The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1916-04-14
COL. T. R. PLACE TELLS
NEEDS AND HOPES
OF THE WEST

Col. Z. r. Place recently returned to
Winnemucca after 30-day north and
east in the interests of the Western
Pacific and Missouri Pacific railways.
In the Silver State of Winnemucca its
issue of April 9th appeared charac-
tertistic interview with Col. Place.
Col. Place states there is daylight
ahead for the railroads and every in
dividual engaged in any kind of vo-
cation in the glorious west. Colonel
Place calls it glorious because he says
it is glorious. He has lived in the
sagebrush for IS years and knows
whereof he talks.
Col Places interview in the Silver
State is as follows:
"Harroun, you are a -gatherer.
Every time you come to me you ask
what's new?' Why, man alive, every
thing is new. You are always asking
some native to tell you what's doin'.'
IF you will just look around you,
you'll see enough dom to keep you
writing about it from sunup to sum
down. You remember the old story of
how God came to make the West,
don't you? The smart easterner came
out here years ago and looked over
great American desert When he
returned to the effete East his friends
asked him what he thought of it. He
whiskered yarn of how the Lord after
painstaking and careful construction
of the country east of the Missouri
west and became discouraged-just
1oI 10 k,
modelled with ordinary dirt, and let it
go at that. Mr.. Smarty had no idea Of
what God put in that dirt-he, of
to picture the wheat fields springing
up out of that unused soil that have
fed millions. Hilltops in Oregon and
Idaho that tourists took pictures of to.
carry back east to show the utter des-
olation of the damn country has pro-
duced more dollars to the acre than
the Vermont farmer ever dreamed of
producing. Wise writers wrote of
their trips through the mining coun-
try and to help out their funny
thoughts described the situation as
here and there holes in the ground
can be seen where unshaven and UNI
kept lunatics have burrowed in for
shelter and dollars that do not exist
Values Must Return to Level.
well, God put a pot of dollars
here and there in Nevada, Utah. Cali
fornia, Idaho, Washington and Mon
tana that the 'lunatics' dug out, which
have clothed and sheltered world of
people and provided shaving money
besides. You read in your exchanges
of the wonderful prosperity now in
full blast in the East, and I've been
asked thousand times why that pros
perity don't get out here. 1t is here
always has been here-and will final
ly get here is such force that it will
overwhelm you. But it won't come
as a food until you get values down
to where they belong. The same
easterner who finally discovered that
the great American DESERT could be
exploited came out here to exploit it.
He doomed real estate, He doomed
mining. He doomed oil. He doomed
irrigation. His one thought was to
clean up and go back to dear old
New York. and Chi and tell of the
numerous suckers he feeced. The
westerner didn't bring about the in
f1ated boom. He was overcome, awed
by the gibilness of tongue, the magni-
ficent front that the fellow from the
east put up. He became the majority
sucker himself and usually went
broke. Values are here. have always
been here, but not to the extent of
$1,000 per front foot for sagebrush
lots in the Queen Elizabeth Addition
to Winnemucca, nor the Last Chance,
Villa de Luxe within walking distance
of Oakland.
"The Woodworking clerk and labor
ing man purchased these homes in the
hills on the installment plan, paid too
much for them, went ON paying until
a change took place in their occupa-
tons, or they were forcel by circum-
stances to go elsewhere. Then the