The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-12-14
MAJ. RUHL.EN
IN SEAT TIE
Seeking To Have Army
Depot There.
FIGURES OF THE POST
immense Business To Be Handled By
the Former Honolulu Quarter
master.

!
S seeking to have an army supply de-
,ot station at the latter port and gives
ONE interesting figures regarding the {
shipments OF freights in !
he army transport service to back his
The following interview upon the
subject is from the Seattle POst-ln-
Il should unhesitatingly say that 1t
would be to the advantage Of the
department to have a
depot located here. 1t
IS coming, / believe. AS matters now
stand, we have to go into the market
and buy complement Of articles ev-
cry time a transport comes here, or
whenever a consignment OF goods is
to be shipped to any Of the outlying
posts on Puget Sound or one Of the
Alaska posts. With a quartermaster's
depot We would have facilities for
storing a sufficient stock of goods re-
quired for the department, as we'll as
other permanent and needed facilities.
We would not be compelled to buy
from hand to mouth, SO to speak, as
now"
In these words Major Ruhlen, the
local auartermaster. who has succeed
cd Major Robinson In charge of the
transport service here, yesterday gave
his Endorsement to a project In which
che interests of the city of Seattle are
vitality concerned. The matter is not
a new one 1t was preached year ago,
as the Post-Intelligencer told at the
time, and was heartily favored by
Quartermaster Robinson. There are On
record at Washington many letters
urging the Quartermaster general to
establish a permanent depot here.
Major Ruhlens statement was made
just after he had finished perusing A
statistical statement of the shipments
| from Puget Sound handled by the
Quartermaster's Office since August l,
1899 only little over year ago. The
statement was prepared by Property
and Statistical Clerk Smith, of Major
Ruhlen's Office, and it reveals the enor-
nous growth of the business transact
ed by the quartermasters department
In the past few years.
| The figures are simply amazing.
Moreover, they are deeply significant,
in view Of the hostility to Puget Sound
and the quartermaster's policy of ship
ping supplies and animals from this
| port, which has long existed in San
Francisco and Portland
Here are the figures:
Horses, 1850; mules, 5000; hay, 49,
172, 522 pounds. or 1882 tons; oats,
50,090,S22 pounds, or $4,000 tons; bran,
1920 pounds. or 500 tons; coal,
1861, SAT pounds, or 1880 tons; lum-
Der, 12,437,712 feet board measure
ment; miscellaneous stores, S,433 tons;
total shipments by ships measure
ment, Ill, 623 tons.
This is enough to fill the holds of a
fleet of about thirty average size
steamships. In this no account is
taken of many hundreds of tons OF
baggage sent with troops and en-
ployees.
Approximately five years ago Major
Robinson, then a captain in the regu-
lar establishment and assistant quar-
termaster, came to Seattle, as he said
in his speech at the banquet recently
rendered him, with a lead pencil and
a gripSack," under general instructions
to select a site for military post
somewhere in the vicinity of Seattle
He had at that time no office. and nc
office force. AS he stated. he would
have had nothing to do in an office
had he rented one After a while
however, he secured two rooms and
went to work on the task of straight
ening out the title to the government
reservation at Magnolia bluff.
The outbreak of the gold excitement
in the north and the shipment o.
troops which followed quadrupled tn,
work in Major RobinsOn's office. Hi
force was increased and business be
came rushing. kilograms began t.
pour in and everyone worked hard
But this was only starter The wa
between the United States and SPAR
and the capture May /, 1898. of Manila
flxed the destiny OF the Seattle quar-
termaster's Office. Then came tn
shipment of cavalry troops. of horses
for artillery and cavalry purposes, O
mules for the army pack trains and O
tons upon tons of supplies for mel
and animals
In the meantime the government
established several military posts il
Alaska, and began opening that ter
ritory by the dispatching the Aber
crombie expedition to the Copper rive
country, with instructions to buff
military roads and telegraph lines
so rapid was the accumulation O
work that Major Robinson had littl
time to look about him for suitabl
quarters, and had to do each day
work as it came up the best way pos
slble under the circumstances. Las
summer he made several attempts t
secure larger Office accommodation
put without success. Later he secure
MS present quarters over the Scandin
aVlan-American bank These auickl
grew inadequate as business increased
when Major Robinson received motto
mat he was to be relieved by Majo
huhlen he turned the matter of quar-
ters over to his successor.
Major Ruhlen approaching the diff
culties of conducting the enormou
work devolving upon the ouartermas
ter department under prevailing con
ultions, began at once to look abou
Tor more commodious quarters. Yes
eeruay ne secured seven rooms on tn
Iourth moor of the Pacific block. an
these VIII Immediately be fitted up TO
the headquarters of the Seattle quar-
termaster's department. He has ais