Page:History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.djvu/334

302 Squire had said in a report to the secretary of the interior that among the reasons for the admission of the territory were the "sterling, patriotic, and enterprising character of its citizens; its present and prospective maritime relations with the world; its position as a border state on the confines of the dominion of Canada, the most powerful province of Great Britain; its wealth of natural resources and growing wealth of its people; the efficiency of its educational system, requiring that its school lands should be allotted and utilized; its riparian rights should be settled, capital and immigration encouraged, and the full management and control of municipal and county affairs should be assumed by the legislature, which is not allowed during the territorial condition."

Governor Semple, in his report for 1888, gave the population as 167,982, showing that the prophecy of the board of trade was not an over-estimate of the probabilities. The taxable property was given at $84,621,182, or a gain of $65,698,260 in ten years, which being taken from the assessment roll was considered conservative enough for the minimum; for as the governor quaintly remarked: "Whatever else an average American citizen may neglect, he never forgets to beat down the assessor." The revenue produced by a tax of two and a half mills was $212,734.92, showing the ability to erect and maintain the necessary public works as they should be required. There were in the territory in operation 762.2 miles of standard gauge railroads belonging to the North Pacific railroad company; and 282.6 miles of the same gauge belonging to the Oregon railway and navigation company; the Seattle, Lake Shore, and Eastern railroad company operated 58 miles of standard gauge road; the Columbia and Puget Sound railroad 44.5 miles; and the Puget Sound and Gray's Harbor railroad 10 miles—making in all 1,157.3 miles of broad-gauge railways. In addition, there were 40 miles of narrow-gauge road, divided between the Olympia and Chehalis valley, the