The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-11-24
GREAT NORTHERN
Hill Reaching Out To-
ward China.
Not Waiting for Government Subsi
dies Steamers to Surpass all
Others on the Pacific.

II IS announced that President Hill
Of the Great Northern is about To close
a contract for the building OF two
steamships Of 10000 tons burden, TO
Northern at Seattle and Asiatic ports.
This is Ike President Hill He had
the audaclty 10 build the Great North
ern road, and it is easy enough TO i'm
agine that he has taken in already the
fact that with the completion Of the
Siberian road, the commerce OF the
Pacific is going 20 take On proportions
which viii require as big steamships
as those on the Atlantic. and that a
trade is about to be developed which
will be colossal in its proportions Just
across the Pacific gathered in the val
leys and on the rivers that flow down
into the Pacific are 500, 900, 900 Of pee
pie. 4 little further around are AGO.
900 more, and trade with these
people once begun will be perpetual for
all time, and the difference between
that trade and the trade of Europe, is
the difference between working a mar
row vein Of high-gIade rock and work
ing limitless quarry that gives up a
small per cent of profit per ton.
These steamships will far surpass
any other steamships afloat in the Pa
cifiC trade in their tonnage capacity
and in their speed, and are no doubt
the fore runners of other ships which
he (Mr. Hid will furnish SO soon as
required by the expanding Asiatic
trade. Mr.. Hill is not waiting for any
Government subsidies or other aid in
carrying out his own plans for ex-
tending transportation facilities of the
Great Northern across the Pacific. That
sentence is an indication that there are
no subsidies needed where great mind
decides to build ships and plans TO
give them trade. That is not quite fair.
These ships will have to be subsidized,
and every man that rides on the Great
Northern or pays dollar in freight for
carrying goods on the Great Northern
will have to help make up the subsidy.
The difference is that whereas COM
pany might build line of ships de-
pending on the traffic these ships could
get to pay expenses and to give profit,
with Mr.. Hill the ships are but to sup
plement and minister to the road, and
the road will have to bear part of the
expenses of running the ships. AS we
understand it, the Vanderbilt system
own the roads through from New York
to Portland, and have such a contract
with Mr.. Huntington as to really make
the Central Pacific part Of their line,
and if that is true, then that combine
will have to have double line Of suips
to supplement the work Of their road
so that they can undertake in New
York city to deliver goods in China or
Japan or Siberia by their own lines,
and to bring goods from Japan, China
or Siberia the same way. In that way
a steamship service commensurate with
the demands of the coming century
may be put upon the Pacific, and when
the next century is half gone, we sus-
Dect that the commerce of the Pacific
will compare with that of the Atlantic
about as the two oceans compare, with
the advantage possibly in favor OF the
Pacific, because even now the ship That
leaves San Francisco or Seattle or
Portland, is brought in direct connec-
ton with 500,000,000 Of people in from
fifteen to twenty days.-Salt Lake TIL
bune, November 8, 1899.