A Judge's Booster Sermon for the Ship Canal

Judge J. R. Lewis, after an absence of a year and a half from the state, is back in the city and as enthusiastic as ever over the outlook for both Seattle and the state at large. Since leaving Seattle he has been residing in San Jose, and is in excellent health and spirits. The judge has been at Yakima for a week attending to large business interests in that section, and will remain in this city for a week or ten days. In an interview with a Post-Intelligencer reporter at his apartments at the Butler Hotel, Judge Lewis said:

"Am I glad to get back to Seattle? Well, indeed I am. I have a reverence for this place and the entire state, and it seems like returning to a longed-for home. I have been at Yakima for a week attending to my interests in that county, and when I stepped off the train I was astonished to note the improvement since my departure for California a year and a half ago. Fine residences are going up, great ditches are being built, and stone and brick business houses greet the eye everywhere. The people seem satisfied that they have a magnificent country behind them, and are sparing neither pains nor expense to develop it. I have always maintained that that section of country and Seattle are the best points in the state, and my predictions are bearing fruit.

"In my opinion Washington will, in a very few years, rank among the first states in the Union. Of course, it is dull now, but that is only natural, as the country at present almost entirely depends on the timber industry, and when the demand for timber is small times are dull. The people in the East are just beginning to find out that the finest lumber on the market for the construction of bridges is Puget Sound fir, and it will not be long before there is an immense demand for it. ... Another thing we lead the world in is cedar shingles, and shipments have grown so rapidly from this state that they are enormous and constantly increasing.

"As times brighten up in the East and people get hold of a little money, you will see a flood of immigration to this wonderfully favored state that will amaze you. The coal and iron industries are also growing rapidly. All these things taken into consideration, the state cannot help but grow and prosper. It seems to me that the whole nation is on the eve of prosperity, and with a return of confidence all the money that is hoarded up in the big business centers will be turned loose, the nation again placed under Republican rule, and the good old times when every one had money be upon us once more."

As Judge Lewis was one of the leaders in the movement which stirred up the Seattle spirit after the great fire and caused the rebuilding of the city on its ruins, he was naturally enthusiastic over the revival of that spirit in raising the subsidy for the South Canal. That subject was no sooner broached to him than he said:

"I think the South Canal project is a first-class one and the proposition feasible in every way. The subsidy of $500,000 will surely be raised, and will prove an excellent advertisement for the city all over the country. The results so far show that the old-time spirit still lives and Seattle pluck and energy will pull the town out. When the canal is finished, manufacturing industries can be supplied with fresh water at a nominal cost. This matter of water supply may sound small, but it is a big item in the operation of manufacturing industries. The canal will also furnish in Washington a market station for all vessels in the Northwest, as in case of being without a charter they can lay up in the fresh water of the lake, thereby saving owners the expense of having them docked. The big thing in the canal, though, will be that Seattle will become the grain shipping center of the Northwest, and the shipments over the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern railroads will all center here. Shipowners will certainly favor this city, as their ships will be in fresh water while being loaded with grain and will also be able to take on fresh water at little or no expense and no bother. In numberless other ways the canal will help the city.

"Looking at the general situation after my long absence (I can call it long, for it seems a century), I cannot see anything but immediate prosperity for the whole state, with its great natural storehouse waiting for the hand of man to develop and open out. We will spring right up. We will climb up, for we have immense facilities for climbing. Seattle will have a greatly increased population within two years after the revival, and from that right on up."