The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-04-05
W.N. Will RETURN
|DAHO'S BUSINESS

In the. san FRANCISCO Call of yester.
day morning appears the second of the
series of articles urging the construc
tion of the Winnemucea Northern rail
road, from the pen of Arthur L. Price
special correspondent of that paper. Ii
is profusely illustrated and is in part
as follows:
When 218 miles of railroad are laid
between Boise, Idaho, and Winnemue.
ca, Nevada, connecting with the West
ern Pacific railroad or the Southern
Pacific, both of which pass through the
Nevada city, San Francisco will be by
rail 696 miles from Boise, the capita,
and business center of "the growing.
est state in the union. Then San
Francisco will regain trade that il
once held as its own.
"The older merchants of San Fran.
eisco,' said General Joseph Perrault
to me in Boise, twill remember when
San Francisco had all of the wholesale
trade of Idaho and the northwest
With the building of the Oregon Short
Line into southern Idaho in 1888. San
Francisco lost that trade. When the
Boise Winnemueca railroad is complet-
ed San Francisco will regain that
trade
Frank X. Coffin, president of an i'm
portant Boise bank, affirmed all that
General Perrault had said, and when
! returned to San Francisco and spoke
to William X. Wheeler, manager of
the traffic bureau of the San Francisco
Chamber of Commerce, he reaffirme.l
the story of the Idaho men, recalling
the fact that up to 30 years ago the
entire northwest was trade tributary
of San Francisco
The Boise Winnemueea cutoff is not
an entirely new project in San Fran
CISCO but il is matter not now so
conspicuous as il will be when San
Francisco and Oakland and the bay
region realize that this tremendous
empire is waiting for a railroad so
that il can come direct to San Fran
cisco by rail.
Indorsed by Chamber.
The San Francisco Chamber of Com
merce has passed the following reso-
lutions concerning the proposed line:
Resolved, That the board of di.
rectors of the San Francisco Chamber
of Commerce approves the reeommen-
dation of the transportation commit
tee that every encouragement be ex-
tended to the construction of a rail.
road between Winnemucca, Nevada
and Boise, Idaho, inasmueh as the ope.
ration of such a road would broaden
San Francisco iobbing territory and
make this port gateway for the ex-
portation of the products of south
western Idaho and southeastern Ore
gon."
That is encouragement. II is be
yond the province of the Chamber of
Commerce 10 give physical aid TO such
project, but the fighting men of the
chamber and the progressive men OF
Oakland must not let the railroad idea
die of malnutrition. No proposition,
however worthy, can live on resolu-
tions alone.
The Mining Industry.
In the mining epoch there was close
kinship between Idaho and California.
That kinship will be revived when a
railroad is laid between Boise and
Winnemucea
Today, when distance is entirely a
matter of railraod connections, and
San Francisco and Boise are separated
as far as they can be, it is difficult to
believe that every pair of boots that
outfitted the early Idahoan; nearly
every side of bacon that went into the
prospector's pack, every pick and
shovel that fetched the gold from
ldaho's placer beds, came from San
Francisco. via Portland and Walla
Walla.
Two pioneers of Boise told me OF
this early commercial relation between
the two places.
These men were Joseph Perrault and
Frank r. Coffin.
General Perraut came to Idaho IN
1864, and has been student of the
history and development of this state
He was once surveyor general of the
state.
All Northwest Tributary.
"'When | came in '64, he said
''all of the northwest territory, Ore
gon, Washington, Idaho and Montana
was tributary in business sense to
San Francisco. Every bit of business
merchandising, trading, was done with
San Francisco. From the wholesale
houses in San Francisco the goods
would be shipped by steamer to Port
land, and thence up the Columbia river
t. Walla Walla. At Walla Walla the
pack trains would meet the steamers
and distribute the goods throughout
the northwest.
az have seen in Walla Walla pack
trains of 60 mules starting out for tho
northwestern towns, and wagon trains
mile long getting under way. There
were roads connecting Boise an.
Walla Walla, for Boise was on the ole
Oregon trail.
Trade Lost Since 1884.
FBut in 1884 the Oregon Short Lhn'
was built and since then our frelgh
has been hauled by rail and Sa'
Francisco has lost it all.
"But Idaho money helped to bull,
many San Francisco s merchant Z
fortune and the old houses will re
member the time when they had th'
northwest trade
General Perrault remembers tn
early adventures in agriculture in tn