The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1900-02-15
DREAMS REALIZED.


today as they were then. An actua
start has been made towards the
great developments limited at. ant
we can look forward to future pro
gress on that line far exceeding, il
rapidity, what it has been in the past
SiXty-five cars of merchandise passed
through Spokane yesterday for the Orient
and large consignment of China silks
and tea passed east over the same railroad
= the Great Northern. The dream oil
more than four centuries has come tC
realization. A new route-has been open
ed to the Orient.
If history is to repeat itself, the pass
age of Oriental traffic across the state of
Washington will build large and opulent
cities on Puget sound, and will give TO the
United Statos the world S commercial SUI
premacy. For history shows that the
nation which has controlled or monopo-
| LIKED the traffic of the Orient has grown
rich at home and great upon the seas.
For ages this traffic had a single route
to the marts of Europe. The rich mer-
overhaul
by caravans to the shores of the Persian
gulf. There it was loaded upon vessels
and brought down the Persian gulf and
up the Red sea to the isthmus of Suez.
Here postage placed it abroad vessels in
the Mediterranean, and these vessel dis
tributed it throughout the harbors of
Europe.
During the 10Th century the Portuguese
discovered and opened up the long and
dangerous ocean route around Africa
down the Atlantic and up the Indian
ocean This gave Portugal the key to
the rich traffic of the Orient, and excited
the cupidity of the Dutch, the French
and the English In the struggle for
supremacy there was much fighting at
sea, and in this way England established
her navy supremacy, though not until
after long and waverng warfare. AT
one time the Dutch deceived themselves
with belief that they had conquered and
Won Tromp the Dutch admiral, express
ed his exultation by sailing down the
channel with broom at his masthead.
to signify his boast that he had swept
the English from the seas.
The people of The generation have
lived to see a new route opened to the
Orient The generation will witness
marvellous development arising from the
rapidly increasing use of this new pass
age-Spokesman Review
Dreams are based on substance,
after all, and the above article is
very much in evidence of the GER
tainty with which time, at last, reg
ulates affairs. Three hundred and
twenty years seem long time in the
consideration of a commercial prop
ositlon, and yet, in 1876, Frobisher
sailed away from England for the
north in search of shorter route to
China and India by the Northwest
passage around North America The
same icy barrier is there today and
stops the way for the modern steel
steamer as effectively as it did the
twenty-ton Gabriel" of Frobisher's
But the idea did not stop at the ice
wall, and the dream is an awakened
reality today, and when the Siberian
railway is completed it will more
fully develope and add to the many
causes that in the near future will
transfer to the Northwest coast the
commercial supremacy in Oriental
commerce. This was suggested in
the Signal once before in comment
ing on the establishment of a line of
steamers by the Great Northern.
and these advances mean much
for us here, as well as to the North
west generally, but we must make
use OF the advantages offered, not
wait until in the fullness of time they
develope themselves. Idle waiting
is not in accord with the spirit of the
age. Two thoroughfares for the
present and coming commerce are
now through Idaho, one through our
own town, and indications are that
the northern limits of the county will
before long have another trans-conti-
rental line. We can do much TO-
wards advancing our local prosperity
t we will read the old fable of ssThe
Field Mouse and the Farmer" adapt-
ng the story to our present condi-
ions and accepting the moral as the
of our present difficulties
All that was propbesied bv the
when President Hill first be-
gan his decisive moves in the inter
'sts of the Great Nosthern is evil
tently coming to pass. The great
oriental trade to be built up will
cause every resource of the northwest
% be developed to meet the demands