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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1916)
TIIE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTULJiD, JAXTJARY SO,- 1916. ' cij IW PRINCE RUPERT, THE ALADIN- ;, :-BkZl -1 - Ql- H - BUILT PORT OF. THE NORTHERN I W'- t ' V ItfV PACIFIC J L NJK BY FRANK e. CARPENTER. VsfiN- -Ml i-? V. TTTfffk . TQr- -p? 7Thrj:rrj- -Az.t f . S 1 x I ' .. . . . 1 : Vx-lJ that has cost the Grand Trunk Pacillc tt'?J 1"" SV . 1 ' -v. ljv?v! - Railway 140.000 to make and Is to form .es"5! ' V " 3 j TV ' " "ifw?Lg tho Bite of a 2.000,000 hotel when the . "-V1LV" " x" VfV " l" 4 present financial stringency has passed. -jCjgS " s. J 1 it ;-W - . The private residences of Prince RU- - ' JJ V A" V JSPKMt!f pert include many, comfortable homes. xV . M acioKM tne Atlantic and Pacific oceans will be greatly reduced as to miles and days. It Is only about four days from Europe to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway be gins. The road runs from there in one continuous line across the North Amer- fCopyright. 1916. by Frank G. Carpenter) PRINCE RUPERT. British Columbia. Durinc the past few weeks I have visited each of the three rrincipal water gates to Alaska. I ailed north from Seattle. It is the .ief port of the Pacific Northwest, and 1 of our steamers that go northward lean continent to Prince Rupert on the art there. The city has seven trans- ontinental railways over which goods. stined for the Far North, come from 1 parts of the United States, and its usiness with Alaska la greater than hat of any other port. It is the bank. tie department store and -the barn of is territory. As to the bankinar. it andled in 1914, something like 128.- 10.000 of Alaskan exports and imports, nd as to 'its department store business he goods sent North were of every Ascription, and they sold for more han $14,600,000. As to Seattle being he barn of Alaska, it shipped there ist year $171,000 worth of oats, and a larter cf a million dollars' worth of ay and other feed, while its shipments f flour were almost as much. Seattle has one of the finest harbors f the world. It has 29 wharves and Pacific. It crosses Canada far north of the Great Lakes to Winnipeg, then cuts through the wheat belt to Edmon ton and goes on to climb the Rockies by easier grades than any other road that crosses our continent. It has short cuts by various connections to all of the United States cities and it prom ises to be the fast freight route for perishable products between Alaskan waters and the rest of the continent. Already trainloads of fresh fish are be ing shipped weekly from here to our . cities and every train that starts out has cars of halibut and salmon, fresh or frozen, destined for Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and Boston." I wish I coula show you Prince Ru pert. ' The town lies on a beautiful bay guarded by islands. Its harbor Is 14 miles long and large enough to A about and it was one of the difficulties that had to be conquered In laying out and building the city. Another and still greater difficulty that has cost the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway $40,000 to make and is to form the Bite of a $2,000,000 hotel when the present financial stringency has passed. The private residences of Prince Ru pert include many. .comfortable homes. They are one and two-story frame cot tages, rising out of the uneven green S rZcs JZr ZTa 2?ZZ) of the muskeg. Many have blasted out -C ZSed J1Z.I& 1t2Z4 the stumps in making the foundations J5e tz and some of the people have built up those of simnar Bized towns in the that area. The woods were cut away, level yards about their houses and have Eagt tn6 Iand cearedi the business part of lawns as green and smooth as those of lnatancc the town believes in th excavated and leveled and old England. All kinds of vegetation For instance, the town believes in grow luxuriantly. The town has many municipal ownership. It has a hydro- wag advertised and then auction8 were beautiful flowers and the whole coun- electric plant that cost more than $500,- heI(J ,n vjctoria and Vancouver. The try Is green from one' end of the year 000, from which it not only supplies first iots brought high prices, and the to the other. the several public utilities, but It also boom continued, until the present Bells power to factories and Individ- financial stringency began. Now hard uals at $13 per horsepower per annum, times have reduced the prices and The town