Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-18

| perior branch. It will be used merely
as the outlet of our great wheat traffic tC
water transportation, and will rather be
mighty grain chute than a passenger line
For 1t we get from the provincial govern
ment $1,000 in cash and 5000 acres of land
per mile"
but is it not dangerous to agree to pay
per cent on any road built by any gov
eminent? The chances for graft and hood
ling will be great"
Not in this case. The railway must be
constructed under our supervision and all
contracts for work and supplies will be COM
petitive. We can even bid upon the work
ourselves. and we shall be vitality interested
In making the cost low as is consistent
with good work as we have TO pay an in
terest upon II for fifty years"
What becomes Of the road at the end OF
that timer
The government agrees either to take
that branch of it, giving US operating rights
with the western division and the Grand
Trunk system, or to renew our lease for
another fifty years.
The Cost.
What will it cost 10 make The road?"
ut has been estimated that It can he
built for s123, 800 coo. This is supposing the
eastern division can be built for $4,000 a
mile. and the mountain section for from
fifty to sixty thousand dollars a mile This
Is what our surveys show to be the probable
cost. The prairie section of the line can be
built for twenty or twenty-five thousand
dollars mile"
The Climb Over the Rockies.
How about the grade? Do you not have
big lift in getting across the Rockies?"
No; we will have better grade than
any other continental line. Our grade will
nowhere be more than four-tenths of one
per cent, or twenty-six feet to the mile
That means less than six inches anywhere
in one hundred feet. This is on the prairie
section. In the mountain section 1t will no.
where exceed ninety-one feet to the mile.
1t Will be 20 per cent less than that of any
other road over the Rockies"
What will be your highest pass?"
Less than four thousand feet" replied
Mr.. Morse. THE Canadian Pacific has TO
lift Its through trains to $500 feet; the
Great Northern to ]. 2O2 feet and the North
ern Pacific to 1851 feet The Union Pacific
crosses the mountains al a higher altitude
than any other road. 1t goes up 10 s24T
feet, and the Atchison, Topeka and, Santa
Fe rises to 1923 feet. The Southern Pa
cific crosses al little over 5000 but 1t falls
in one place 2e3 feet below tidewater We
shall have the lowest lift, and hence can
operate at a lower cost"
will you have trouble getting over the
mountains?'
The chief trouble is in going down the
Pacific side. The grade is easy from the
prairies to the top, but we shall have TO
wind this way and that down the western
slope"
las I understand 1t, the western division
VIII belong entirely TO the Grand Trunk?'
Yes; ii will be constructed by the Grand
Trunk Pacific Company, with the govern
ment guarantees, as | have stated. On the
mountain section the government will pay
the interest on the amount of its gllara n
tees for the first seven years, and il there
should be a default of interest during the
next three years 1t will pay that also, but
such last payment will be capitalized and
eventually paid back by the company to
the government"
The New Wheat Empire.
"As to the prairie section" continued Mr.
Morse, that will pay the interest on its
bonds from the start. That country is so
rich that settlements will spring. up all
along the road. and we shall be hauling
out millions of bushels of wheat and other
products within year or so after the rails
are laid. l don't dare to describe the rich
ness of that religion to the full Any man
who tells the truth about it to stranger
is looked upon by the latter as a visionary
or a liar We have there the richest wheat
lands upon earth; better than those, of the
United States, better than any others of
the world. This road goes through strip
of virgin soil which will raise twenty-five
bushels and more wheat to the acre, and
that strip contains four times as much
of the United States. About a hundred
million bushels of wheat were harvested
in the lands of that region which are now
accessible to railroads this year, and the
country has hardly been touched"
The American Invasion.
Americans and other immigrants are
coming in by the thousands. Husky young
fellows with two. three, five and ten thou
sand dollars apiece In their pockets are
buying lands and settling. met scores of
them wherever I went out there along the
line of our road. All they wanted to know
was whether the road would be actually
built; and when told them there was not
a doubt of it they said they would go ahead
and buy They have bought and buying
Is going on everywhere there today"
Il saw settlers who were coming in with
all their belongings from Nebraska, Kan
sas. Iowa and the Dakotas. They had sold
their farms and were ready to take the
cheap lands and make new ones. The sit
uation is such there that a man can pillow
and have a wheat crop the year after he
settles, and one young fellow OF twenty
eight whom met told me he had paid for
his land his moving, and his stock with
his first crop, and had money In the bank
/ don't mean TO say that that Is a COM
mon occurrence. but 1t is what one young
man did"
s Edmonton and It's Future.
How about the towns along the line OF
the Grand Trunk Pacilc?"
..The road is not yet laid out, and the
town sites are not settled. 1t passes, as
have said, through Winnipeg. and also
through Edmonton in Alberta. Edmonton
will, believe, be the metropolis of that
new wheat region. 1t will probably surpass
Winnipeg. The region about there will
grow wheat, and also many other crops.
The country is underlaid with coal. II a
citizen of Edmonton digs cellar he II
likely to find his winter fuel before he gets
to the bottom. The town d now reached