Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-11-11
BATTLE OF The RAIL KINGS
Mighty Struggle for Territory in the West
and Northwest,
CONTROL OF THE PACIFIC COAST
Hartman, HiII and Gould Put Forces
In the FieId-NRtural Obstacles
to Overcome and GREAT
sums spent.

story Of the battle Of the railways. There
IS little OF the adventurous in the present
railroad doinss Of the east. It is the cold
| business enterprise.
But once over the big river the spirit Of
adventure runs through every page. In
the great struggle for the command Of the
! gulf in the battle Of the giants for the
traffic Of the coast. men are men, not
mechanisms.
In the cast they say, THE PENNSYLVANIA
has done this" or "the Now York Central
has done that" and so on 20 the end of the
story. out west men speak OF Hill. Of
| Hartman OF Gould, OF Yoakum. The DIFF
| ference Is the difference between the hrst-
class machinery exposition ana irst-eisss
| fight.
The Pacific northwest is the real center
Of the building activity. The states OF
Washington. Oregon, Idaho. Montana and
| Nevada claim more than 1900 miles OF new
railway in immediate prospect What this
means may be inferred from the fact that
( Il Is more railway than now exists in the
| state Of Washington and is twice as much
as there is I'm oregon. These states have
all outgro~n their railway systems
Here also lies the amphitheater OF the
most spectacular railway contest OF the
day, for here James J. Hill meets r II.
Hartman in the field. oregon for forty
years has lain fallow. bound around by the
| great circle Of the Shasta Route and the
| Oregon Short Line. This past summer
Mr. Hartman has announced that more
than 1000 miles OF railway will be built
| for the opening OF Oregon-the great deep,
mysterious desert of central oregon.
Beyond the Columbia.
Across the Columbia river in Washing
| ton, Mr. Hill is building the Portland &
| Seattle railway from near Pasco into Port
! land, about go miles. II is the most sim
! gular railway ever built in the west,
| II is to cost between $4,000 and $4,000 a
/ mile, to be built Of the heaviest steel rail.
and to be practically a water level line
across the Rocky mountains. To accom-
plish this feat mountains are leveled and
! cast into the river huge cliffs Of solid
/ granite pierced with series of tremendous
! tunnels and great crevasses filled with
broken rock.
The roadbed in fact, lie being cut along
| the preciptous cliffs that are the north.
shore Of the Columbia river. The one
sole purpose of this made road is 10 pro-
vide new highway for the Northern Pa
cifio and the Great Northern, which shall
make those roads the cheapest, and there
fore the most powerful, of the railways
that carry freight from the lakes to the
Pacific
There is no local trafic on the line. on
the south flows the broad Columbia with
the Oregon Short Line but few miles
back from its shore. On the north lie the
cliffs and the mountains.
In direct reprisal for this daring invasion
OF Portland. Mr.. Hartman is showing the
! Union Pacific north into Seattle, the head
quarters of Puget sound trahic. He has
spent more than S1O,OOoOOO to get his
terminals and approaches and intends to
carry his fight into the heart of the
enemys country. This line. like the laet.
IS a strategic railway rather than a pio-
neeT.
On TO the Coast
Into this battle of the mighty intrudes
new combatant, tho Chicago, Milwaukee
& st. Paul. Tho country traversed by its
surveys is semi-ard in places. Coming
into the mountains the road cuts through
the copper center Of the world, skirtlng the
marvellous mountain of Butte
Beyond, It pierces the great forests. Here
and there, throughout the thousand mile
stretch of main line, It traverses rich val
leys, heavy with grain and cattle. Across
the Columbia It runs through the home
OF the big red apple, perhaps the most
distinctive OF the varied products of the
garden state OF Washington.
probably make the st. Paul the second CT
the third larges, OF the railways of the
union in point OF revenues. II means the
creation of a new highway TO rival the
Great Northern and the Northern Pacific.
Tardy Recognition for wyoming.
Wyoming is coming in for a tardy recog-
milton as a railway field. The United States
government is spending many millions OF
dollars on two great irrigation projects in
that state
In consequence, the Chicago & North
western IS pushing through a branch from
Casper westward. The Colorado and South
ern has surveyors in the field running "a
line north from Denver TO the Yellowstone
river The Chicago. Burlington & Quincy
is mapping out new line.
Southwark the Hill lines disappear. That
mighty pioneer Il replaced IN the central
region by George J. Gould who rivals
the activities OF T. H. Hartman The
new Gould line IS one Of the most spec
tacular and impressive episodes OF the day
II is designed to be the western division
OF the Gould transcontinental railway. from
Baltimore to San Francisco. 1t is task
of huge proportions 1t must cross thC
sierras with a line that shall be cheap 70
operate.
The only railway that crosses this rang,
in central territory today Is the Contra
I Pacific built more than forty years age
! by the California pioneers. Il climbs al
most into the eternal SHOWS, then Slide
swiftly down into the region OF eterna
summer.
As yet the difhcult parts Of the new West
20 ern Pacific are little more than surveys
but the reports that come out Of the ives
, indicate success. II the engineers hnall!
d secure a line through the Sierras with
maximum grade OF only ifty-two feet 4
the mile, the new road will undoubted
v revolutionize the carrying OF throug
freight from Salt Lake 10 san Francisco
Review OF Reviews.