has its own telephone and progress is halted. The war has the Winter and It Is more mild in the electric light plants. The telephone stopped business In all parts of Canada, Summer. The mean temperature in rates to business houses are $4.50 per money is tight, and the people are so Summer is about 60 degrees Fahrenheit month and the plant pays a profit to much affected by what is going on In The climate of Prince Rupere is milder than -that of Baltimore, Rich mond or St. Louis. It is not so cold in places the planks are spiked to a trestle work from 10 to 20 feet high and in ocks with a frontage of IS miles. It hold all the fleets that will ever sail was blasting the rocks from the Bides others they lie on the bed rock of the as elevators which will store 4.000,000 ushels of g ain and flour mills with daily capacity of 7000 barrels. Among ts many steamers are 11 lines that go Alaska and five others that play long the ports of British Columbia. at any one time toward Bering Strait, of the hills and making level places hills. The planks are three inches It reminds me of Jaffa, the port for upon which streets might be laid and thick and the roads are substantial Jerusalem. It is right on the sea and houses be built. The site was all rocky enough for heavy teams and the score the buildings climb up and down the mountain and every bit of the town is or more automobiles owned in the town, mountains of rock close to the shore.' founded on the bed rock. The sewers Prince Rupert has 21 miles of such The chief difference between them is have had to be blasted from the sides roads and in addition many miles more ;eattle has such close connection with that the hills of Jaffa are all bleak and f Ue hills and built up In the valleys. 0f pathways of boards five or six feet Alaska that its merchants and bank- barev while those of Prince RuDert are The same is true of the roadways in in width. The latter connect the main rs look upon the territory as one of wooded and clad in perpetual green, the business part of the town, the whole roads with the houses. heir suburbs, and they have an ef- Seven years ago the site of thi oit having required proportionately al- icient department of their chamber of was a forest. Fines and cedars covered mst aa much grading and blasting as ommerce known aa the Alaska bureau. the mountains .and todav the stumn the Culebra cut of the Panama Canal. which is devoted to the development of Plsins. out of th, siODinsr town lnf iic In the residence section the streets he resources and to the furthering of iike black bristles of an unshaven are of planks resting upon a trestle- he interest of all things Alaskan. chln Tn. town has 6000 Tnni r work or upheld by posts. The town took an automobile ride through the venture It has more than 60.000 stumps, site, which covers about 2000 acres, is town. We had a two-ton, seven-pas- The second water gate to Alaska is Th .tumns are rooted in th miuie nn of sham hills, which run back seneer car which seemed to me un- ancouver. at th end of the Canadian of tne bed rock and the gpace between to wooded mountains over 2000 feet usually wide, and I expected a colli- I'acific Railway on Puget Sound. That them mated with muskeir. & moaxv hieh. The place is so rough that to lon everv time another car passed. hort has also the ureal wormern ana vegetation two or three feet in depth build solid roads through it would The plank road was so narrow tnat these came from outside. The town has It was all planned and partially de- he r.ortnern -acmc xiuiiwuyo. wnni that holds the water like a sponge, bankrupt the city many times over, and turning-out places have had to be ouut a hospital, which is but little used. It veloped before a single lot was of- arry our gooas mere in dohu io u and mates it Impossible to go across so the roadways are wooden, looking at the cross streets and curves, and tne has a jaif an up-to-date fire depart- fered for sale. The Grand Trunk Pa- hlppea to Alaska, ana are 16 feet wide. They rest upon posts of various heights, according to the grades and the valleys. In some an(J Jn wlnter the thermometer seldom the municipal treasury. The Mayor tells Europe that they do not think or talk falls to below 8 or 10 above zero. As me he hopes to put on municipal Jit- of anything else. Within a short time to rain, the town reminds me of South- neys. to carry the people to and from a large number of volunteers have ern Chiles where they say it rains 13 their homes along the board