The Lewiston teller. (Lewiston, Idaho) 1900-1905, 1905-04-07

your wheat fields and forests to the
river; no need to recite the history of
the open river movement. Those have
been part Of your lives. Your meet
ing here today. this late response of
the people OF the valley to the call from
the prairie and the mountain grandly
illustrates that immortal sentence of
Lincoln's OF the people, by the people.
for the people, We are the people.
We have taken 1t upon ourselves to pro
vide ourselves with a railroad. This is
essentially a business meeting of busi-
ness men for business purposes. We
are not orators; we are not politicians;
we are plain speaking men from the
farm, the forest. the shop, the mill and
tardy gratitude the great gift from ma
ture of free transportation route
from Lewiston Charleston to the sea.
We are here to accept it for the peo-
pie of the prairie as we'll as for the
: people of the valley. We are here to
devise means by which the people of
the high prairies may reach and utilize
The only way to accomplish this pur-
pose is to build a railroad from Lewis
ton Charleston to Grangeville and to
Nezperce. The open river for which
we have struggled so long and sue
! cessfully will be of comparatively lit
| tie permanent value without large use.
[ Such large use can only come by rail-
/ toto he
ducing sections Of the interior. Such
railroad lines will be of little vaAne to
YOU of the interior without the use of
| the waterway. 1t Is of small value to
you to ship your wheat to Lewiston
unless you have a means OF sending II
| to the coast We own one steamboat
now: we propose to build more steam
boats and to operate from here to Ce-
lilo. We propose to help you build
the railroad into the wheat fields We
are not here to attack the big railroad
companies This movement is not g
menace to them. We know too well oul
need Of them. We have always done
to build through out territory and t.
handle our goods. And 1t is our terri
tory; IL is not the territory of an!
railroad corporation. We are anc
shall be ready to promote to the limi
of our means any bona fide effort 4
improve our transportation facilities.
This territory possesses resources
in grain and cattle. In timber, In min
erals and i'm coal and granite and lime
stone--resources i'm variety and in ex
tent such as have made half doZel
great states. These grain fields an
forests and mines we can and viii
make to yield traffic sufficient to sup
port two or three railroads il the rail
roads will only come. We are fightin
nobody. We are opposing nobody ex
t cept. perhaps. those who may seek I
weaken our purpose. We will not figh
even them. we will simply pass ther
by and build the road (great applause
+, Those among us who may try to thro'
cold water upon the earnest efforts @
= these people may as we'll save thei
water (applause). This movement ha
come to stay. We shall build the roa
(applause). We are here to confer to
gether and decide upon feasible way
and means of doing the work. Th
II decision TO build an electric railroa
:. from Lewiston Charleston TO Grange
. VILE and Nezperce has not been mad
by a few -reai. The d-cisi. 4 has gon
forth IS one voice. the voice OF tn
!. limited sentiment Of the people OF thes
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