The Daily Alaska Empire

Rails Favored
(Prince George Citizen)

In another week-upon his return from Ottawa- Premier John Hart may make a statement to an anxious British Columbia on the report that the sale of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway to American interests is imminent.

One pioneer of Prince George has summed up the feeling here with the remark, "Well, I guess we can wait a little longer; we've waited a good many years now for the PGE to come here."

The people of this country are patient and the phrase, "they're going to push the PGE through to Prince," no longer causes wild excitement here.

However, they are agreed that the completion of the PGE from Vancouver to Prince George and the railroad's extension to Alaska is a feasible and highly desirable scheme. And that is not a selfish view.

They do not take this stand because Prince George would be the most important interior point on the railway. No! It is because they know that the logical route for a railway or motor vehicle road is Route B, the Rocky Mountain Trench route.

Because of the lack of gasoline and tires, the importance of a road decreases alongside that of a railroad. The railroad is the big need at the moment for it does not require rubber tires. It does not require gasoline. And it does carry bigger loads than trucks, and the line would run through a country known to contain large deposits of coal and ore.

One argument against railroad building is the problem of getting steel. However, Canadian and American authorities have large caches of steel rails spotted in many depots all over this continent. Steel is not a problem.

The Rocky Mountain Trench is level, has a gravel foundation, has no insurmountable grades, and can be easily cleared of light trees.

Should the sale turn out to be true it will be up to the leading organizations of this city to make it known to authorities and all concerned that we are eager to forward this all-important project. No effort can be spared.