The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-04-17
POINTERS FOR Mr.. HILL.
E. v. Smalley Writes About the
Great Northern and the
Northern Pacific.
Thinks He Will Have to Spend
s1o,ooo,ooo More on the
New Road.
The Real Financial Problems Remain to
BE Surmounted After the Construc-
ton of the Railway.

The approaching completion of the Great
Northern railroad as a through line to tine
Pacific coast leads to a good deal of specu-
lation in the newspapers Of tho northwest
AS to the ohable results OF its competi-
tion with its nearest rival, the Northern
Pacific. 1t is assumed by some writer's,
SAYS Il. v. Smalley in tho Northwest Maya
zine, that the new road is going to force q
heavy reduction in through rates; and this
assumption rests on the fact that the new
road has been built for the most part in a
time when labor and material could be had
at much lower rates than ruled ten or ff-
teen years ago. and that i'll consequence the
Great Northern represents a " capital
~izatiOn per mile than does the old line with
which it Is about to enter into a struggle
for business to and from Puget sound. The
difference of cost has been much e1agger-
ated; still, 1t exists and is a factor OF some
importance in the amount of money the
new line must earn to meet the fixed
charges. A good authority on railway
statistics recently figured that the
Northern Pacific must meet interest
on an indebtedness OF $4,000 per
milo. and the Great Northern on
ono of $4,000. The significance of this
difference is very muok lessened. however,
when the fact ia considered that the Great
Northern's Pacific extension, from its point
of divergence in Northern Montana from
its old line to Great Falls, Is without ter
minals and shops and that a great deal OF
money must be spent upon it to put it in
condition for business. Not only must ex-
%pensiye terminal improvements DO CON
etructed at Spokane, Seattle. Everett and
Fairhaven. but the road must go on to Ia
coma and Portland, if it ls to enter the fold
for North Pacific coast traffic on nearly
equal terms with Its powerful and long-es-
tablished predecessor in that field. Then
there must be shops and side tracks built,
and along the entire length of the new line
money must be spent for several years ID
putting the road in efficient condition.. A
railroad is by NO means completed when
first trains run over it.. Mr.. Hill will no
doubt have to spend $4,000. 600 more be-
fore he gets a frst-class road to the Sound,
his big unnel through the mountains com
pleted, and all the necessary shops, stations,
sidings and equipment provided.
Another point must not be overlooked.
The value OF a road is determined by its
earning capacity and not its original cost
Of construction.
Mr.. Hills road runs for about 800 miles
through u wild. new country. Between
DEVILS lake, in North Dakota, and Everett.
on Puget Sound, it touches only three
points that are at all important as freight
producers. West of Spokane the Great
Northern runs through ten or fifteen miles
of wheat country and then strikes into the
arid belt on its way down to the Columbia.
Crossing that river 1t follows up the mar
row valley of the Wenatohie, which is
hardly one farm wide, on the average, to
the Cascade mountains; and once across
the mountains it runs through q wilderness
to the sound.
Anyone who is at all familiar with the
American continent will agree with us in
the opinion hat the real financial problems
of the Great Northern will remain to be
surmounted after construction accounts
and loans are closed on it's Pacific exten-
sion and that its able chief executive
should devote his energies to the building
up of local traffic to sustain his long new
limo rather than to the cutting of rates on
the through business that he must in any
case share with three other roads-the
Northern. the Canadian and the Union
Pacific. Those roads will get their shares
of the business. no matter what the rates
may be, and even if this were not the case
the entire traffic between the east and the
sound would not go far towards paying the
interest on the honda of the Great North
ern's new line. The experience of the
Northern Pacific shows that the earnings
from through business are only about IA
per cent Of the gross earnings. and the new
road cannot reasonably expect for many
years to come to get anything near the
amount of So1nd business which the North
ern Pacific now handles.