The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-21
FORMER SENATOR WILSON.
He Talks of Present Conditions in the
Great Northwest.

John L. Wilson, former United States
senator from Washington, arrived in In
dianapolis yesterday, and is staying at the
Hotel English. Senator Wilson is a former
Indianian. He has lived in Washington
for several years and is prominently iden-
titled with the Republican politics of that
State. He is owner of the Seattle Post
Intelligencer, the largest daily newspaper
in that part CT the country. Senator Will
sons home is at Spokane. His wife and
laughter have been visiting in Indiana for
some time and he has come TO join them
for the Christmas holidays. Mr.. Wilson
will go from here to Washington, d. c..
He will return to Chicago by Jan. is, where
he will speak at the banquet of the Real
estate Board Of Chicago on the North
west and Its Relations TO Chicago"
Il am always glad to come to Indiana"
said Mr.. Wilson yesterday. 1T is my old
home. where L resided for thirty years,
and L therefore have a very fine recollec-
ton of the climate of this section of the
country. / started from Spokane with a
spring overcoat, and found when i landed
here that a fur coat would not be out of
place. The climate of Washington is a
soft and mild one, especially on Puget
sound. Those of us that have become
accustomed to 1t feel very severely the sud-
den changes here, especially when you
strike a place where the gas is not coming
freely. They ought to pass a law in the
next Legislature prohibiting any gas from
being piped out of the State. The people
should keep Ii for their own use, comfort
and convenience"
In speaking of the business conditions of
Washington Senator Wilson said: The
State has never been in so prosperous con-
dition as at the present time. We had an
enormous yield of wheat this year-in the
neighborhood Of 100000 O to 35,000,0W bush
els. The fish crop amounted to about
100000, placing us, L think, second only
as 10 fisheries to the State of Massa-
chusetts. Our sawmills will cut two billion
feet of lumber this year. The Tacoma
Lumber Company is cutting now 40e.000
feet every ten hours, and 100000 shingles
every ten hours. A large amount of this
lumber is finding its way East. There has
been a demand for every ounce of coal we
could produce. Every tone of hay, every
ton of oats, potatoes and fruit have found
a ready market at fair prices; consequently
II has placed our people in a very pros
porous condition. The demand from Alaska
has been very great and will continue, in
my Judgment, to be so for many years.
The Seattle assay office, established four
years ago. alone has received &4, 900. 900 in
gold from that country; Washington is
about eight times the size of Massachu-
sets. In fact, there are two acres and a
half of land west of the Mississippi river
for every acre east of IL. which lands are
being taken up with very great rapidity.
Ii Will not be long until the public domain
is gone. because, from 1861 to 1901. a period
OF forty years. on an average, we turned
unuGT the DloN udllS lO,VW acres VI ldlu.
What remains will have to be irrigated.
and this the government ought to take up
earnestly and Systematically at an early
day. One hundred millions invested by the
government in reservoirs and irrigating
bitches would furnish homes TO thousands
OF people and add millions OF wealth to
the country. OF course legislation would
be necessary TO reimburse the government
for it's outlay. but "A small additional price
for the land would do this. Land in the
Yakima valley in my State that has water
from the Sunny Side canal is worth $5 to
$40 an acre and will raise about nine tons
OF alfalfa a year
Asked about the political conditions i'm
Washington Senator Wilson replied: "Of
course we have in those new Western
States wi al might be called a strenuous
political life. but Washington can now be
safely counted in the Republican column.
There is more or less talk OF factions and
more or less struggle for political prefre-
ment, but not more so than in many locali-
ties Of the East. | have seen II stated in
some OF the Eastern papers that the failure
10 appoint a collector of the port and
United States marshal for the State of
Washington was largely due TO some sup
posed influence / had with the administra-