James J. Hill’s Pacific Ambitions
The Great Northern Railroad president reveals a bold plan to dominate the Pacific lumber market and establish high-speed steamship links to Asia.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
President Hill, of the Great Northern railroad, and his party left for the East on the 5:20 p.m. train on the Northern Pacific road yesterday. Mr. Hill talked freely of his plans for the development of the country tributary to his road. 'In three months you will see a great change in the railroad situation here, and in a year you will see a wonderful change. We propose to develop the lumber business of this region. I am going to get the lumbermen of the prairie states together and bring them here and show them that they can buy their lumber here at an advantage. I think a 40-cent rate will help the lumber business considerably, and we shall make a 40-cent rate to Chicago.' Mr. Hill is also making arrangements to have ocean liners from Puget Sound to China and Japan, and is having designs prepared for boats which will make the trip across the Pacific in nine days and have a possible speed of twenty-four knots an hour.
“I'm not scattering any promises around, but we intend to help develop this section.”
James J. Hill’s vision of Seattle as a Pacific trade gateway helped transform a frontier logging town into a major logistical hub. Today, Seattle remains a critical point in the global supply chain, though the conversation has shifted from rail expansion to the environmental and land-use impacts of such rapid commercial growth.
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