Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1890-07-31
CONSOLIDATION

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sorbing the attention of the people oil
Bellingham Bay. and which one hears
discussed at every street corner In each OF
the three cities is the question OF CONSOLE
dalton.
The matter has been brought to the at
tention of the people. doubtless by the
efforts that are being made in certain III
rections to consolidate the two cities OF
Whatcom and Sehome.
The condition of affairs on Bellingham
Bay in all the towns has materially I
changed within the last three or four
months At the time when the people oil
Fairhaven aud Sehomc were taking steps /
to incorporate. the question Of consolida-
datlon was agitated, and after careful
consideration Of the general situation 1t
was thought by almost all Of the people
Ia h. too early at that time to unite all
the towns Of the bay into one.
At that time there We're many good
reasons for not uniting. which reasons do
pp, exist al the present time. Then, Fair
haven was small "a com pared with it,
present population: >ehome was not SO
large as it Is now aud the population OF
Nhatcom was much less than at present
II was true al that time that the Fair
haven Land company and the fairhaven
\ Southern railway company, which
we're practically one institution. were the
most important in tarhaNen and the
enterprises in which they We're engaged
were the chief enterprises of the city at
that time. 1t was also true then that the
Belingham Bay n British Columbia rail
way company was the chief company. and
its enterprises were the chief enterprises
Of Sehome. In fact these companies prae-
iicallv constituted the two towns AT that
time And they We're in litigation over
rights-of-way and there was no immedl-
ate prospect of any agreement being
reached between them. There was aeon
siderable amount of feeling arising out of
these matters WHICH does not exist at the
present time. and while it j. true that
there were many people in Fairhaven and
Sehome who had no feelings or preiudice'
in the matter. vet it is true that the con
uicts existing between the two principle
companies made it appear utterly impos'
sible for them to agree. At that time als'
there was not the hest feeling between
the people Of fairhaven and the people %
Whatcom. aud it was not thought adyis
able under the circumstances to cndeavo
tnunlte the three towns under one citl
government and at that time that posi-
ton was correct.
When these towns were incorporate,
there was long stretch Of countr
amounting To mile or more which wa
entirely uninhabitcd, unplatted and un
sold, living between the north boundar
of Fairhayen and the south boundary q
Sehome. The Beliugham BAY Ian
Company. which has since acquired tina
property. was not then In existence. an
although there had been a preliminar
agreement made to purchase that PROF
e-ty so ihat il might Doe Immediately ~
upon the market. still the purchase ha
not been consummaled and it Was doub
ful then when it would be possible fl
sehome aud Fairha>en to grow togethe
That reason has also been removed
the rapid growth Of the two elite
Streets have been extended. work
progressing very rapidly upon them. u
general Improvement Of the towns ha'
brought them much closer together tina
they were before. and that reason h
been substantially removed. When Fai
haven was first started and began
grow il was quite natural that many
the people of Whatcom and of Sehol
should look upon IL as rival of tn
towns; and it was quite natural that
people of Fairhaven should regard TIN
tbwn as rival of the Others. And VIII
this feeling was natural ii was carried
all the people of the Bay To too great
extent And they came to consider tn
own immediate interests and the inter
of the particular place at which u
happened to live as being of paramol
importance instead of considering
fact that the general development of
I,ay was for the interest of all concern
With the lapse Of time this feel
among the people in all the towns
very greatly decreased aud ought to
entirely removed aud the people
daily becoming more and more convin
that there is no one place on Belllngh
bay which can be improved or develo
10 any great extent withouta correspo
ing benefit accruing to every other p
ON the Bay.
The HERALD regards the argum
which were made against the consol
ton of the three towns as having
made in good faith, and the position ia
at that time was a sound one, and IL
believes that the people acted wisel
refusing an attempt at consolidation
that time The HERALD also says
at the present tine there is a dilie
state of affairs on Z. day. and that
time for eonsolidatNi has come n
more quickly than was anticipated.
by the most sangune residents oft
And we believe that the facts warral
favorable consideration of propos
to consolidate at this time. while still
lieving that such proposition al IA
mer time would have been prema