The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-30
IN RAILROAD CIRCLES
Great Northern Grants a Petit
ton for Increase of Wages.
IN EFFECT NEXT MONDAY
Possibilities OF Montana as a Farming
State Have Been Vastly Under
acknowledgements of
the Bench Lands.

The Great Northern has granted the
petition of certain classes of its en-
ployes for an advance In wages. and
the new schedule will go into effect
next Monday. Work train conductors
wages have been advanced from $50 to
$50, and work train brakemen's wages
have been advanced from $50 to s65.
Otherwise the scale is unchanged. The
new schedule is really an interpreta-
ton of conditions applying to overtime
above 10 hours, which are uniformly
the same on all divisions.
f. i. Whitney, general passenger
agent of the Great Northern, in an in
terview in a st. Paul paper, says the
possibilities of Montana as a farming
state have been vastly underrated.
Successful developments have already
been made, and better things are prom
ised as conditions are better unoer-
stood.
our state experiment stations" he
says, and practical men In the North
west are rapidly changing the common
opinion prevailing that mas
no chance In the semi-arid belt, except
by irrigation. Professor Shaw or inns
state and Professor Emery of Montana
agree in the belief that the warm bench
lands of Montana will, In time, produce
crops of grain that will compare in
yield and quality, year after year. with
those of the rain belt sections. Won
ders seemingly never cease. Paris GID
son of Great Falls has already demon
strated that to his satisfaction, and
says that IL he lives as many years as
he has already spent in Montana he
will see hundreds of thousands of sue
cessful farmers in that state, on bench
lands far above the streams.
There are now several hundred
farmers in the vicinity of Great Falls
who get good crops without other wat
er thar from the clouds. They adapt
themselves and their work to natures
conditions and requirements, and good
results are always attained when that
is done. Nature is fully up to mans
reasonable wants in Montana and will
rarely or never cheat him, provided he
only follows her teachings. The soil Is
strangely retentive of moisture. With
Irrigation, of course, the Montana farm
er has a double cinch. A young LADY
asked her old bachelor uncle which was
better, to have loved and lost. or new
er to have loved at ALL and was told
that both are good That is the way
il Is out on the Montana farm, water
naturally from the clouds and artih-
cially from the rivers and streams, ana
both are good.
settlement in North Dakota is now
pushing west of the Turtle mountain
country into the Mouse river valley.
There is a most attractive section on
the North Dakota and Montana bound
ary-the Fort Buford military reserva-
tion-soon to be thrown upon the mar
ket. 1t is an ideal locality for the gem
eral farmer and stock raiser. The
buildings of Buford post are being torn
down and removed to neighborhood
ranches"
When all the returns have been made.
It is estimated by careful keepers OF
railroad statistics, gross earnings OF
American railroads for the first six
months OF the present year will show
an increase. as compared with the cor
responding period of 1897, OF over 800
600, 900.
Already an increase OF s57. 44o, 5o5 IS
shown. and but 202 roads nave made
their reports. These 202 lines operate
together 15S. 800 miles of track. With
this mileage as q basis of comparison
IL is shown that the present year bids
fair to be the banner one.
In 1894. 14S, 772 miles of track reported
for the first six months a decrease. as
compared with the previous year, OF
S74, 500, 65S. In 1895, 146.9 42 miles of track
reported an increase of S12, 232. 536. Ir
1896, l53,S76 miles reported an increase
OF $50. O61. 4s1. In 1897. 1853. 1876 miles re-
ported a decrease Of 81, 26s, ia. II will
be seen therefore that nc previous
period a begun 20 make as good q
showing as this first six months of 1898
Referring to these figures the Ffnan-
cial Chronicle, the authority on Amer.
lean railroad statistics in this country
says:
IF the Improvement the present year
is large in the aggregate many of the
separate roads. We need hardly say
hav been no less distinguished In tht
same way.
THE Pacific roads and the grain car.
rying lines are particularly conspicuous
though as a matter of fact important
gains come from all parts of the coun'
try. There are some 20 roads or sys'
TENS where the increase runs close tC
or in excess of 81, 600, 600. and in at least
one instance the addition exceeds 81.
O00, 900.
This latter reference Is to the South
ern Pacific. which. for the Ave months
TO May 81, reports its gross earnings
enlarged 81. 36l. 162. This transcends TIT
amount of the Improvement Of th'
Pennsylvania railroad, which for tn
same Ave months on the eastern ant
western lines combined has s3.s77.sO'
increase.
But the trunk lines as a rule did no
fare as well as the roads further west
first because OF the Generalization o
rates I'm the territory of the Joint Traf
fc association. and second because tn
grain tonnage Is necessarily a mucl
smaller factor with them than with tn
other roads.
THE Baltimore and Ohio, however
was able 10 turn its improved facilitie
to advantage and added sl.3il ,o43 to IL
receipts for the first Ave months, whicl
is considerably more han the gain OF
the Central, estimated at only sSSo,74
for the half year..
The d~istinctively grain carrying
roads, both in the Northwest and tn
Southwest. all record noteworthy ex
pansion. Thus for the five months TIN