The Seattle-Tacoma Rivalry Hits the Rails

Our distinguished visitor, Mr. Ives of Boston, a Director of the Northern Pacific, spent too short a time in Seattle to see much of our beauties and resources. Whether the shortness of his stay was due to his own inclination or to a solicitude on the part of Superintendent Buckley to prevent him from getting an adequate idea of our city, we are unable to say. Mr. Ives is a business man of affairs, and an able railroad manager, and it is perhaps owing to his sagacity and ability that he is not in sympathy with the ring that now controls the destinies of the Northern Pacific. His active hostility to this ring at the annual election has perhaps kept him out of the inner directorate. We trust that Mr. Ives even in the short time that he remained with us saw enough to convince him that Seattle is a business center and not a mere real estate speculation. To a man of the experience of Mr. Ives, it must seem strange to see the meager accommodations that are given to a city of the size and importance of Seattle, and to note the discrimination against it by his road in favor of towns that compare with it neither in size, population, commercial importance or future prospects. He must think also that men cannot speculate in land and run railroads on business principles at the same time. We believe that the opposition of Mr. Ives to the management which is running the Northern Pacific Railroad as a side-show to the Tacoma Land Company will not be lessened by what he has seen while in Washington Territory.