Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-04-30
THE COMING BOSTON
A PROPHETIC GLANCE AT NORTH.
west OF FUTURE.
(haunCey Thomas, in Success Naga-
zine for November, 1907, Says
Tacoma Will Beat Seattle, and at
GrayS HarbOr Will be Another
Boston. A Prophecy.


tiny" has one of the finest harbors
in the world, ample tide lands, prac-
near water level and on the pa-
teau up a rise of from one to three
hundred feet, and the shortest rail-
road haul from Puget Sound on a
water level to the Canon of the Co
lumbia. Here at Tacoma, the only
point on Puget Sound where such
conditions exist, we find the neces-
sary and sufficient elements of the
great city-Or heart of the great
city-of the future. Other points
exceed Tacoma in some one thing,
but Tacoma is the only point that
has enough of everything and is
lacking in nothing To those things
may be added huge beds of the fin
est coking coal in the Northwest,
and from Mount Tacoma-or Rain
ier-a near, unlimited and eternal
water power, equaling Niagara, to
turn into electricity. In fact, the
mountains adjacent to the Sound as
sure the entire region practically un-
limited water and electrical power,
but some points are more remote from
a supply than are others. In this
and in coal. however, none even equal
Tacoma.
But why has Seattle to date so far
Outdistanced this seemingly favored
point? For the very reason that in
the near future will be turned
against Seattle in favor of Tacoma
a shorter railroad haul by forty
miles. At present the two railroads
that carry the traffic Of Puget Sound
come across the Cascade range, over
passes from 2,700 to $500 feet high,
in a short, winding haul up which a
locomotive loses fOur-fifths of it's
pulling power. These roads today
first strike tidewater at Seattle. 1t
is needless to pull forty miles farther
to Tacoma, so rail meets sail at
present at Seattle. But these same
two roads,. ]. Hills Great North
ern and the Great Northern's North
done down the Columbia Canon. !
have seen them with my own eyes as
| rode on Harriman's Union Pacific
the Oregon Short Line-down the
opposite bank of the Columbia. Har-
riman is pushing north from San
Francisco to Puget Sound. When
these roads touch the Sound from the
south instead of from the east, as at
present, then the railroad situation
will be reversed and "Why pull forty
miles farther to Scatter" with the
same result as today except then in
favor of Tacoma. There are also
other roads-one is the Chicago, Mil
waukee e st. Paul-that are push
ing for tide water on Puget Sound
On the line of least resistance this
point is necessarily the city of Ia
coma.
Will this injure Seattle? Never!
As in the battle Of Santiago. there
is honor enough for ALL" AS San
Francisco must lose the lead to Pu-
get Sound, so Seattle must lose the
lead to Tacoma. Both propositions
are covered by the same argument;
if one is true, the other must be.
With the present population (only
one in twelve of what the Atlantic
seaboard has), with over twice the
possible world trade to be developed
across the Pacific to what the Allan
tic coast has, with many times richer
local resources, and with the popula-
tion of the United States sure to at
least double in the next fifty years,
it is simply problem in elementary
arithmetic to compute and on that
to venture the prediction that within
the lifetime of millions now living
the population of the Pacific Coast
must increase at least fifty times or
on an average Of perhaps fifty per
cent. year, which means at least
from twelve to fifteen million people
between the Columbia and the line,
the Olympics and the Cascades.
This means at the Golden Gate a
city equal to Paris, at Portland 4
city equal to Philadelphia, at Grays
Harbor another Boston, at Seattle at
least one million people, and at Ia
coma another New York with at least
100000 within the next fifty years.
All other even possible city sites
o1opo tho DopiHc Cooct op5 m pty.