Railroad Chief Blasts Seattle's Tide-Flat Terminal Plan as Too Costly

Part of Receiver C of Northern Pacific officials arrived in the city yesterday. R. H. McHenry, chief engineer, who came in yesterday morning to remain until this morning; M. C. Kimberley, E. Dickinson, assistant general superintendent; Walter Oakes, superintendent of the Puget Sound & Alaska steamers; H. H. Warner, master mechanic at the Edison shops; and Joseph McCabe, division superintendent, who is through the city Thursday morning on their way to Everett, returned yesterday, and quietly returned to Tacoma, but it is expected that the chief engineer and his companions will be in Seattle today or tomorrow. Mr. McHenry called on B. F. Bush, general superintendent of the Columbia Puget Sound railroad, yesterday, and also spent some time in M. Stixrud's office, looking over maps and plats of the company's property and the crossings matter. Mr. McHenry said that he could not say when the company would be ready to commence on its terminal works, or when it would proceed with any of the many improvements in and about Seattle which it has in view. Said he: 'You know times are hard, and we feel it as much as anyone else. When money gets freer and times pick up and there is more travel over the road, then we will take up the matter of putting out more money. Business at the present time, however, does not seem to justify any great outlay of money on something we can get along without. But money will probably soon be easier to get hold of, and then the people out here can expect to hear from us.' 'Have you examined the tide land plat and the proposition the appraisers have in mind for the centralization of the railroads coming into the city?' the chief engineer was asked. 'I have studied them carefully,' said he without hesitation. 'I am convinced that the appraisers have done all that could be expected in the matter, and that the map is a wise one. It was undoubtedly a hard matter to devise a way of taking care of all the roads and do the proper thing by all of them, but they seem to have done all that could be accomplished in that line. We have no complaint to make on that score, for the scheme is a good one. But it has one great drawback. I fully expected that, if we bought the land, we would have a good many conditions to contend with, such as giving the right of entry to other lines entering here, allowing them privilege to purchase their interest, etc., but that is not all. Since my arrival I have found out that the drawbacks are so numerous and serious that, unless some change is made, they will very likely be prohibitory. First, we have the adjoining property owners' equity title to contend with, and then the state's claim comes in. The flats, according to the contract with the state, will be filled arbitrarily, whether the holders of title wish it or not. The cost of filling is then regarded as a lien against the property, and, if the lien is not satisfied, the neglect simply amounts to confiscation of the property, for the land will be taken away from the holder and disposed of to others who will pay for it. The claim of those who fill the flats will, I am told, amount to $4,300 an acre, and there are something like 135 acres in the tract set aside for the railroads, which for this item alone would necessitate an expenditure of over three-quarters of a million dollars. Now, no railroad will feel able or disposed to purchase terminal facilities at such a figure. It would be too much. And then, too, we don't know how much more it would cost for other items which under the existing law are made necessary. While I have no complaint to find with the platters and devisers of the scheme, the objection can be plainly seen. In the main the proposition is a wise one, but I should think that the appraisers would have made some special reduced appraisement of the 135 acres selected for terminal facilities. It would have had the effect of forcing all the roads into that tract and would average the tract price and provide for that purpose. Unless something of this kind is done, when the flats are filled and made suitable for occupancy, the roads will be crossing each other and will be jumbled all up interfering with one another and commerce and traffic generally.' Concerning the resignation of Paul Schulze, of whose suicide he had not yet heard, Mr. McHenry did not have much to say. He did not take much stock in the story that he had been forced to resign because of a change in the policy of the land department. He said the department had but one policy, and that was to make money, and make it where the most could be made. It was conducted on purely business principles and that was all there was to it. He said: 'I am sorry to see that Mr. Schulze has left the company, for he was a good man, and a good man also for the country. He did much for the country by identifying himself with legitimate business ventures.'