The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1899-02-23

The investment of the PacificAmeri-
can Fish company of Chicago in Puget
Sound salmon traps and canneries will
be the largest made in the far Northwest
since the construction of the Great North
ern railroad. Providing the Legislature
does not pass laws that will drive these
people away, they will have spent 80, 600,
600 by January l of next year. 1t will
| mean the entrance to Puget Sound of the
| very wealthiest men of Chicago and some
of the millionaires of st. Louis.
For there are In this deal such men rs
Henry b. Steele, of the Steele-Wedeler
Grocery company, of Chicago, a very
large wholesale house; T. P. Hunkins, of
the Thorn a. Hunkins Lime and Cement
company, a very heavy concern of st.
Louis Joseph Snydacker, of the Rich
| ardson Company, large bookers on the
board of trade at Chicago; Mr.. Stuart, OF
the Cereal Milling company, an immense
! concern of Chicago; l.. Mayer. of Moran,
Krauss & Mayer, the largest firm of cor
poration attorneys in Illinois, and, above
all, John Cudahy, of Armour Il Cudahy.
g.. WHAT THEY REPRESENT.
These men are probably worth collect
lively 800, OOO, 400. Such is the amount of
capital controlled by men who have their
eyes on Puget Sound and who have de-
cided to put $3, O0O, 600 CT their money into
it's industries. No stronger combination.
with the exception of the two railroad
companies, the Northern Pacific and the
Great Northern, ever operated here.
"These gentlemen will very likely come
out in few weeks" said F. J.. Deming,
prospective secretary of the Pacific
American company. at the Hotel Butler,
yesterday afternoon.
II shall leave today to report to them
at Chicago and 1 shall endeavor to have
them come here and look over the situa-
ton. Whether or not they will be able
to leave their home business affairs long
enough to do SO cannot tell. They will
be startled when I describe this country
| to them, wonderfully surprised, never
realized what Seattle and Puget Sound
were, and I was thunderstruck when
! saw the place. My description to them
will be OF immense influence and en-
enlargement.
"Our total investment here will be
probably $3,OOO,O0O. We shall build a
| large cannery at some point on the Sound,
| but whether Anacortes, Fairhaven, New
Whatcom, or some other place, is wholly
unsettled. We have already secured, or
made payments on, three cannerles and
| forty-six fish traps. We shall build or
buy steamers to operate between our can
neries and the traps. In addition, fresh
fish will be shipped East, which will ne
cessitate refrigerator outfit. Then we
shall build fertilizing factory to use the
offal from the salmon canning. Every
part of the salmon will be used just as is
every part of the beef at the big Chicago
packing houses.
| DEAL NOT YET CLOSED.
| 81 will say frankly that the deal is not
vet closed. We have paid out 800, 900 and
have several hundred thousand more te
pay before we shall have acquired the
properties we are after. More payments
are due on March 81 and April L: Wheth.
er or not we meet them depends to some
extent upon the action of the Legislature
at Olympia. Rather than be subject to
harrassing provisions Of the law, we will
| lose the money that we have already paid
| We do not object to- taxation of fish traps
to support hatcheries. I will go farther
| than most men in this business and say
that the total expense of hatcheries suf-
ficient to produce all the fish that traps
can catch should be borne by trap owners
and not by the general public. We would
be willing to pay 800 license per year fol
each trap. Is not that liberal enough?
'tBut we do object to laws that viii
hamper and hinder us. should not like
to see a provision that we must report
ties, because the trouble and expense o.
counting the fish would be great.
| Titles BILL FAIR.
1.-THE bill of Fish Commissioner Little
now before the legislature, seems fair in
many respects. It contains nothing 81
far as can see on cursOry examination
that would drive us away. But it nigh
be so amended that it will become OBJ
noxious. Now, mind you, we don't ask
anything of the legislature. We have in
vested some money, and will inves
more, providing it will be profitable. I
laws making it improbable are passed
we shall simply quit with the loss of Oul
500, 900. But don't think there is any
disposition to drive capital away from
Puget Sound. On the contrary, it seems
| to be the all-powerful sentiment that you
want it,
The investment of this s., ZOO, 600 may
be Just the starter for the millions upOr
millions that will pour into Washington
from st. Louis and Chicago. If Cudahy
who has an immense following in the
financial world of Chicago, should DE-
well with this investment. there is NJ
limit to the amount of capital that may
come here. He and his friends, who in
clude the ArmOurs, are broad men, en-
gaging in many lines of business. A
profitable investment here would doubt
less mean the entrance of these men on g
much larger scale.-P.-I., February 20.