Arizona republican., 1907-06-28
GRAND TRUNK PACIFIC | RACING WITH PIONEERS
Construction of the Railroad by Can ada Is Being Rushed Through vir- gin Land, of Wealth.

June Z..-The trall Of the new tranS- continental railway is now blazed practically from ocean to ocean; al- ready the builders are receiving and sending out mail at Prince Rupert. on the Pacific. which was a voiceless wilderness yesterday and which will be a hustling, booming city tomorrow.
 The Canadian government, which backed the builders of this road, be- lieved that there was immediate need of another rans-continental line. but no one guessed that 1907 would find the development of the west out-running all the railways. The more there Is need 'to build, for the developing west of Winnipeg has barely begun.
 The Grand Trunk Pacific manage ment is bending every effort to rail the new fields that lie between Win nipeg and Edmonton at the earliest possible moment, for there, in the great Saskatchewan valley. half way between the Chicago" and Denver of the Dominion. is the storm center of a development that would be called boom were 1t not for the fact that it had been of steady growth for a number of years.
 Of course they are working west from Edmonton, and east from Prince Rupert, but the task of locating a line of railway, such as the Grand Trunk Pacific proposes to build, is an intri- cately difficult one. It will pass through half a thousand miles of wilderness that was practically un- known when the preliminary path
 
 three passes which were supposed to lie somewhere near the headwaters of the Peace.
 Every river. gorge and canyon will be sounded. every possible and doubt less many impossible passes will be examined before the final selection is made, before the president and the general manager 70. K." the profile, before the chief engineer pens his of ficial Put her there"
 If the men who are to be held re- sponsible for the finished line were satisfied to build as the early trans continental lines were built in the United States. the last spike could be driven years earlier than 1t will be driven. If they had less faith in the future of Canada, if they could fore see a slump in the near future, they could build cheaply. have less of fixed charges to pay and earn something on the money expended. even in "lean years" but they are building against future in which they have abounding faith. If fortune favors them, if the good old earth continues to sweat gold" at the rate of 19 bushels to the acre as it has done for the past 19 years. they will be counted wise in their generation.
 But. by the same token if they were to build cheaply, following the contour of the country, rising and falling with the swell and swale of the billowing fields. and finish a line utterly mad equate and physically unfit for the traffic that is almost certain to come 10 them. they would be called bunglers and the road would have to be re- built at the cost of millions. Profit ing by the mistakes of others they have set a standard for the construc- tion of this new national highway that is proving a surprise to the contrac, tors.
 And, yet. after the line has been properly located, the proper construc- ton is the next important step. If a valley be wide and deep, no matter how wide and deep. they bridge 1t from bluff to bluff, for a good line with bad spots is a bad line. Such a railway as the Grand Trunk Pacific will have from the wheat fields to the lakes-to the Atlantic when the whole line is finished-will enable it to handle twice the volume of business that could be handled. say on a road of one per cent grades. They believe that they will be called upon to move an immense amount of freight and are building to that end. They believe, that. as the years pass. the traveiing public will be more and more in hurry. and are planning passenger service that will equal if it does not surpass the best between the Atlantic and the Pacific. These things make the builder anxious about every curve. cut and fill on the three thousand miles of the main line: make them patient with the pathfinder and the contrac- tor. and impatient with the unknow- ing who want it finished now.
 Between Hanley and -Lacombe. Bat tleford and Swift Current lines a lit- tie empire of it self. isolated and ut terly empty of railways. Into this vast valley country. two hundred miles long. eighty per cent Of which is open arable land. hundreds of Yankees have gone to buy land in the past twelve months and thousands to settle and build homes. The land is fair and fer tile and that is all the born pioneer asks. He knows the railway will come. and it is coming.
 The Canadian Pacific is cutting the little empire on the bias, from Moose Jaw to Iacombe. The Canadian Northern is already surveying south of it's main line while the Grand Trunk Pacific. leaving the main line west Of Saskatoon will go to Calgary almost as the birds flies.
 In two years the vast region that was empty through years will be serv- ed by at least three competing rail- ways: in it will be the homes of hun dreds of thousands of settlers. The soil here is not so rich as 1t is fur ther north. not so heavy as it Is fur ther east but it Is far enough north to be fertile and not too cold, and far enough west to catch the breath or life that lifts from the Pacific coast and blows down from the Rockies. the warm Chinook. that makes the