Samuel Hill Warns Seattle Would 'Die Like Rats in a Trap' Without Highways

There are pending before Congress today two bills that, as soon as they are enacted into law, will add thousands of dollars to the value of lands in this state and make it possible in the course of a little time for every rancher to double the load he takes to market. Reference is made to the Latimer bill before the United States Senate and the Brownlow bill before the House. These bills are substantially identical, and have for their aim the improving of the public highways throughout the whole country. How soon either or both bills may become laws no one can tell, but until they are passed it is the duty of every lover of good roads to do all he can to hasten their passage. These are the bills that have been agreed upon by the Congress of the Good Roads Association, held at Washington, D.C., the latter part of January last.

The provisions of the Brownlow bill were given at some length in these columns a few weeks since. It provides that Congress shall appropriate a sum of money for the improvement of the highways, the money to be distributed among the states according to population, but no state is to have less than $250,000 as its share. It is made incumbent upon each state, before it can secure the money, to appropriate an equal sum to be added to the government funds given such state. Should any state refuse to make the necessary appropriation the money will be withheld by the government, but any county may receive a sum by making an appropriation out of its treasury equal to the amount asked of the government. Provision is also made in the bill for the proper expenditure of all moneys for the improvement of the roads.

The work contemplated by the bills mentioned above will embrace a very large scale and it will take years before it can be anywhere near completion. Indeed, it is proposed to make the improvement of the roads a permanent thing, the work to go on from year to year as new districts become sufficiently settled to warrant the work being taken up. The older districts will receive attention at once, but the newer ones are not to be neglected by any means. The importance of the work cannot be computed in figures. Good highways are absolutely necessary in the building up of any community. Especially is this the case along the coast, where the rainfall is so heavy that the roads are impassable in many sections. Counties have done what they could toward the improvement of their roads, but their funds have been too limited. Government aid is necessary to secure that degree of improvement throughout the entire state which the business of each community would warrant.

The Washington Good Roads Association is doing a good work in the direction of securing better roads. This organization is composed of a number of the foremost citizens of the state, and the president is Samuel Hill, son-in-law of President J. J. Hill, and president of the Seattle Gas Electric Company; the secretary is James B. Meikle, secretary of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and the treasurer is N. B. Coffman, of Chehalis. Besides the above the following gentlemen are on the executive committee: R. H. Thomson, city engineer of Seattle; Enoch A. Bryan, president of the state agricultural college, Pullman; Prof. Henry Landes, state university, Seattle, and A. H. Anderson, civil engineer, Seattle. These gentlemen are all working hard for better roads in the state, and they ask that the citizens do what they can to help along the good cause.

President Hill, in a communication to The Ranch, calls attention to the Latimer and Brownlow bills, spoken of above, and says, further: "It may interest you to know that the department at Washington informs me there is more interest manifested in the subject of good roads in the state of Washington than there is in any other state in proportion to its population.

"I feel that this matter is the most important matter now before the people of the United States. Let me ask you, what would be the condition of the city of Seattle if a Russian fleet should blockade our harbor and land marines and cut the railway lines of communication to the east? We could not get in food enough to feed our people. There is no highway leading from Seattle over which one-tenth of the people of Seattle could be transported, or could transport themselves. We would die like rats in a trap.

"All of this discussion as to what will build up Seattle, it seems to me, is of the most light and frivolous character, compared with the importance of constructing a system of highways which will lead out from the town — and not only from this town, but from every town in the state.

"If you will point me to one single city of any importance in the civilized world which has not highways leading from it, I will be glad to have you do so. Even the city of Venice, a city dependent almost entirely upon its canals, is traversed today by streets in every direction, and to one who is familiar it is possible to go all over Venice without getting into a gondola.

The United States is the most backward of any civilized country of the world on the question of roads. Our roads are the poorest and yet our people are the most intelligent, we think.

"I have entered into this matter, not as the result of any sudden impulse, but with an earnest desire that we may accomplish results. It is possible that we may not succeed this year, but ultimately we shall succeed. Every time I go from here to Victoria I am humiliated to find that there they have highways better than any that I know of in any of the western states of the Union, built entirely by convict labor; and I am earnestly desirous that our legislature may see fit to do as they have done in the southern states: employ the convict labor in the building of roads, or in the preparation of material for building roads."

[Caption.] MIRED IN A WASHINGTON ROAD.