Washington State journal and Adams County news. [volume] (Ritzville, Wash.) 1906-1907, 1906-11-07
A Deserved Roast For Jim HIN.

Harry Truesdale in the West Coast
Lumberman, writing on whats the
Matter With Washington says:
eve have state of the greatest
resources of any state in the Union.
We have coal with which to supply the
world. Every mountain range in the
state is steamed with veins of gold,
copper, silver and lead. We have iron
deposits that will be the future supply
for the commercial world. We have
the richest and most easily farmed
wheat land in the world and there are
hundreds of thousands of acres of it..
We have fruits and hay land whose
richness is unequaled in any land.
We have the world-famed bunch grass
growing on uncounted thousands of
acres of land which furnishes pasture
for vast herds of cattle. sheep and
horses. We have hop land that grows
hop known the world over. We
have untold millions of feet of the finest
timber that ever grew in any land.
We have great Sound whose waters
are alive with sea food and which
furnishes an inexhaustible supply of
the king of all edible fish. We have
some of the most beautiful cities and
towns in the world.
"We have a population of wide
awake hustling men and women. We
have climate which makes the state
an ideal winter or summer resort. We
have mills, factories, machinery, men
and women to develop the hardly
touched resources of the state. We
have everything to make us prosperous
and contented except, the. means to
market our products. Across this
great state run two railroads, the Great
Northern and the Northern. Pacific.
Running on these roads, but most. of
the time stuck on the grades, are a lot
of old teaakettles ON wheels called
locomotives, dragging behind them a
miscellaneous assortment of junk call
ed cars. Every sidetrack from St.
Paul to Portland is packed with this
junk loaded with all kinds of goods
and waiting to be moved East. There
is not point on these roads where a
good live Jerry with handcar and
team of billy goats could not give
better train, service than is being given
today. ...s.s.. :, ,.-.' =.
"Our mills are closed down, men and
women unemployed, resources undevel-
oped, thousands of carloads of all kinds
of material stored in the sheds and on
platforms waiting for transportation.
No locomotives, no roadbed, no. cars,
no management, no nothing, but an in
extricable tangle on these roads. At
the head Of this aggregation of misfits
is an old gentleman by the name of
Jim Hill, whose long suit is peddling
bull calves and hot air: Opportunity,
an elastic conscience, and color blind
ness regarding what is, his and what
belonged to the other fellow, gave him
control of the Great Northern years
ago and since then he has loved to pose
as the pioneer Of the great Northwest.
He is like the farmers pup, always out
in the road scratching up gravel and
tearing out lung, telling what he is
going to do, and when the time comes
for him to do something, is under the
barn asleep. Some misguided idiot
b" .-s
years gone by stated that Minnesota
had three of the worlds greatest men !:
Archbishop Ireland a great prelate !;
Cushman Davis, a. great statesman,
and Jim Hill, a great railroad man.
This remark spoiled first-class gold
brick and made dub of railroader.
This great pioneer may be.all right for
sleepy old New York, but when it
comes to doing things in this wonderful
West he is outclassed and away behind
the times. Today he. is using every
effort to block the building of. two new
railroads into this state. These roads
have real live men at the head of them
and this great empire builder is afraid
OF them.
Somebody told him that in the
cathedral of St. Peters there is a
bronze statue Of Pope Gregory and
that devout worshippers, to be absolved
from their sins and to do homage to the
memory of great man, are in the
habit of kissing the toe of this
statue. 1t is said that whehhe finished
his depot in Seattle he went before the
city council, asking. them to pass an
ordinance compelling all pilgrims enter
ing the city through that depot to stop
and kiss the toe of a statue which he
proposed to erect to. himself. and be-
cause this ordinance. was not passed,
went home crying and. raised the price
of bull-calf donations and the minimum
on lumber shipments. He. loves to
stand, in the lineight and, Whenever
the lamp flickers the least and a little
of the light is. shut off; he gives an
other prize bantam hen to some farm
ers' club and poses and waits for boy
quets. Fancy an empire builder rum
ming around the country leading bull
calf by. the ear and carrying bantam
hen under each. ARM He can't buy