St. Louis Money Was Ready—If Seattle Guaranteed the Canal

The first definite steps on the part of the people of the city toward securing the subsidy required to ensure the carrying out of the project of the Seattle Lake Washington Waterway Company for the filling in of the tide lands and the excavation of the south canal and the Duwamish waterways were taken yesterday by a committee of citizens, which was requested by the waterway company to take the matter in hand, and tomorrow the plans of the company and the assistance it expects from the people will be fully explained at another meeting by Henry Semple Ames, the representative of the St. Louis capitalists, who have agreed to furnish the money, estimated at $7,000,000, necessary for the work.

The committee, composed of Jacob Furth, N. H. Latimer, W. D. Wool, S. L. Crawford, F. D. Black and F. A. Turner, met at 2 o'clock at the waterway company's office and decided to send out circulars to a number of citizens notifying them of a meeting to be held at 3:30 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. The circular, signed by all the members of the committee, is as follows:

'Dear Sir: The undersigned were invited by the officers of the Seattle & Lake Washington Waterway Company to meet Mr. Henry Semple Ames, of St. Louis, who is now in the city as the representative of the St. Louis capitalists who are to furnish the large amount of money necessary for the construction of the south canal and the filling in of the tide flats. Mr. Ames assured us that the St. Louis capitalists were well pleased and thoroughly satisfied with the proposition, and are ready to advance the money for it as soon as the subsidy necessary to cover the extra expense for locks, bridges, right-of-way, etc., has been secured.

Realizing the immense importance of this undertaking to every resident of Seattle and King county, we thought it best to call a meeting of representative citizens to take this matter of obtaining the subsidy in hand, and by so doing to allow the officers of the Waterway Company opportunity to perfect other arrangements for beginning the work as soon as possible. We would therefore request you to attend a meeting at the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce (Seattle National Bank building), to be held at 3:30 p.m. Monday, March 25.

Trusting that you will make it a point to attend, we remain, etc.'

The subsidy is desired to meet the cost of the locks and right-of-way for the south canal and of the bridges across it, as the law under which the tide lands are to be filled in does not provide for charging this part of the work against the tide lands. The St. Louis people have made it a condition of furnishing the capital that the whole enterprise shall be carried out as a whole without interruption, and have undertaken to advance the money to pay for the locks, bridges and right-of-way for the canal on condition that they are reimbursed from the subsidy when the work is completed. With this end in view, the subsidy is to be made payable when the whole vast enterprise is completed and the first ship passes through the canal into Lake Washington, and not before that event.