roads. been equipped here and sent to the months every year. The rainfall in Prince Rupert believes in the single front, and the same is true of Dawson some years is 110 inches or more, and tax, and the most of the revenues of in the Klondike, and nearly every city Just now it showers all the time. There the city come from a tax on land only, in Canada, is but little snow in the Winter, al- ImproTrfments pay nothing. The Prince though yau may have two foet within Rupert Hotel, for instance, cost $125,- There is no doubt, however, that a few hours. The snow- melts quickly, 000 to build. It is on a lot 100x200, and Pr , RuPe"t is bound to be a city of however. There are heavy frosts on this lot is valued at $50,000. The tax account of the moisture. The frosts is levied on the lot only. There is noth sometimes cover the plank roadways to ing paid on the building. Just across a depth of three inches and then the the way is a vacant lot of the same people have coasting and tobogganing size, and it pays Just as much taxes as parties on the roller coaster highways the big hotel. The result is that people T tia.,A .ewlhAH r n ri n n f nffnrH in )inM vAlnahlA rejtl es- tate without they improve it. The wU1 b6 Put UP as soon as money grows Prince Rupert is a healthy city, present taxes are a little over 12 mills easier- The government owns one There were less than 30 deaths last on the dollar of assessed values, which ourtn of that city, including tle most vear in the 6000 population, and the are about SO ner rent nf the real values. "L l" J.ne urana irunK births were 150. There were only five cases of typhoid fever and three of Prince Rupert started with a boom. It was in company with J. H. Pills bury, the civil engineer who laid out Prince Rupert, and M. J. Hobin, a member of the Board of Trade, that 1 considerable siie. The people believe that it will be a great port, and that within a short time after peace is de clared it will start on its way to be coming a city of 100,000 or more. The government expects to make large pub lic improvements, ar.d new buildings Pac outhward to Vancouver. The Chicago, MilwauRee and Puget Sound Railway s planning a branch into Canada and time there will be six transcont inental roads using Vancouver as one lot the Western terminals. As to the steamers, there are now nly two lines that go from Vancouver orthward. These are the Grand Trunk rPacific and the Canadian Pacific, both pines being owned by the railroads of he same names. The Grand Trunk aclfie has its present terminus at rrince Rupert and its business is en- irely in th Canadian waters. The anadian Pacific steamers stop also at II the ports of Southeastern Alaska. nd they carry freight and passengers o Skagway to be taken by the White ass Railway over the Coast Range to White Horse and thence sent down the ukon River to the Klondike and on Into interior Alaska. The Alaskan busi- ess of Vancouver is a bagatelle in comparison with that of Seattle. Its Diet trade is with the Yukon territory nd especially with Dawson, to which ity almost $4,000,000 worth of Cana- iun goods are shipped every year. The third and la.it water gate to laska is Prince Rupert, the new ter minal of the Grand Trunk Pacific kn.iilway. This is the farthest north of all the doors to our territory, being in act only 40 miles south of the inter- iVaUonal boundary. It took me less- Lihan six hours to come here by' ship Vrom Ketchikan, and a fast ocean L-tearaer could go In two hours from fere to Dixon Entrance or the Portland Prince Rupert is more than 500 tulles north of Vancouver, and more than 600 miles north of Seattle. It is nbout two days nearer Alaska by rail tian any other port, and its people tulnk it offers by far the best route from the eastern and southern parts of oar continent to the United States of t!ie Far North. I have bad Jujt had a talk with the Vayor of Prince Rupert. He claims that his city is two days nearer Alaska by steamer than any of the Puget found ports and says that now that the Crand Trunk Pacific Railroad has been completed, travelers from the eastern arts of Canada and the United States i n reach our territory two days soon- r by coming this way. He claims, and i ightly. that the port will eventually ive the shortest route to the Orient and that it will cut down the steam ship trip to Yokohama, Japan, more than 500 miles. The chief reason for this is 'because Prince Rupert Ilea so far north on the globe and. therefore, has a shorter water route to the Far East. "At present," to use the words of the Mayor, "the troubles in Europe are preventing the establishment of new team?hip lines from hire to the Orient, a mltntpv &-1 1 Vi n 1 1 1 thifir hnAta np riihK.t-, nir iin nf rnn t inuouA bridges. The i ii avA ctnTi that wa flew ii Tt and . ..