The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1908-12-29
COMING OF TIE COLORADO & SOUTHERN
FROM The VIEWPOINT OF THE JOURNAL.
THE LEADING NEWSPAPER or MILES CITY
From the Miles City Journal.)I

Is aN2Fga PgtEYG +H5GfHT GnAefNt
With the announcement of the pur-
chase of the Colorado & Southern by
Mr.. James J. Hill, Billings seems to
have inhaled a whole chest full of sec
ond wind, and with the presumption
that the prospect Of renewed advance
ment brings, her principal mouthpiece
The Gazette--is quite busy Nt1lese
days saying 4 told you So" In nearly
every issue it insists tina, certain pa
pers' in eastern Montana must now
bow to the superior perspicacity of
The Gazette, which knew, all the time,
that the Colorado & Southern was
coming to Billings.
Presenting that The journal is one
Of these certain papers," we beg to
file a meek demurrer to this flood of
conscious superiority now SO %cOnspicu-
GUS in the esteemed Gazette and. sug-
gestively call attention to the fact that
only three weeks ago, on the occasion
of the announcement Of the incorpora.
ton OF the Montana, Wyoming &
Southern (the Miles CitysShcridan)
road, The Gazette was .confessedly
doubtful of the intention of the Colo
RADIO & Southern, and openly admitted
that 1t looked as If the Montana, fWyo.
ming & Southern was a low-down trick
to beat Billings out of its own. To
show that we are not misrepresenting
The Gazette We quote from the arti.
cles referred to, briefly, as follows:
yet it is not certain that Billings
will be the junction point. 1t is up
to the business men OF this commune
ty; to the property owners Of Yellow
stone county, whose holding would be
enriched, to see that this city is made
the Junction"
And there was a lot more of the
same kind of agonized pleading for
somebody 10 do something to save
Billings. In the same article the
Gazette openly admitted that with the
Miles C~ity-Sheridan road a settled
fact, Miles City stood to win on the
Colorado & Southern, and we thought
SO too, but, even in the hour of our
pl'esumptiye triumph we were modest
and mindful of the feelings of others
who might be disappointed.
Doubtless even then the silent but
powerful Mr.. Hill had determined
that Billings was to get the pic, but
had %refrained from telling The Gazette
about it, and now that we all know
about 1T, Miles City will, we are sure,
congratulate Billings on it's good for
tune. In speaking of this matter at
the time that Billings had about given
it UP and conceded it to Miles City,
We were only properly exultant. No
fits were thrown; no uncomplimentary
comparisons We're drawn with Miles
City as a pattern for outlying commu.
mites, and now that the expected prize
has. passed on, we can still preserve
our poise, for as yet Miles City is the
only notable junction of competing
trans-continental lines in eastern Mon.
tana. The junction of the Burlington
the Northern Pacific and the Billings
& Northern at Billings Cor shall we
say Laurel) IS only a coming together
Of friends, who have no such word as
competition in their lexicon, and as
the Colorado & Southern as now al.
ranged, will come into Billings over
Burlington tracks, its acquisition
spells nothing in the way of construe
ton; simply a few more trains a day,