The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-10-26
THE WORLD ON WHEELS,
The Meaning, to Competitors. OF the
Low Grades on the Great
Northern Extension.
Manager Mellon Says 1902 Is the
Best Year the Northern Pa
oiflo Has Had.
Willard Has a Surprise for HelcnA-To
Check the Abuses Arising Under
the Certificate Plan.

In the Blackfoot Indian reservation. close
up against the northern boundary line OF
Montana, the tracklayers are at work on
the extension of the Great Northern rail
road. Three thousand men under intelli-
gent direction have been vigorously push
ish the work all summer; the summit OF the
Rockies has been reached, and when spring
opens the workmen will begin TO lay the
track OH the western slope. Within eigh-
teen months from the present times there
will be a new transcontinental line open
and ready for business between st. Paul
and Duluth and Puget sound. The Great
Northern railroad. as it is now called, says
the st. Louis Republic. was formerly the
st. Paul, Minneapolis Il Manitoba road,
which WAS itself the successor of the st.
Paul a. Pacific, q corporation which, when
it emerged from the hands OF a receiver
some twelve or fifteen years. ago, was dis
covered to have become the property Of
James j.. Hill, then a coal and wood dealer
living in st. Paul, with moderate means
and %unbounded ambition, az.
The Northern Pacific road was passing
through bankruptcy when Mr.. Hill became
the owner of the st. Paul q Pacific, and
perhaps he was the only man in the North
west who then dreamed of such a thing as
making that road a rival of the older
corporation, which, Notwithstanding its
enormou land grant, had apparently failed
in it's effort to build through to the Pacific.
Without government aid Mr.. Hills railroad
has been built to parallel the Northern
Pacific from st. Paul to the summit of the
Rocky mountains, and, although the lines
are 200 miles and more apart, they will be
active competitors for traffic. Still further
north OF the Great Northern the Canadian
Pacific has been completed, so that there
will soon be four tra~nscontinental lines,
exclusive of the Canadian Pacific, COM
peting for business between the great lakes
and the coast.
The new line will have, whom it is ready
for business, a very great advantage over
its competitors in the matter Of gradients,
but perhaps this advantage has not been
sufficiently considered by the railroad man
ayers who will have to reckon with MIR.
Hill's representatives in the ~rate-making
associations very soon. More than one
newspaper paragraph has been floating
around lately to the effect that the Great
Northern will reach the summit of the
Rocky mountains with q maximum grade
of one per cent. to tho mile. This state
ment has not been generally credited, but
1t Is nevertheles8 a fAct, ana IL means tna6
an engine on the Great Northern will be
able to pull more than twice as many
loaded cars over the mountains as an n
CINE of equal power will be able to pull on
any other Pacific road. Everything else
has been subordinated to this end in build
ing the road, and in order to secure low
grades unusually deep and expensive cuts
nave been exeayatsd, high bridges have
been built or a detour has been made
wherever it was necessary to keep the max
imum grade down to $3.50 feet to the mile.
It is strange that the last Pacific railroad
built should have been able to secure this
ADVANTAGE. E~ Er L