The Struggle for the Alaska Trade

Some two weeks ago, an interview with Captain James Carroll, then of the Idaho but now of the Ancon, was published in these columns, in which Captain Carroll stated that on his arrival in San Francisco he would do what he could to induce Messrs. Goodall, Perkins & Co., agents for the Pacific Coast Steamship Company's vessels, to make Seattle the bound starting point of the steamers running to Alaska, instead of Port Townsend. The reasons for this are obvious. In the first place, Seattle is the largest city in the Territory, and the only place on the Sound which carries on a wholesale trade with the outside to any extent; it is the distributing point for the entire Sound country, and every person to Alaska from Port Townsend, except the residents of that place, have to pass through Seattle to get there. The business men of Seattle have already established important business relations with Alaska merchants, which relations require the shipment of considerable freight both to and from Alaska. There are many other good and sufficient reasons, however, which might be mentioned, and that is, that Seattle is the actual terminus of a transcontinental line of railroad from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, and that many carloads of freight arrive direct from the Eastern states, and are unloaded directly into the warehouses of our wholesale dealers. As stated before, Captain Carroll promised to lay the matter before the agents of the company, and from the appearance of things he has done so, for in response to a telegram from Goodall, Perkins & Co., the Post Intelligencer this morning advertises the steamship Ancon, Captain James Carroll, to leave Seattle for Alaska, via Port Townsend and Victoria, on Monday, May 17th, at 7 o'clock a. m.