-i . v. ..n. Ano-inas t T.aa tmni ..i:.. to , i .. j.nM.i j.A Canal, and a larire nart of the wheat ear the land crop or Northern and Western Canada it will in hort time have also the Grand Trunk This muskeg covers the whole .region streets run np hill and down and they down as though we were going over the public schools, including a high school, sent its engineers to cl 'acme Railway, which is to build track of a giant roller coaster. Now wlth a building of four stories. It has level the hills and lay BLOCKADE OVERCOME BY "WIZARD OF GERMANY. Pacific Railway is planning to erect a $2,000,000 hotel, and eventually a steamship line will be established to ply between here and the Orient There will also be steamers to the Panama hi M I 1 1 m;- jniiiiiiiiiiuiiiiii! :::::: . - ::::::::::::::1 -------- f?v" r::;"". . - ' dH. izi'-' : J r . ::i::!i :::i f sN-. - f,::H:::::::j - v - L -! V jt " out the city, win pass through here on its way to we would shoot around a curve where three daily papers, a public reading- The company had 24,000 acres of land, Europe via the canal. With a view to a slight skidding of the car might have room and its people are quite as Intel- including the town site, and the first the future the city is now erecting the Or. Waltkrr Ratheaaa Iaaplrea Farterr Caastraetlaa Seeaea aad Heretofore Impart ra Froat Katioai to Produce Aaw Faea, D R. WALTER RATHENAU. who kind in Europe. It controls compelled the War Ministry and hundred branch concerns with a gen- has not been one nickel of graft. hurled us into a ravine; and now climb a hill with the posts and the trestle work trembling beneath us. At one time we rode for some distance through "Lovers" lane," a part of the 90 acres of forest that forms the public park of the city, and at another we climbed the steep slope of Acropolis Hill, al though Mr. Hobin suggested we had better walk, for the . road was a bit old and the posts might be too weak to support the automobile. V It was on top of Acropolis Hill that we inspected the water works of the city. The supply tomes from Lake Woodworth, on 1 little mountain five miles away, and it is brought in an eight-inch pipe across country to this reservoir. The reservoir has been, dug out of the bedrock and it contains more than 1,000,000 gallons of water in addition to the usual needs of the city. On another part of this same hill ar the municipal tennis courts and base ball park. These have been made al the expense of the citizens, it having cost $25,000 to blast out the rock and level the space for the baesball dia mond. It will take $5000 more before the ballground is as the Mayor says it should be. The park is so situated that the hills about it form the grand stand and consequently there is free admission. The pay of the players is collected by passing the hat. The mu nicipal tennis courts have been made by laying a level plank floor upon the uneven surface of the rocks and erect ing about It fences of wire netting so high the balls cannot possibly fly over It and roll down the steep slopes of the mountain. Standing upon Acropolis Hill, one has a good view of Prince Rupert. Off to the -ront is the harbor, sparkling in the sunlight and backed by mountain ous islands of green. At the back are forest-clad hills, lost in the clouds, and between is the city, its business sec Won made up of two and three-story frame buildings, painted in modest col ors, with roofs red, brown and black. Here and there the spire of a church rises above the roofs; and should you . take your glaas you might pick out the signs of banks, stores, real estate of fices, and, I regret to say, of saloons. As to the morality of the city, the Mayor tells me that it is Just medium, not too good and not too bad. He as serts, moreover, that during his three years of administration, although vast sums $1,000,000 last year have been several spent in public improvements, there 1 ligent and much more progressive than subdivision covered one-twelfth of AMERICAN AVIATORS WIN HONORS IN FRENCH ARMY. I '" ' ' ' " " i'.f '; V " - I ; i - ' v x I largest floating drydock on the Pacific Coast This dock will cost over $3,000, 000. It will handle ships up to 600 feet in length and 20.000 