San Francisco Capitalists Plan a New Waterway at Smith's Cove

A company with a large amount of capital has been formed to fill in the tide lands in Smith's Cove, starting from Hartford Street and extending southerly to Pike Street, and covering an extensive area of tide land. The company has made an original application for a contract to do the work to Commissioner of Public Lands T. Forrest, and the hearing is set for May 7 at Olympia.

The company filed its articles of incorporation yesterday with the county auditor under the name of the Washington Dredging Improvement Company, with Ellis Morrison, William F. Hays and Frank Shay as incorporators. The company is said to be backed financially by a number of wealthy San Francisco capitalists, among them William P. Humphreys, connected with the city engineering department of San Francisco, who is in charge of all the sewerage system of that city. Mr. Humphreys is also the inventor of an improved hydraulic dredger which will be used in digging the waterway of Smith's Cove and filling the tide land. The objects of the company, according to its articles of incorporation, are to construct canals, waterways, dredging machines, and do a general business in reclaiming lands for general purposes.

Messrs. Humphreys and Shay are now in the city looking after the interests of their company and will return to San Francisco in a few days for a brief visit. Frank Shay is an attorney in San Francisco, and has for over twenty years been counsel for the Southern Pacific railroad. Messrs. Shay, Hays and Humphreys were seen by a reporter of the Post-Intelligencer at the Rainier-Grand last evening and unfolded their proposed plan of operation. Mr. Shay, as spokesman for the party, related how they came to develop the Smith's Cove project, which had not even been considered when they left San Francisco for Seattle last month.

'We had had considerable correspondence with people interested in the south end,' said Mr. Shay, 'and with prominent citizens of Seattle relative to the dredging of waterways at the south end and the filling in of tide flats. Being the owners of dredging machinery which we knew to be more powerful than any other in use, doing more work at less cost, we were desirous of making a bid for the work in the Seattle harbor. At the invitation of some of your citizens we came here about the middle of March, and since that time we have carefully examined every portion of the harbor, the proposed improvements and the various waterways and canals heretofore surveyed. While our visit was with the intention of bidding on the south waterway work, yet when we found the Smith's Cove waterway open, we determined, after a thorough investigation, to make an original application for the construction of that waterway. Our contract is similar to that of the south canal people.'

Under the general improvement act of 1893, by which any person or corporation may apply to the state for a contract to excavate waterways and reclaim tide and shore lands belonging to the state, the commissioner is authorized to make such contracts, subject to the approval of the governor. The contract must contain a provision fixing the cost of the work, to which 15 per cent is added as profit to the contracting parties. The cost, plus 15 per cent profit, is made a lien on the tide lands when filled in, and purchasers of tide lands from the state must discharge this lien, which they may do by making ten annual payments with interest at 8 per cent on deferred installments, or they can pay the full amount whenever they please and stop the payment of interest.

'We must set to work on this proposition within six months after the contract is awarded, though we will not wait so long, but expect to get to work as soon as we can construct the dredgers. The soil for the filling process we expect to get principally from the waterway and some of it from the uplands, the owners of which have already expressed a willingness to have their bluffs reduced.'

'Some people seem to have an idea this move was in some measure antagonistic to the south canal enterprise. But I do not think that this feeling is shared by any of the promoters of that work. It seems to me that any improvement on the water front, or in any of the waterways adjacent to Seattle, must help every other similar enterprise, for everything of that nature must help Seattle. The improvements at the north end ought to assist development at the south end, and vice versa.'

'The north end improvements are comparatively small when compared with the vast magnitude of the work proposed at the south end. They will be completed in very much less time and at very much less expense. The south end work will require millions of money and about seven years for its completion, but the money is ready and the time has been closely estimated. When the tide flats at the south end shall have been reclaimed and the waterways constructed, they will give a wharf frontage of about thirteen miles, and in connection with the canal to Lake Washington will afford facilities for industrial and shipping enterprises second to none in the world. The reclaimed area of about 1,000 acres will give sufficient room for manufacturing establishments, elevators, railroad terminals and many industries.'

'The improvements at Smith's Cove will furnish accommodations for milling companies and railroad yards and shops. It will give about three and a half miles of wharfage room as well sheltered as any, and all with deep water.'

'The first dredgers to be used in the work will be built here, and work on them will commence as soon as we secure the contract. This means labor and material, as all the piling and lumber will be secured here. We believe that we can construct our dredgers here for much less money than we can build them for at San Francisco, while the towing of a dredger from San Francisco to Seattle would be both dangerous and expensive.'

Mr. Humphreys is a noted engineer and comes from a celebrated family, his brother being Major General Andrew A. Humphreys, who was in command of a corps during the Civil War and who was also chief of the United States engineer corps.