The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1903-04-08
THE SUBURBAN RAILWAY
SHOULD NOW Be ASSURED
j. +. Mcknight Returns From New
York With Definite Proposition.
Electric Power Abandoned.

been for the purpose of furthering the
interests of the system of electric roads
projected by him to radiate from North
Yakima He has spent the better part
Of five months in New York, and has re-
turned to make definite announcement
to the people here, and that announce
ment can best be given in his own words.
! Mr. Mcknight said in answer to an in
quiry from HERALD reporter:
"When l went to New York l was
profoundly impressed with the idea that
a system of electric roads was the proper
thing for this locality. There have been
a great many roads of that kind built in
localities furnishing as much traffic as
the country along the line OF the pro-
posed roads here would furnish, and it
had been generally supposed that such
roads were financially successful.
That opinion continued to prevail in
New York until about the first of Janu-
ary, when twenty-one electric roads sub
stantially similar to the ones proposed
here, went into the hands of receivers
This worked an entire change in public
sentiment, so that it became impossible
to secure the money in New York for the
construction of such system as we had
contemplated here.
81 would not have it understood that
no electric roads are paying; but roads
! having conditions similar to those here
are not paying; and in many instances
the electrical equipment is being re-
placed with steam. Interurban roads,
such as the road between Seattle and
Tacoma, where passenger traffic is
heavy, are paying, but no road where
the conditions are similar to those here
is profitable investment where equip
ped with electricity as a motive power.
81 consulted some of the most eminent
electrical specialists in the country, and
after the first of January | became
| firmly convinced that there was but one
means by which the system here can be
namely: by means ofssteam.
''ln other words, the enterprise has
arrived at the point where the people of
Yakima county must content themselves
with steam road or none. | have re-
turned to submit the question to your
people as to whether the same proposals
will hold good for steam road that
were made for the construction of an
electric system. If so, the capital is
ready, subject to favorable report from
the engineer representing New York
parties, who have agreed to furnish it,
and he is expected here within a fort
night. Thereafter the work will COM
mence as soon as the rights-of-way are
obtained by the committee and arrange
ments made for building the bridge
across the Yakima river. l have secured
the terminals myself, so that the people
are relieved Of that burden.
"There has been good deal of senti-
4 ment in favor of electric roads, know,
but my investigation discloses that there
is locomotive built similar to those
operated upon the elevated roads in New
York City, that do not give out any
sparks, and that can be stopped and
started as easily as an electric car. Any
one who has travelled on the elevated
roads in New York, will remember that
there are no sparks falling upon the peo-
Pile in the streets below, and that the
trains run with great speed, making
numerous stops and developing high
speed within few seconds when started
again. With that class of locomotives.
service can be as conveniently arranged
1 to accommodate the travel and traffic
along the lines of the roads as the opera
ton of the same by electricity. These
locomotives are not noiseless, but they
are not nearly so noisy as the ordinary
locomotive.
"In this connection | was surprised to
I find in the East that the farmers con-
slider the electric car good deal more
Objectionable than the locomotive. The
electric car seems to move without any
apparent motive power at all, and it
axes horses a good deal more time to
get used to that kind of car than it
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