The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-03-13

= Acb Iii =
/, fronted on the Pacific, and was th'
only fresh-water harbor on the coast
"The first day there l walked 81
miles looking the ground over.
spent several days investigating, anC
returned to Portland satisfied that 6
fortune for myself, and others, could
be made there.
1T had 81 left from my borrowed
fifty. With SIS of it, 1 rented an of
flee for a month, paid a dollar down
a real estate business in Portland
capital 81 in cash.
with nothing but that dollar to
back me, 1 took an option on a piece
of property in Warrenton. Il believe
owner. Give me thirty days to find
out. A chance is all I ask
son the twe%nty-ninth day I was
about to acknowledge 1 had been
crying for the noon when it suddenly
fell in my lap. I sold that piece of
land for enough to pay for it and
make a thousand dollars for myself.
81 was the richest woman in the
world. No matter how much money
1 ever have, 1 will never be as rich
and as Independent as / was that
day.
"It took me a week to come down
to earth again. I bought up several
other pieces of property. 1 was
launched. And I was remarkably
successful.
Things began to break as I had
dreamed, when along came the war.
l knew there was no use trying to
sell real estate. So / took the exam
ination for chauffeur in France. But
my two brothers got ahead of me.
Both were accepted and wen across,
the ban against relatives prohibiting
my going.
with my attention diverted back
again to Warrenton, l concentrated
it on what could be done in wartime
to build it up. In order to build we
had to have tonnage. The idea oc-
Cured to me that the time was ripe
to go after Montana wheat. Rather
than ship it a thousand miles to the
eastern market, why not route it
west, relieving the railroad conges-
ton and the farmer, too"
She went to Great Falls, Montana,
and presented her suggestion to Rail-
road Commission Jack Hall. He took
it as a joke. However, says her bio
grapher:
Mrs. Barrett soon convinced him
that it was not, and when the logic
of her argument sank in he went out
to investigate what she had been
telling him. He called a meeting of
the Middle Western farmers coop
erative organizations.
Of a membership of 100000, thir-
ty-five delegates attended, and voted
to send a representative to Washing
ton to interview Mr.. McAdoo and Mr..
Hoover.
The Minneapolis people got wind
of what was happening. They sent
opposition representatives to Wash
ington, and also sent a special train
through the Northwest with press
agents and si~lver-tongued orators adj
vocating the st. Lawrence Ship
Canal. /
Which gave Mrs. Barrett another
card to play. She went to New York
to see the New York Waterways Com
mission. Look here" she said, I'M
rolling a neat little map, "it is time
enough to develop harbors in Canada
when American harbors are develop
ed" She astonished the commission
ers with her facts about Warrenton
and Astoria port po~tentialities, with
her inside knowledge of western in
dustries, of commerce and of freight.
Three months later things began
to happen. A seven per cent prefer
entail rate west was granted on Mon
tana wheat, and soon the first car
of wheat ever routed west was on
it's way, beginning the steady stream
of wheat flowing down the Columbia
river into the Pacific. What no man
had ever attempted to do was accom-
plished by a lone woman
When on March IS, 1928, Mrs.
Barrett received the Geographic an
nouncement of her appointment as
city manager of the town she had
built, she was in Portland. Friends
ran her down in their private car,
and on this Mrs. Barrett held a re-
ception. The band turned out and
the whole town came to the railroad
siding to welcome the woman who
but a few years before had walked
its unpaved streets with weary feet
one dollar in her pocket and a mil
lion dollars worth of faith In her
heart.
Explaining Warrenton's need for
a city manager, Mrs. Barrett said
there were certain political and fin
ancial interests against the town that
kept it from growing. "And the
mayor and commissioners offered me
the job because they knew I had
in it and wouldn't give up when
got tough"
She appointed five of the leading
business men in Warrenton to act as
her board of directors-at the same
she is receiving, a dollar a
year. And cooperating with the
board are several committees-on
housing and building, parks, civic
improvements, and a river and har-