Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-12-03
True History Of the Terminus.

True History Of the Terminus.
IN ordinary amount ii zeal j. par
dnnahlc III any undertaking; in TACT
II l. cnmncndai!c, ior it promotes, in
most instances. generous rivalry
which leads on t. thu highest and
best rc-ultS-inaucw country specially
i'll the rapid dcycloImont OF the re-
sources with which ii may have been
endowed. Zcal, however, should be
armed with the weapons al Truth, for
deception cannot stand the crucial
test, when subjected to the fiery heat
produced by an attrition OF conflicting
interests
The history oi the location oi the
terminus Of the Northern Pacific Rail
road i, fortunately, too recent an oc-
curr'ncc for the H.aI"t to claim that
its location at Tacoma was the result
Of any palpahlc law OF natural sclcc-
ton. Still the Ledger, in its Jubilee
edition. issued last month, INDUCES in
the following rodomontade
With the exception of Constantinople,
Alexandria and St. Petersburg, nearly
every city OF Importance in the world
has been the result of accident, founded
without thought of future greatness, and
they have grown from villages to cities
generally by reason OF their accidental
superior location
The city Of Tacoma, unlike the cities
above named, is the result OF wise fore
Thought, of careful examination of sur
rounoings, OF adaptability, of topogra-
ply, OF strategetic geographical position !;
tn center of wonderful country; an
unsurpassed harbor, ON the highway of
nations.
They therefore exercised great care in
eclecting the Pacific coast terminus.
The claims of every place were thorough
ly canvassed-and commission in 1873
selected Tacoma, then village of about
200 people, as the site of the great future
city.
How different are the facts in the
case! On Christmas eve, 1870, the
Western terminus of the Northern Pa
citic Railroad was located at Olympia,
after an exhaustive examination of the
claims of every point on Puget Sound,
by commission of the company fully
authorized to select the best location,
based upon commercial considerations.
The fact was made known to our peo-
pie at midnight, the hour upon which
the shepherds knelt in alteration of
the Redeemer, to impress upon the
people the magnitude of the joyful
tidings that decisive step had been
taken in welding the commerce of the
East with the West in bands of steel.
The choice was based upon such i'm
pregnable grounds of superiority that
nobody doubted its wisdom, and even
in the first hours of disappointment at
rival points, congratulations came
from all parts of the then Territory
which were virtually concession of
all the natural advantages over all
competitors possessed by Olympia.
But there was moneyed interest in
the East that was not satisfied. The
provision of the Congressional act
granting alternate sections of land in
strip twenty miles wide, along the
line of track proved too much for the
cupidity of mortal man, and The Lake
Superior and Puget Sound Land Co.
a ring of capitalists many Of, whom
were also stockholders in the Northern
Pacific Co., "wheel within a Wheel"
as it were--began an act of perfidy as
unusual as it was dishonest, and after
a strenuous labor of six months dura-
ton, induced the company to ignore
its legal and moral obligation to the
people of Olympia, based upon liberal
donations of land, and to rescind the
act of its authorized agents and con-
tinue construction northward. This
was done for the sole and admitted
purpose of earning more land under
the Congressional grant. After this
action was taken, Tacoma was by no
means decided upon as the final ter
minus, and the clearing for the track
was continued ten or twelve miles be-
You'd the "City of Destiny" before a
sudden determination was made to
seek a tide water terminus at that
point. This was caused by the ap-
preaching elimination of financial
crisis in 1873, in which the banking
house Of Jay Cooke & Co., of Philadel-
phia, which had negotiated over $780,
100000 of Northern Pacific bonds, and
was the whole financial backing of the
company, went to the wall, and with
it all hope of obtaining more money
for extension of the road.
Then it was that the projectors of
the road made a virtue of necessity,
under the same impulse which impels
a mariner when his ship is disabled to
seek "any port in a Storm" That
port, in this instance, happened to be
Tacoma, and if these circumstances do
not place her advancement in the cat
egory of "accidental," nothing under
heavens can.
While it is true that the "claims of
every other place were thoroughly
canvassed," and a "careful examipa.
ton of surroundings, of adaptability,
of topography, and of strategic geo.
graphical position" was made, it is also
true that after this examination Olym-
pia was selected by the commission au.
thorized to make that investigation,
with full authority to select location.
The "Wise fOrethoupht.D that tho