The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1900-10-12
Great Northern Reduction in
Homeseekers Fares.
SETTLE THE COUNTRY
In Hurry Means More Business For the
Road-Good For the Flat
head.

The action of the Great Northern in
putting in effect very low home
seekers rate and extending the time
until May / next, is a legitimate and
busincss-li like move. 1t could not be SO
if adopted by many other roads of. the
country, for the conditions are not sim
liar. The northern roads have seen
business that had been worked by them
for the settlement of the country, di-
verted to the southwest because the
rates were made lower, The making Of
rates to the intended settler is an i'm
portant factor, as experience has dem
orstrated. Again, the object in placing
the limit for these excursions so far
ahead, is that the homesecker may make
his calculations in advance, knowing
that when he is ready to move the low
rates will be in force, says the Pioneer
Press.
The homeseekers going to the far
west are really in search of homes. For
two years little other travel has taken
advantage of the rates. This would not
be true of eastern roads if such rates
were adopted. The travelling public
would monopolize such reductions, and
perhaps the broker might benefit.
As business proposition it is but in
line with j. J. Hills shrewd foresight.
His road differs materially from others.
1t is operated and controlled largely by
one man, and is conducted as he would
conduct a private business. He knows
that when the country along his road is
settled up he will have more business.
If no inducements were offered to the
settlement of the millions of acres of
land along the Great Northern it might
be great many years before the traffic
of the road would equal it's facilities,
The only way to make any business
pay, is to work it to it's full capacity,
and nowhere is this more apparent than
in railroading. If 20 trains can find
work where now only one is operated
the proportionate increase in revenue
will be more than 20 times as great, and
the production of revenue is the fund.
amental and final object in operating a
railroad. All the traffic it can handle is
none too much.
This is evidently Mr.. Hills object in
settling up the vacant lands. He is
long headed enough to see that by sac
rificing few dollars in railroad fares
now, he will reap thousands in the near
future through the industry of these
same me-seekers in the development
of the country.
Ordinary methods would be too slow.
There are long stretches on the Great
Northern, as there is on all of the
transcontinental roads, where there is
no business whatever for the road.
There are sections where, if they could
be separated from the system, would
show great loss. Many miles of un-
profitable trackage is often represented
in a district which as whole returns a
profit, and there is no way to make
every mile profitable except by increas-
ing the traffic. The traffic can only be
increased by settlement and develop
ment.
The growth of the great west may go
on for century. It's vacant lands may
all be taken up in 20 years, or they
may be absorbed in five years, depend
ing upon the energy displayed In set
tlement; but if the land is brought
under cultivation in five years instead
of 20 years it is quite apparent that
the railroads will have the advantage
of Is years of increased traffic, every
year increasing over the other, and with
the diversity of interests represented,
decreasing the liability to crop failures.
This is what the Great Northern pro-
poses to do, and this is what other roads
will do if the management can ever see
beyond the immediate returns of revenue
and adopt a more liberal policy.