The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-06-01
JAMES J. HILL.

The death of Hill removes from the sphere of American industry and finance notable figure among maly notable figures. He is type of genius that has found far larger development on tho American con- tinent than in any other section of the civilized world. That type has been called empire builders" be- cause they presented many things in common to the world conquerorb who spread the realms of great na- tions far afield.
 With Hill the comparison seems more fitting because he has been associated with the growth and de- velopment of tho great northwest and generally to him has been ac- credited all that growth end that development.
 Papers addicted to flattering the great and powerful freely concedc that without Hill the northwest would still be a frontier and his persistency end his energy $ alone responsible for its up-building and it's prosperity.
 It is in this como, tion to be said that most historie1 are based upon the same awkward fallccy. The scribes taking cognizance of the processus of events down the chap ters of human story ascribe the historical movement to this or that great man and plainly intimate that without the existence of such an one, 1t might have been and probably would have been entirely different.
 But correcter is the view that holds that Hill himself avs but the creature of circumstances. It was his good fortune to ride upon the crest of the wave of development that swept over tho fertile acres or tho northwest, and associated with an industry of paramount import ancc in that development he could not have been financially end in- dustrially other than he wGs.
 His claim to greatness lies in that his character end his genius was adjusted to the circumstances of the development of the northwest and he made the most of that ready made adjustment it was his fortune to enjoy. Hill was railroad man. ager and railroad builder of quite unusual characteristics, He was a good judge of subordinates. He was not troubled by over scrupul- ous methods in the manipulation ot his holdings. He had shrewd ideas that the main purpose of railroad construction was to get the trains running over territory which would prove productive, and thereafter to let the maintenance take care of it. self. Being personally interested in his railroad he avoided the troublesome necessity of watered stock that proved such an annoy ance in the history of the Northern Pacific, and he had ever before him the mistake of that road to avoid and to be warned by.
 He was not in the strict sense of the word a pioneer, and he was wise enough to recognize that while there is considerable of TO- nance and interest and excitement in pioneering, as applied to the railroad industry it did not pay. IL usually led straight into the re- ceiver's hands. And Hill had the shrewd Canadian faculty for desir- ing to be his own receiver.
 The Great Northern railroad was constructed through a territory whose development sooner or later was inevitable. It needed no ghost to come from its trouble1 grave to tell financier that the wheat fields of the Dakotas, the ranges and mines of Montana the wheat and lumber resources of Washington would richly repay ex- pioitation. And if Hill did not lead there through with his Great North ern. another would have done so with another road.
 That the road hastened the de- veiopment of all these resources it is not possible to question; but it is ridiculous to credit Hill with that