Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1916-02-04

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is projected, with one link thereof now
operating, to cover the same region,
which will afford two connections in
the north. Similarly, the extension of
the proposed railroad bed from New
Meadows to Mccall, elevation 5000
feet), terminus of the Payette Lake
branch Of the Oregon Short Line Rail.
road will also make two southern con-
nections.
We have ignored all reference to the
Salmon river route above higgins and
below Whitebird, believing that our eff.
forts should be devoted exclusively to
the "missing link" between north and
south Idaho. There is no question but
that the route via the Salmon and
Snake rivers is the most economic from
the standpoint of operation, nor that ii
will eventually be built, presumably by
the Gilmore and Pittsburg, which. is
now understood to be the Northern
Pacific railway. But it will doubtless
be long time before this line is built
certainly not until the competition of
other transcOntinental lines becomes
such as to necessitate the investment
of the vast sum necessary to give the
owner road the advantages presented
by this route, The cost of this road
from Salmon City to Lewiston will
average 100000 per mile or more, and
the business available at this time or
in the near future from the contribut-
ing territory is negligible, It's one ad-
vantage lies in economic handling of
through freight.
The agricultural and livestock inter
ests adjoining and contiguous to the
river are not alone worry of attention
and transportation, but the many pro-
missing and rapidly developing mining
districts in the hinterland of the gold
en- heart of Idaho are to be included as
notable asset to the revenues of such
railroad lines as may be built here
after. The country directly tributary
to the proposed road is endowed with
great mineral resources, and the full
recognition and exploitation of this
source of wealth and revenues is simply
matter of transportations. The miner
al products of this section have in the
past exerted great influence upon the
general progress of the state, and are
destined to be of still greater impor-
lance in the future.
Water Power Available.
Ample water power, cheaply develop
ed, existing at various points on the
line of the proposed railroad, suggests
the thought that these power sites should
be located by the state and developed
sufficiently for the installation of
portable plants, not only with the aim
of ecOnomising in the cost of construc-
ton through the heavy work, but with
ultimate aim of operating the road
by electricity, and furnishing light,
nd % Ak0
tries along the line of the road.
In view of the general stagnation in
railroad construction existing through
out the country at this time, the state
may secure very favorable terms for
the construction of the road bed by
some of the big contractors who have
hands, or such equipment can be bought
at great bargains and used by the con
Wet labor in constructing the road bed.
1t requires no great largeness of
vision or depth of foresight to gauge
the great material, economic and Social
advantages to be brought about by
linking the two now remote-and to
some extent, hostile-sections of the
state through the construction of this
great commercial highway. The po-
tential developments of the region to
be traversed by the road are very great,
and the legislature which inaugurates
this work will hand down to posterity
the most valuable asset in the posses
sion of the state.
Under existing conditions of what is
termed hostile legislation, we cannot
expect private capital to engage in new
railroad construction, and if we are to
have railroad line to connect the two
isolated section of our state, it must
be built by the state. We cannot in
definitely stand apart. The necessity
for better means of intercourse between
the north and south is admitted on all
hands. Wonderful as the growth Of
the state of Idaho has been through
federal aid in promoting irrigation in
the arid belts, yet its progress has been
slow in proportion to the almost fabu-
lous resources of which the state is pos
sessed, in comparison with the growth
of neighborin" states less we'll endowed
with natural resources. This is chiefly
owing to the difficulty of access and
the little that is known of the resources
of the Idaho hinterland. But though
looming to Importance slowly, it is easy
to conceive what the future has in store
when the state is linked together with
rapid transportation facilities.
Necessary to Development.
The first great necessity for growth
and development is railroad communi-
cation connecting the north and south,
linking up each with the other, the
great transcontinental railroad sys-
TENS which traverse the state in the
north and in the south. Our past DO
litical history shows repeated attempts |
to disintegrate the state of Idaho, and |
here is no true security for future
unity and stability but in the easy and |
direct communication with the differ
ent sections of the state. We must so |
live that we can see and know each |
other, and the sections must be knit |
and lgatured by the ties of material
interest and friendship which come
rom acquaintance, association and col
ective interests, thus forming a triple
,hain which the blows of faction can
lot sever. In such a condition the feel
ngs Of unity and state pride form an
shield which cannot be
broken by misunderstanding and es-
Under existing cOndi-
ions, those who frame the laws of the
tate to meet the actual condition and
haracter In every part of the state
annOt inform and qualify themselves
or the dufsaa ~ that ~oosAso,, L.. -