Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-02-12
The PEOPLE and The RAILROADS
Great Issue Before the Country Summed lpNeW Tracks
New Terminals, Vast Expenditures Necessary
Must Be Done in Partnership

be spent in the near future at Mime
apolis and st. Paul to take care of
passenger traffic alone. Large expen-
ditures must be made at Tacoma for
the same purpose. But there is great
er need of more space for freight bust
ness; and that at every center and in
every fourishing city on these lines.
Time must be saved and money pour
ed out freely. The cost of necessary
terminals alone must be expressed in
tens Of millions. IN n 5,#
One other factor in railroading de-
serves special mention at this time.
Tracks and motive power must both
| lie idle unless there is an adequate
supply of fuel with which to make
steam. The coal shortage all over the
west, from Los Angeles to Vancouver,
and from Salt Lake to Butte, Spokane
and Portland, is very critical and none
of the railroads has any margin to-
day. If railroads are to run, the fuel
supply must be enlarged. Montana
produced 1,483,72S tons of coal in
1900; her product for 1905 is estimat-
ed at not more than 1900, 900 tons.
Washington produced in 1900 2,2O9,-
.012 tons, and only 2,S1S,O42 tons in
1905, a tri1ing increase for five years
Compare these figures with the statis-
tics Of industrial gowth and railroad
expansion and the vital nature of the
fuel question at once appears.
The railroads can and will move
i fuel for the people of the states, but
they cannot provide it, They cannot
move their increased volume Of BUSH
ness unless they get more coal them
selves. The federal government has
declared that they should not them
selves engage in the coal business. 1t
is indispensable, then, that capital out
side of railroads should engage in
furnishing, for people and railroads
alike, a proper fuel supply It should
be made easy for coal to come in from
British Columbia to the northwest,
where the supply is short, and new
mines should be opened in Montana
and Washington. This is an essential
item in transp ortation and in all in
dustrial problems, and it is one which
the railroads, without outside assist
ance, are powerless to deal with as the
circumstances demand today.
For work that will fall properly and
directly upon the railroads, in addi-
ton to tracks and terminals that must
be made if traffic is to be moved, what
lis required? The Great Northern, the
Northern Pacific and the Burlington
companies together operate about one
eleventh of the railroad mileage of
the country. It would, on a fair COM
putation, be necessary for them to
raise and spend in the northwest to-
tai of $500, 00O, 900 in new work. That
is what, in money terms, is involved
IN the elimination OF present causes of
complaint. in a due provision for the
future. It is a demand that would
stagger the government of the United
States. Even If spread over five years
it would call for 100000, 900 a year. It
involves labor problems and problems
in obtaining material and a thousand
others that would tax executive
energy if the money were ready on
call. Confidence on the part Of CAPT
tai, labor both skilled and unskilled in
great quantities and for a prolonged
period Of time, and patience on the
part Of the public while difficulties are
being overcome must combine to
reach the happy end. .553
The railroads are going forward,
facing this labor Of Hercules undis-
mayed. The Great Northern proposes