The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-19

/ Chief Engineer Stevens, it will take
eight years to finish the canal.
Traffic along the line of a railroad
it is we'll known is, where no psrticu"
lar necessity exists for its exclusive
use, largely like the traffic OF
merchant, a matter of good service,
a return for prompt and satisfactory
treatment Therefore, if these fighters
of the tropical canal are able TO put
in operation their lines TO the North
west six years before the waters of
the Atlantic and those of the Pacific
meet 1000 miles 10 the south, they may
with great certainty hope for an
established business that even the
water rate via the canal viii but
little affect. Five or six wears of con-
tinued prompt and efficient service
from the East, with the quickest and
cheapest service possible for land car
riers. will tell in the favor of the
roads, Notwithstanding the lure of sea
transportation against them.
Water Grades of Northwest.
If YOU place your right arm with the
hand palm downward upon the table
in front OF you and fingers outspread,
you will have a fairly accurate picture
Northwest. The arm will be the
Columbia river, the mightiest stream
upon the Pacific slope of our conti-
nent, the second largest in America,
upon whose bosom the fleets of all the
world could assemble and maneuver
with plenty of sea room. The wrist
will be the Snake river, the largest
tributary of the Columbia, and with
the former, navigable for 400 miles
eastward from the sea, close to the
base of the Rocky mountains. The
of
will be the Clearwater river, which
joins the Snake at Lewiston, Ida The
middle finger VIII be the Salmon river,
which runs into the Snake q few miles
above Lewiston, while the third finger
will be the Snake river above It's
junction with the Salmon. With a few
smaller streams that empty into these
rivers, this is the system of waterways
which drain all the vast territory lying
between the Cascades and the Rockies,
the Blue mountains of Oregon and the
Selkirks of British Columbia
The whole inland empire embrac-
ing more square miles than the whole
of New England, lies within the prasp
of these mighty fingers, The Columbia,
the river of Lewis and Clark. is
the only stream that breaks through
the high-rising barrier of the Cas-
cades and carries the waters Of the
i
land. 1t is as # the monster hand and
arm Of Old Ocean, eager at all times
to seize the treasures Of earth and TO
carry them to other lands beyond the
sea. were stretched out through the
gates OF its enemy, the mountains
waiting to pounce upon that which he
desires.
Value of Water Grades.
Years ago, when the railroads crept
out over the plains from the Missis.
sippi, the matter of easy grades
along water courses was not of so
much Importance as that the road
should penetrate a country that would
little more than sustain it on a
paying basis. AS the years flew by.
however, and the Northwest grew; as
its growth became more and more Ger.
tain; as It's resources were developed
one by one, the value Of these grades
became more and moro apparent.
The first engineers that located their
lines across the Rockies, saw these
watercourses spread before them
put let them lie whse, they were, un-
disturbed by the sound of the cough
ing steam shovel, or the chug of an
engine, For them the sight of the
mining country to the north, the Coeur
d 'Alcnes with their untold wealth,
Puget sound, with its magnificent har--
Dor, was too, much, and their lines
were run that way. They built roads
that drop ten thousand feet and climb
five thousand in a few hundred miles,
while in between they dip and rise like
the waves of quiet bay when a storm
RACES without Till the cloud Of the
Panama canal loomed large and threat
ening in the far-oT south; till the regu-
( lation Of rates with reference to a
water carrier became no more a myth;
till competition became too strenuous,