosperity
blasted by the edict that the terminus
Is 20 be placed on wheels.
We were assured that the Board of
Directors set apart 1880 toward nain-
tanning a school here, but the town has
no school, except one kept up by pri-
vate subscription in rented buildinc,
while the old town has fine public
school building With over seventy pa
4 Il -. L. n i