, 1890-10-09
AND THE UN Z
ROA DIS.

One of two propositions may be
accepted-Hill, of the Great North
ern, has either obtained control of
the Hunt system or Is negotiating
for 1t. Therei IL absolutely no founda-
tion in fact for the absurd story
telegraphed out of this city, from
the office of an irresponsible news
paper, to the effect that the Chicago,
Burlington Il Quincy had secured
that system. a moments reflection
would convince any thinking man
of that. Eastern trunk lines are
not in the habit of blindly picking
up the last link in distant chain
before they look to the vast stretch
of intermediate country. AS Mr..
Hill expressed 1t, there Is no more
probability of the g., b. & q. ex-
tending its line to Oregon and
Washington than to Alaska.
The three-hour conference between
Hill and Banker Ladd, of Portland,
Tuesday morning was an indication
OF business. From first to last it
has been Ladd who has found
means to enable Hunt to build his
system. Hunt himself was n poor
man, and could not have built u
suburban street railway without the
assistance of some powerful financler.
Ladd Is the man who has built the
Hunt roads. The whole affair has
been one of those mastery strokes
of financial genius that start with
the appearance of disaster and
sacrifice and end In triumph. For
a long while it appeared as though
the Portland banker was aiming u
savage blow at his own town and
therefore at his own interests, by
helping to build system in direct
competition with the Oregon Rail-
way & Navigation Company, and
playing right into the hands of the
Northern Pacific. As q matter of
fact, Ladd foresaw the inevitable
tendency of the times. He heard
the cry of the people of Eastern
Washington for railway COMPETE
ton, and he undertook this brilliant
conception, by which the people of
the inland empire were induced to
raise royal subsidies and insure the
success of the enterprise.
Now that the system has been
perfected, Ladd and his associates
are ready to cut loose from the
Northern and to form an alliance
with the Great Northern, by which
the bulk of the traffic of Eastern
Washington will be turned to Port
land.
1t Is useless to attempt to evade
this apparent combination. The
handwriting is becoming clearer
day by day. 1t makes of President
Hill foe that the Northern Pacific
must fear aud respect. They can
not parallel the life out of him, for
the simple reason that he is doing
the paralleling. There is no way to
fight man like that, except by
antagonizing his efforts in the
worlds money markets.
Eastern Washington can stand
any amount of this style of war
fare. Hill is surely going both to
Puget sound and the Columbia
river, and that meaus two new
highways to the sea, and lower
grain rates for the producers of the
interior.
With the Hunt system in control
of the Great Northern, the Northern
Pacific will again find itself shut
out of the Eureka fiat and Walla
Wullu grain districts. 1t will either
be forced to build n branch of its
own or abandon that rich section to
it's riva's. That will leave it only
the Washington Central and the
Palouse branch as avenues to the
most productive sections of Eastern
Washington, and both of these lines
naturally and necessarily pour their
products into the lap of Spokane
Falls.
How will Tacoma ranoix x,a tlia