Omaha daily bee., 1910-04-17
Through Its Transportation
Kings has Decreed that T


IT Wo giant Mogul locomotves-chuggng jerking and srug
freight the summit of the pass
AS the tired engines rest after their mighty labor the music OF
tmbhng heard amid the grandeur of towering
peaks With rumble and avalanche hunders down the
monanside and the engine nbe mindful of the fate
Of entire trains which have been buried by the devastating slides
Only few score miles away the is different.
One little engine cheeriy putting its rhythmic song trun
dies 90 loaded freight through another pass of the
tain range-a level grade all the way through
Beside the oocar train rolls the broad Columbia flowing
acdy through the heart of the lofty Cascade mountain system
The din Of Wall for half a century the Of
the the of the avalanche dashng Column
b But Americas kings of finance the balance sheets which
show cost OF operation and cost of maintaining railroad rights Of
way The economy OF letting long trains roll down water grade
compared with dragging and pushing short trains nowcappd
mountain barriers finally became apparent
When Wall Street Awoke
Wall street often slow Some of the biggest facts in
studied understood and appreciated they upon
And finally Wall awoke to what the Columbia River
as the water grade outlet for interior America all the from
Canada to Mexico.
Awake Wall began to act This was FIVE years ago.
The Hill interests built down the Columbia River from Spokane
Portland The Hartman replaced the pioneer rahac
streak of along the other Of with modern
roadbed equal to that built by the Hill millions
Five years have confirmed the ady judgment of street.
inevitable The Columbia gorge through the Cascade
Sierra mountain barrier found be the high
way for the nations Pacific operation and
maintaining the roadbed 40 70 per cent less
than by any other route
AS James J. Hill said: The easiest way the Cascade
mountains is down the Columbia River"
And was just the other day. this month"; that freight
80 cars probably longest that ever was hauled into anv ctv
brought down the Columbia River Mr. Hills North Bank
railroad drawn by only engine.
Where Two Grooves Intersect
So much for east and west traffic from interior America
Then there the south on the Pacific
Slope Over 100000 people live in the Pacific
aon increasing pouring in from the East like tidal
but vast the opportunities
that the for people will be sounded for generations
population has just natural land for travel
the continuous valley beginning in the Gulf of California run
ming miles straight north without interruption through Puget
Sound Already this valley is vened with railroads.&c. only
through norandsouth railroads of the Rocky Mountains
The interior plateau between Rocky and Cascade
Sierra ranges has continuous valley system south The
coast has other continuous valley Nature cut
great groove and only one.
And where does the line of travel cross the
one east-and-west route-the Columbia River outlet
1t crosses at Portland, Oregon.
And so happens that besides being this junction point
Portland the head Of and by itself
meca social and financial agricultural and timber ter
ritory as large as the German Empire
All these factors for cibulding point
Portland Oregon
And Wall street finally out Having found if out il
is pouring eager millions Portland Oregon Country
for development
Cold conservative the ruler Empire Portland had prospered
unaded by outside capital il had grown oen powerful
different Its wealthy pioneer builders the for
the entire Pacific Northwest dsdnng what Eastern cap
na was doing for other cities to reach which had
tops And Portland continued prosper Its prosperity through
panic well as through good times gradually became bywofd
East well Far West but Eastern capital continued to seek an
outlet elsewhere until within the last few Now il pong
into Portland unsolicited and engaging the DEVELOPMENT Of Ore
and the upbuidng of what inevitably the metropolis of
the entire Pacific Coast.