The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1911-06-16
Robert Moran's
Forecast of Business

The Railway and Marine News is
publishing series of articles from
we'll known men on the relation OF
'the Panama Canal to Pacific Coast
Commerce. In the June 1st. num-
Der of that paper we find forcetul
article from the pen of Robert MO
ran. who says:
"I do not attach much Importance
to the completion Of tire Panama
Canal so far as it may affect the
trade of the Puget Sound country.
Seattle and the Northwest. 1t the
reciprocity treaty with Canada goes
into effect, and with the economic
conditions in Vancouver so favorable
to manufacturers, the time is not
far distant when Vancouver, B. o.,
manufacturers will be supplying
the Seattle market with goods that
should be made in the Home City.
''No person, who is informed, can
doubt that ultimately Seattle will
be a great commercial center,
though it is also true that there is
not in the United States today a
city of Seattle's population witt so
little producing power. What Sc
attle's needs now. above all other
things, is manufactures for the
employment of productive labor; the
over speculation in raw land and
the consequent initiation of land va
lues has made conditions worse in
Seattle than other points.
Seattle will best prepare herself
for the commercial battle ahead by
becoming the leading manufacture
ing city Of the Northwest. Manu-
facture and agriculture make COM
merce and produce wealth; they
never made hard times; you can lay
that up to the gambler and in that
profession the law land stands in
the foreground in Seattle He is a
parasite in every industrial COM
munity, and there is only one cure,
taxation. The prospective manu-
facturer will not give up all his
capital to the purchaser of a site,
at the real estate boomers value,
neither will a burdensome tax on
industry encourage such an invest
ment."
"Seattle's urgent need at present
is not the Lake Washington Canal
nor the extension of its harbor for
miles on the Duwamish River. Sc
attle at present has ample harbor
facilities. She has harbor capacity
greater than the City of Antwerp.
She needs not the destruction of
capital in the construction Of harbor
works that will not be required for
hundred years hence,' neither does
she need any more hills cut down;
she does need manufactures and
commerce to make use of her pre-
sent ample shipping facilities. She
must have these things before she
will become stable, worlds city.
The Lake Washington Canal and the
Duwamish River harbor project
are land.speculation and debt Great
ing schemes, pure and simple.
IF am to judge the public pulse
by what | read in the Seattle daily
press. they seem to want manufac-
tories. But the question is: How
is capital to be encouraged to enter
manufacturing enterprises? Never,
to any great extent until a plan has
been worked out to take the specu-
lator in raw land out of the deal.
Probably the most practical plan
will be, as is being done in Vancou-
yer, B. c., and other places, to stop
taxing productive labor and put tax
on vacant land, which will put an
end to speculation on such land and
make manufacturing sites possible
in Seattle.
Il know of one instance of manu-
featuring establishment, at present
located in Seattle, being fined about
$50, 700 (as property tax) for the
crime of conducting a manufacture
ing establishment in Seattle. Now
this is all impossible from business
point Of view. You may be able to
bankrupt those now doing business
there but you cannot induce others
to locate, and without manufacto-
ries you will never have a stable
and prosperous city. This will never
be accomplished except by destroy
ing vacant land values by taxation
SO as to permit the manufactures
to secure a location for his industry /;
and, second, by largely reducing
or entirely abolishing the personal
property tax on the manufacturer s
plant. You can call this radical, or
anything you wish, but Seattle will
come to it if she expects to become
a great commercial center.
This is not an essay on the Panama
/ Canal. though the sl1hiect discussed