192 MONTANA IdH 



The farmers of Yellowstone county have built a short line known as 

 the "Billings & Central ^lontana." It was constructed to SQwe some irri- 

 gated tracts and is twelve and a half miles in length. 



The outlook for continued railroad building in the Northwest is bright, 

 regardless of the situation elsewhere. Construction of new lines goes 

 steadily on in Montana, where it is realized that the people and the rail- 

 ways "lose by the folly and prosper by the wisdom of either." 

 Plums Put There is in prospect the building of the Soo Line across the 

 in the Bay State ; the completion of the Great Northern's new through line 

 for the from New Rockford, North Dakota, to Lewistown, and recently 



Future. Mr. J. J. Hill made the statement publicly that the Great 



Northern will build within two years a new line west from 

 Kalispell to Libby. There is talk of the Northern Pacific constructing a 

 new line across the heart of Montana from Glendive to Helena, and also a 

 branch from^ R^avalli to Poison, at the foot of Flathead lake, and of the 

 Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul entering Helena from Three Forks. 



People of Montana are lending every encouragement to the construc- 

 tion of new railway lines, desirmg that the companies building them re- 

 ceive at all times a "rate that in addition to the cost of taxes and a proper 

 allowance for maintenance and other necessary charges, will pay interest 

 on its bonds and fair dividends on its stock." 



Oh the other hand, the people are insisting that the railroads make 

 rates as low as possible, "the maximum that a shipper can pay being one 

 that will enable him to market his products at a living profit." 



In a state where public sentiment lends encouragement to every form 

 of legitimate investment and appreciates the necessity of "easy transporta- 

 tion for men and commodities," eastern capital need not fear to tread. No 

 state traversed by the transcontinental highways has a closer 

 Capital feeling of common interest between the public and its rail- 



Need Fear road companies than Montana. 



No Unfair As the public and the railway must prosper and suffer 



Treatment, together, a continuation of this policy in the Treasure State 

 is assured, making it safe for the settler or manufacturer to 

 invest time and money^ and for those who furnish the finances for railroad 

 construction to put their means into the bonds and stocks of railroads, 

 which will be given every opportunity to earn good profits and increase in 

 value as tlie era of new and complex development opens in Montana. 



— More new post offices were established in Montana last year than in any other state 