tons ca pacity. This dock is almost completed. Its construction is modern, and it will be the equal of any dock of its size anywhere. The area of the dock plant is about 20 acres. ' J:'yr't r,o: cy fa, Sappllea Lieutenant Thaw and Sergeanta Cowdin and Prince Are Home on VUlt. They Agree Germane Caa Hit Any Aeroplane Within Range. NEW i Uii-i, Jan. ais. topeciai.i rgss oi Germany, an numerous uib- v '"J" " J Three American birdmen, who patches from the fighting lines in English is ble na"y- to d'?pi?e ..... , . . , , M, . m A1 .French as the second language or men ' for tneir aarin? oeeas aoove xne r ranee, tne names 01 me xnree men itov.AatA tn i i th a rt. WAR AFFECTING LANGUAGE 'Continued From Page 2.) to which they belong, and they there fore refuse to be incorporated into the people with whom they are doing busi ness and in the midst of whom they are sojourners, perhaps for .. all the years of their lives. The German, on the other hand, -casts in his lot with the country to which he has immi grated; he adopts the native tongue; he forgets his own, and he does not in sist on bringing up his children to speak German. That is to say, the German who has settled In the United States or in Brazil or In Argentina may retain a keen sentimental interest in the Fatherland for one generation at least, but he is soon subdued to what he works in, and his children cease to think of themselves as Germans, partly because they are very likely not to speak German. Here in North America we have seen the beneficent results of this complete assimilation of the de scendants of German immigrants, and we may rest assured that a like as similation is taking place in South America. The rivalry of English and German is a commercial rivalry, and for the rea sons here given the English have little to fear as to the result. The rivalry of English and French is not so much commercial as literary and there is no likelihood that it will be any less keen in the future than it has been in the past- We who speak English take only a tepid interest in German literature, and there were only a few German authors In the 19th century who won international acceptance. But the ap peal of French literature is as peren nial as it is pervasive. Paris is still the artistic capital of the world, and the French language is still the most felicitous medium of social inter course. To say this is not to assert any superiority of French literature over English literature, which is flour ishing on both sides of the Atlantic and which is ever revealing its own spe cial qualities as valuable and as eigni ficant as those of French literature. It mav be long years yet before battle fields of France have been deco- have often been among those reported rnaeed, English may never succeed in eral capitalisation of $1,000,000,000. ,.ri rated for bravery, nave returnea to me Kmea, dui mey are as mucn auve aa achieving tnis, even ii n snaij do aDie Today this great electrical engineer United States. They arrived on the ever. The three expect to return to to have its own claims more ana more is called the "wixard of the empire" and Returning to the view, let us take a Rotterdam. They are Sergeant Elliott the field of action at once. howiver0' laofonTarTnd the "field marshal of business." the look at more of the buildings. The Cowdin, Sergeant Norman Prince of The men agree that if the Germane "merciai and there ir no reason to man whose genius made it possible for city Hall is a three-story structure of Boston, and Lieutenant William Thaw, can see an aeroplane they can hit it. suppose tnat English will ever be de Germany to defy the present blockade ramei the biggest hotel has five stories Each has received the military The only way to keep out of their prived of the commanding position Rupert will be the shortest sea route meioe Electricitasts Geaellschaft." the Tempting- to lorce German, to her made oC brick- while near " edal and the war medaI' the latter ranse ls to tly hleh The be8t worl"nff whl?h " now P"sses throughout the around tho worid. By U tto Toyage mot influential organisation oX 1U kaeea. you can pick out a hole in the rocks being the French equivalent of tie Iron alUtude they say is 12,000 feet. world. the Industries to build factories" to produce what the Fatherland had previously imported, asserts that Ger many is now absolutely independent in but this ill be changed a this respect of any other nation. oon as peace comes, and via' Prince Dr. Rathenau is head of the "AlV