, 1886-04-01
Puget Sound as a Naval Station.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ITS VALUE, BY
COL. W. +. PKOSSER.

The time will soon come when the
merchant princes Of New York and
the wealthy men Of the Eastern States
will have their summer residences on
Puget Sound, instead of the coast OF
Maine and in the maritime provinces.
All these material advantages and
resources, however, but add to the
commercial importance of this favor
ed locality. The leading railroad
men Of the country, who are well in
formed on these subjects, with view
to future business operations, are
fully aware Of the prospective growth
of this section OF the country, and
have either secured q footing already,
or are striving TO do so at the earliest
practicable day. The Northern Pa
ciiic Railroad Company has had. large
interests here for number OF years.
1t has communication established by
rail from Lake Superior to Puget
Sound, via the Oregon Railway and
Navigation Company's road from
Wallula junction TO Portland, dis
tance of two hundred and fourteen
miles, and will soon have direct com
munication over its own lines for the
entire distance by the completion Of
the Cascade Branch. The Union Pa
citic Railroad has also secured, by
way OF the Oregon Short Line, the
o. r. and n. and the n. Z. Roads,
railway communication with the same
objective point. The Central and
Southern roads are negotiating for
control of the Oregon and California
Road, with the view of closing the
gap of about one hundred and twenty
five miles which still remains be-
tween the o. and g. road and their
system of railroads in California in
order to reach the same locality.
Other railroad companies IN the
United States are moving in the
same direction, and it is probable that
within few years ut least two of
these corporations viii have direct
communication by their own lines
between Chicago and Puget Sound
The Canadian Pacific railway through
British territory, Is about completed,
and it is said that arrangements are
already perfected by which freight
and passengers can bepromptly trans
ferred by rail and steamships from
London to Victoria, the English port
on Vancouver's Island, via Montreal,
and thence by steamer to Yokohama
and Hong Kong.
In the mean time, the valuable
lands in Western Washington and
around Puget Sound are rapidly pas
sing out of the hands of the United
States government and into the hands
OF settlers, traders, spectators, saw
mill owners, and lumber dealers.
Anticipating q large increase In
wealth and population in q few years,
their possession is eagerl y sought for
and secured in u variety of ways, legal
and illegal, the usual government
price being one dollar and twenty
i've cents or two dollars and fifty
cents per acre. fLost of the timber
land in this region has already been
disposed of at two dollars and fifty
cents per acre. Much OF this land is
worth ten or twenty times that
amount, and ordinary prudence on
the part of the government would
dictate. 4 reservation from sale of at
least few townships OF selected tim
ber lands for naval and military pur-
poses in the future. Unless sizes for
these purposes are reserved or secur
cd at an early day We shall probably
see the government buying back, be
fore many years, at the rate OF one
hundred dollars to one thousand dol
lars per acre, lands which had been
sold for two dollars and fifty cents. |
The building Of first-clas5 navy |
yard, such as the United States should |
have on Puget Sound, Is work |
which would require Il number OF
years and the expenditure of large
sums of money under the best OF
The sooner 1t is be |
gun, however, the more cheaply 1t can
be constructed. To wait until an
arises which Will make
something of the kind necessary, and
then undertake to do the work hast
iiy, is the worst and most extraVa-
giant policy which could be devised
Nature has here provided the raw
material in the richest abundance,
with all the conditions desirable and
necessary for ship building on large
and successful scale, eithor by the
or private enterprise, and
It only remains for the government
to utilize the opportunity presented
to secure naval station as complete
in al its appointments and equip
ment as any IN the world. With pro |