The herald., 1893-08-17

Wnlcn lOlioWed tne nrisuouri HVof toi
over 300 miles and which crossed the
Cascade range by the Snoqualmie pass,
there would today have been no other
transco ntinental road to parallel it and
no occasion to appoint Thos. F. Oakes
or anybody else as receiver for that
road.
The abandonment of the Snoqualmie
pass was done in the interest of the Ia
coma land ring; and the abandonment
of the line up the Missouri river to
within seventeen miles Of Helena.
Mont, was done in the interest of an
other land ring that tried to steal Yell
lowstone Park. It was this deviation
from the best grades Of the original sur
vey, and the best interests of the COM
pany, as we'll, that left an opening for
another man.
That man was James j. Hill OF St.
Paul, man brought up to the carrying
trade and more familiar with trans
portation matters than 10-acre lot full
Of Henry Villards. As soon as Hill saw
what the intent of the Northern Pacific
was, he began to get hold of the bank
rupt Manitoba road till he effected q
junction with the Montana Central,
controlled by the late Charles Broad
water, of Helena. This done, be pushed
westward to Puget sound by way of
Snoqualmie psss, over which he oper-
ates his road at so per cent OF the cost Of
operating the Northern Pacific through
the Stampede pass to Tacoma.
Out on the great wheat producing
plains of Montana, the cost OF operating
is still more widely diversified in favor
of Mr.. slim" Hill, who has taken edvan-
tage of the easy gradients between Great
Falls and Minneapolis. With 45-ton pas
senger engine he can haul between those
points thirty-six loaded box care con-
tanning an average Of seventeen tons in
each, while the Northern Pacific, over
Its Yellowstone route, has all it can do
to haul sixteen cara containing fifteen
tons each with sixty-ton engine OF the
"hog" pattern. Any man who is fa-
milisr with railway methods can read
lily see how Mr.. Hill, with his low gradi-
ents and cheap approaches to tide-water
might well.be able to say, as he did at
Seattle, s'I am in this country for busi-
ness andI don't propose to haul any
empty cars back to st. Paul."
His unparalleled low rates on lumber
and shingles to the eastern markets.
have made the trackless woods swarm
ing hive OF busy and energetic lumber.
men. He could haul so many more
cars with one engine than could the
Northern Pacific, that he has finally
driven them to the wall. 1t is of no use
that Mr.. Oakes deplores the loss of grain
and lumber to handle. The truth is that
Hill is handling it, and making money,
at rates which leaves no money in it for
the Northern Pacific. The abandon
ment of the Missouri country for that Of
the Yellowstone, together with the re-
linquishment Of the west bank of the
Columbia as route to the sea via Port
land and Astoria, is what has cooked the
Northern Pacific's bacon. With an en-
dowment twice as large as that OF the
Union or Central, this once mighty
Northern Pacific is now in bankruptcy,
while, almost parallel to it for seven
eighths OF the way across the continent
q rival road is making money without
ever having had dollars subsidy from
any government, either federal or state.
There is only one inference to be drawn
from this moral, which is that it takes
business men to do business in these
days OF wholesale competition.