The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1908-11-23
GIGANTIC WAR
FOR CONTROL
CONSTRUCTION WORK ON SCALE
HERETOFORE UNKNOWN IN
PACIFIC NORTHWEST.
especially

(SpeclaI.)
Seattle, Nov. 21.-Railroad con-
struction on a scale heretofore I'M
known in the Pacific Northwest, not
being devoid of some elements of
warfare for the dominant position on
Puget Sound and the Northwest coast
in which three of the greatest rail-
road corporations in the United
States will spend millions of dollars.
is, according to Northumberland
reports about to be inaugurated The
North Coast, the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul, and the vast Hartman
systems are the three gigantic fac
tors in the contest for the supremacy
which financiers and railroad con-
tractors throughout the west assert
is already on.
J. D. Farrell, who is the North
western representative of E. H. Har-
riman and who has charge of the
Oregon and Washington railroad, a
Hartman corporation, was a few
days ago called to New York City by
a telegram and was accompanied by
his chief engineer, ] E. Baldwin.
Railroad contractors, numbering
some of the wealthiest firms in the
Pacific Northwest have assembled
here and in Portland, expecting at
any time to receive notice to bid for
all of the Pacific contracts between
Seattle and Portland, together with
contracts for the construction of new
lines penetrating the vast forests of
the Olympic peninsula.
n ri
for more than two years past has
puzzled railroad men and business
men throughout the northwest be-
cause of the mystery surrounding its
Ownership, has suddenly come to life,
and has let a contract for approx
mately 100000 of grade work be-
tween Kiona and the Columbia river
to E. Winter, one of the most promi-
nent railroad contractors in the
country. who is associated with
Grant Smith & Co. in various con-
tracts in Seattle. Winter is now in
Seattle at the Butler Hotel, where
other contractors are gathered ex-
pecting at any time to receive tele-
graphic requests to submit bids for
various railroad enterprises.
/ In addition to awarding the con-
tract for the work at Kiona. the
North Coast has pushed its surveys
up the. west bank of the Columbia
river, passing through the Richland
irrigated district and extending its
field forces as far as Washtucna.
The Hill roads not to be outdone
in renewed activity, have even anti
cipated the move of the North Coast
for control of the rich traffic of the
| Columbia River early fruit belt al
Kennewick and Richland, where Sc
attic capitalists are developing an
defensive irrigation project, and have
completed the definite location for
double track railroad from Kenne
wick up the west bank of the Column
bia for twenty miles and thence west
ward passing to the north of Rattle
snake mountain and reaching North
Yakima by water grade up the Moxec
Valley.
Within the last three days a news
paper man rode more than twenty
miles in an automobile through the
country lying north of Kennewick
and Richland in the Columbia river
| valley, where Hill surveyors stakes
are to be seen. Negotiations for
right-of-way for this portion of the
road. which authorities declare will
| be the main line of the Northern Pa
cific from the Columbia river have
been in progress several weeks. Some
official announcement has been made
| by Northern Pacific officials that the
construction of new main line with
double tracks from the Columbia
River to North Yakima through the
fertile Columbia River Valley had
long been contemplated as a means
Iof eliminating the heavy grades be-
tween Kennewick and Prosser.
Retween those two stations the
Northern Pacific main line runs
through a very rough and unprotect-
ed country, the section being very
extensive to operate. while the new
water grade line from Kennewick
and Richland to North Yakima Will
be but a trihe longer and will tap
the rich coun ~. opened up by the
construction of the Lower Yakima
Irrigation company's plant near
Richland. =.
Railroad men both her and in
Portland are daily expecting to hear
from New York that construction or
new railroad lines from Centralia
ana Chehal;s to Gray's Harbor for
Hartman and the ST. Paul and for
these systems from Gray's Harbor
north piercing the Olympic peninsu-
Ia. will soon be ordered. This eX-
pected construction may possibly be
of kind similar to that which h.
H. Hartman described on his return
a little more than two years ago
from the Orient as competitive con-
struction. In the famous interview
he gave out in New York, Hartman
laid down the gage of battle to Hill.
declaring that he was ready to spend
n4ola rnillinns to gain the mastery