The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1909-04-21

real hacker of the North Coast, and
Mr.. Strahorn is perfectly willing that
his road be accredited as part of one
of them, or of all of them together.
The railroads the thing, what mat
ter the name or the system? If some
village discovers that Strahorn has
put it on the transcontinental extern
sion of big system, the builder does
not awaken it from it's happy dream.
Rather, he rejoices with 1t over the
Hartman tomorrow, Canadian Pacific
the day after, and so on through the
list.
Mr.. Strahorn gave out an anony-
nous interview two years ago, practi-
cally saying that the North Coast is
coast extension of the Northwestern.
Everybody thought it was Northwest
ern then. Hardly any one thinks SO
now. 1t would be difficult to say why
opinion has changed. A few months
that Strahorn is Hartman agent.
Just now there is a growing belief that
it is Milwaukee feeder project, al
though nobody believed that year
ago.
Says Line Is Independent.
Recently Strahorn has come out
with a statement denying fatty that
the North Coast is a part of, or has
any connection with any transconti-
mental railroad. He says it is an in
dependent system, which will serve a
similar purpose in the Northwest that
the Chicago & Alton does in the
middle west or the Boston & Mamie
in New England.
For some reason just about the time
the operations of the North Coast as
sumed such importance as to attract
notice, the original incorporators were
lost sight of. No one hears them men,
toned any more, although many of
them are men of high financial stand
ing, and Mr.. Strahorn is authority for
the statement that some of them have
private fortunes that would provide
the millions that have been put into
the North Coast.
These men are ]. G. White, of J. G.
White & Co., railroad contractors Of
New York, who are also large owners
of railroad property; Henry j. Pierce,
president of the Consolidated Rail-
ways of Buffalo and heavily interested
in the International Railway of Can
ada, an electric line which connects
Toronto, Niagara Falls, Buffalo and
Rochester; Frank A. Dudley, bank
president and railway builder of Nj
agara Falls; James A. Kerr, of the
law firm of Kerr & McCord of Seattle,
o. A. Fechter and Mr.. Strahorn, who
is rated as millionaire, and lives in
a splendid mansion, the most nlagni-
ficently furnished in Spokane.
All But StrahOrn Are Forgotten
Why none of these men except Mr.
Strahorn are never mentioned any
more in connection with the North
Coast would be hard to say, unless
that it is because all the railroad men
of the northwest have reached the con-
clusion that Strahorn represents a
continental line and have worked on
that hypothesis.
Strahorn and North Coast signify
but one thing to James j. Hill and
that Is Hartman. 1t is only natural
for the empire builder to regard a
railroad interest, the identity of which
he does not know and cannot discover,
as his arch enemy. On this theory he
has fought and INSTRUCTED the North
Coast whenever opportunity presented.
During the first few months when a
struggling band of surveyors seemed
to be wandering aimlessly over the
country from the Cascade mountains
to the Palouse country, setting ran
dom stakes and running meaningless
lines Hill did not signify this crude
expert corps.
Z t, SnI,
ed closely by all railroads. Naturally
the engineering department of the
Northern Pacific, whose territory the
North Coast surveyors were working,
was instructed to report on the mean
ing of the new surveys.
Had Railroad Men Guessing
The report was made. Not being
done by anyone with practical knowi-
edge of railroading," it read. "Sur-
veys start nowhere and run nowhere,
and even do that by impossible routes.
Mere waste of money. Probably the
conclusion reached by the chief en-
gineer was: Trying to get in some-
body's way and sell out"
The Milwaukee was known to be
looking for an extension west then,
while Hill had not settled upon the
route of the Spokane, Portland & Sc
attic line from Pasco to Spokane. 1t
might be possible for adventures in
the field to get control of some indis-
pensable pass and force fat pric, out
of one of these big systems to aban-
don it.
With this theory in mind little at
tention was paid to Strahorn's ad-
venture by the big roads tine first year
the surveyors were in the field. Sud-
denly he exploded a bomb in the camp
of the Northern Pacific by expanding
100000 for a right-of-Way and ter