Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-06-15
svlLp.Na THE NORTHWEST.
Railroads in Great Battle for Suprsm.
ack in New Country.

aek in New Country.
I Spokane. Wash, June M.--Pathfind-
sers of the Pacific northwest, awakened
to development and growth never
dreamed of even by it's most optimistic
supporters, have laid the foundations
for what is apparent will be the most
wonderful era of railroad building the
nation has yet seen.
Claiming it by right of conquest, a
regiment of engineers and their level
and rod men has taken possession Of
an area of more than 100000 miles in
the northwest, extending from the Da-
kotas to Puget Sound, and in every
important portion of this span of terri
tory the American railroad giants are
Waging the mightiest struggle for en-
pire in the history of the world.
Engineers in the employ Of the
Northern Pacific, the Great Northern,
the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound
and the Hartman systems have
worked over four great mountain
ranges winter and summer, spying out
every available pass where railway
trains can be run safely and profitably.
The Rocky mountains on the east, the
Bitter Root range in Idaho and Mon
tana, and the Cascades and Olympics in
mapped as never before There are
reports now that Oregon will also be
invaded by the pathflnders.
Money Not Considered.
When the Milwaukee projected it's
extension to Puget Sound, Albert j.
Earring, president of the road, gath
cred together in conference his trusted
men in the engineering corps. Addi-
lions to the staff were taken from the
ranks of the best equipped railroad en-
gineers in the country. They were told
that money did not count for much but
that secrecy was everything. They
were then directed to seek out and To-
tension and its branch line construc-
cate the best routes for the coast ex-
tension and it's branch line construc-
ton to follow later. the project involv-
ing an expenditure Of s200,0O0,0O0 or
more.
Since that day the railroad engineer
has been king of the Pacific northwest
He has gone about his work by devious
but at all times certain ways. More
than one man at the head of secret par
ties for the Earring and Hartman sys-
TENS has had hundreds of thousands of
dollars at his disposal for the purchase
of rights of-way in the narrow can
yons on the Olympic peninsula. or thru
the deep def1les of the Cascades and the
Bitter Root mountains.
1t is matter of record that an en-
gineer in the employ of Earring saved
his company 100000 by quick and jul
dicious application of the money test
to a man who owned body of timber
in the Olympic peninsula, where flu
ture operations of the Milwaukee road
will be on an extensive scale
Every Mountain Pass Threaded.
These engineers have threaded every
mountain pass and timbered area in
the Pacific northwest. They have gone
thru the grain and fruit belts in east
ern Washington and central Idaho.
staked their lines in the irrigated dis
tricts in the Columbia River valley.
bargained with wealthy orchard own
ers in the Yakima valley for rights Of
way, and have kept their own counsel,
the while defying every attempt of
agents of rival roads to penetrate their
secrets.
There is a possibility of another
transcontinental line for the north
west in the project known as the
North Coast railway. This company,
headed by Robert E. Strahorn, of Spo-
kane, plans to build line of 1000 miles
between Spokane and Portland and
Pugent Sound. 1t has already done
considerable construction work in CEN
trail Washington and has expended
more than 100000 for terminal sites
in Spokane
Mr.. tStrahorn has SO closely guarded
the secret of the company's financial
hackers that the road is the enigma of
the railroad world. The most plausible
theory yet advanced is that the North
Coast is backed by Standard Oil in
terests and is eventually to be made
part Of the Chicago & Northwestern
system, which has long looked to this
part of the country for portion Of the
trade of the Pacific coast and the ORR
ent.
DEMOCRACY NO LONGER USEFUL