The Great 'Deep Water' Lie: Seattle vs. Tacoma

On the 16th, a number of gentlemen from England and the East arrived in Seattle, who were traveling in Pullman cars. Among the three was Mr. A. G. Honey, superintendent of telegraphic wires for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Another of the three was the editor of the Tacoma Ledger. The conversation turned to the lands and wheat yield of Washington Territory. Mr. Honey remarked that he saw no bright future for Portland, because the handling of the wheat would be done hereafter principally on the Sound, being hauled by the Cascade Division to Seattle. He said the road would be in condition to move the wheat crop of the present year.

'You speak of Seattle,' timidly suggested the newspaper man, 'as being destined to reap this advantage of wheat shipment. I have been told that Tacoma was the terminal of the road and was likely to be very much benefited by this increase in the direction of the wheat crop.'

'Oh, well,' replied Mr. Honey, 'that sort of thing might do if Tacoma had the proper facilities. The trouble with Tacoma is she has no shipping facilities. The water is too deep there. You can't anchor a ship there at Tacoma.'

'I have no difficulty in remembering to have seen ships at anchor there,' the editor replied. 'They told me that while in the center of the bay the water was very deep, yet that around the whole, on the sides and at the head of the bay, there was enough good anchorage ground to tie up at one time all of the ships that are afloat upon the Pacific ocean.'

'Oh, you have been misinformed,' was the hasty interruption of Mr. Honey. 'There is really nothing at Tacoma.' And then, as though feeling himself out noticed in a little white whopper, Mr. Honey was soon one to drop the subject of anchorage and, like all Seattle strikers when cornered, take refuge in the threadbare plea of the immense enterprise which the inhabitants of Seattle contain within themselves.

Are you not aware, Mr. Honey, that in declaring that there is no anchorage at Tacoma, you not only say what is false, but that you strike a blow at one of the most valuable interests of your employers? Are you not aware that fourteen years ago the corporation which employs and pays you selected Tacoma as the terminus of its road formally, by resolution of the Board of Directors, and that all of its action in relation thereto has been such as to establish that resolution? An extraordinary effort is being made in Seattle to unload real estate because the men of that town see the handwriting on the wall. The completion of the Cascade division means the fortune of Tacoma and not Seattle, and you have no right to falsify the fact.