e continent, and for this reason the railroads
have come from the interior to meet them. From foreign ports all over
the world ocean carriers are bringing in great loads of merchandise
and passengers, and the railroads coming from the Atlantic coast
across the entire continent bring like loads of merchandise and
human freight, and here they are exchanged. Teas from China and
Japan for cotton from Galveston and cotton goods from Massachusetts;
[Page 28]
rice and silk, hemp, matting, tin, copper and Japanese bric-a-brac
are exchanged for grain, flour, fish, lumber, fruit, iron and steel
ware, paper, tobacco, etc. Merchandise of all sorts from Asia,
the Philippines, South America and Australia is here exchanged
for different stuffs raised or made in every part of the American
continent and some from Europe. This commerce, however, is in its
infancy. The Northern Pacific and Great Northern railways have
fattened on it for years. All their rivals have looked on with
envious eyes till now a mad rush is on among them all for vantage
ground. The Milwaukee, Canadian Pacific and Burlington systems
already run their trains here, while the Union Pacific and others
are rushing for terminals on Puget Sound tide water. And while
thus racing for the great long haul prizes, they are incidentally
giving to the state a complete system of transportation in all
its parts and for all its multitudinous productions.

Of almost equal importance to the state is its great fleet of local
steamers which ply its inland waters, and the numerous electric
lines that are rapidly uniting its cities and villages and giving
a new and cheap method of migration. From the city of Spokane and
radiating in every direction, electric lines are in operation and
more are in course of construction, bringing the most distant points
of the great "Inland Empire" into close touch with its metropolis
and great distributing center. On the west side the same thing is
true, only in less degree. Between these two groups of transportation
facilities, and the commerce which the union of rail and tidewater
has created, the citizens of Washington have found innumerable
opportunities of employment.

These opportunities are increasing and broadening every year with
the continued development of the state and in multiplied and varied
form they await the newcomer who possesses the ability to rise to
the demands of the situation.

[Illustration: Plate No. 23.--FERRY COUNTY VIEWS.