The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-05-12
LET RAILROAD CON-
TRACT NEXT WEEK
SEATTLE REPORT SAYS ADRIAN
PASCO BRANCH TO THE GREAT
NORTHERN is THE NEXT ONE
TO BE BUILT.

passed, the northern racine Will let
the contract for the Adrian-Pasco
line which the Times first announced
two months ago would be built by
| Hill to connect his Great Northern
System with the Spokane, Portland &
Seattle, for the purpose of providing
an all-water grade line for wheat
| shipments from the Big Bend dis
| trict. The construction of this line
will enable Mr.. Hill to further forti-
| fly himself in the Columbia river ba-
| sin and the eastern Washington
wheat growing districts, where the
! Milwaukee and the North Coast are
now engaged in occupying richly pro-
ducing territory.
Concerning the Hill-Harriman war
now going on in the Columbia valley.
the article says further:
On both sides Of the lower Colum-
bia river. in Oregon and Washington,
! the skirmish lines of the Hartman
and Hill forces are today drawn up
in battle array and developments in
that section of the Pacific northwest
will probably rival in interest the
| famous Cape Horn struggle between
the rival roads in the early days of
the construction of the Spokane,
Portland & Seattle.
! After effectually bottling up Mr..
Hartman on the south side of the
Columbia. between Portland and AS
toria, Hill has but lately sent sur
veyors into the field west of Van
couver and north along the coast to
Willipa Harbor and Grays Harbor.
Surveys have been all but completed
for an extension of the Spokane, Port
land & Seattle from Vancouver to st.
James, opposite Astoria, and thence
north to South Bend. Aberdeen and
! to the vast timber belt lying in the
Olympic peninsula.
Adams Gets New job.
| When Mr.. Hill not many months
ago appointed Harry Adams general
passenger agent of the Columbia
River & Astoria railroad, railroad
men who heard of the appointment
quickly understood that the road
from Portland to Astoria, once con-
| trolled by Hartman, would become
an integral part of the Spokane, Port
| land & Seattle. This appears to be
the fact by the new folders of that
road, which were issued May 8 by
Mr. Adams, who is also general pass
enger agent of the S. P. & S., or
North Bank road.
The purchase of the Astoria & Col
umbia river road by Hill shut Mr..
Hartman out of Astoria. Harriman's
move to checkmate Hills growing
prestige at the mouth of the Column
bia quickly took shape in hasty pre-
parations for the completion of his
Observation-Disclosures system, on which
the last contract, amounting to 38
miles of very costly construction, will
| be let within the next two or three
days. The estimates for the 3S miles
now to be let is $2,4OO,0O0.
| Grant Smith & Co., and the Pacific
Engineering company. of this city,
are the low bidders on the work, the
average cost of which will be $70,-
| 900 or more, a mile. On part of the
system the cost runs up to 100000
per mile The specifications require
THAT the work be rushed
Why Hartman Acts Quickly.
To railroad men the fact that Har-
riman, at great expense, has under
taken to quickly finish his line to
Tillamook bay, giving him new and
very advantageous outlet on the Pa
cific, is the same as saying he will
| be prepared to revelop a deep sea
shipping port of large proportions to
rival any similar undertakings of Hill
either at Astoria or at ST. James,
across the Columbia river. Involved
in all this is the handling in future
years of the wheat crop of southeast
ern Washington and the Panhandle
of Idaho, the two combined with
eastern Oregon being classed as the
/ Inland Empire.
/ From the district described there
are shipped for export annually be-
tdeen 50,000,0OO and 60,000,000
/ bushels of wheat, much of which is
now handled from Portland wheat
warehouses That Hill has been plan
ming deep water terminals removed
from the dangers of navigation on
/ the Willamette and Columbia rivers
/ has long been known by railroad
men and the story that he is to ex-