Steve Carter Wrote:
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>
> 2) The author describes Tacoma in 1907 as being "a
> nexus of railroad competition. The Northern
> Pacific, Great Northern, Union Pacific and
> Southern Pacific railroads and their subsidiaries
> coveted a larger piece of the trade action through
> the City of Destiny." Southern Pacific?
> Really, if so how did the good ol' SP figure in
> the Tacoma area, or anywhere north of Portland?
> Or is this the case of an uninformed reporter
> getting SP confused with the Milwaukee Road?

In addition to his longtime control of Union Pacific, from 1901 to 1909 E.H Harriman was also the President of the Southern Pacific railroad. According to page 41 of Don L. Hofsommer's book, "The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985" the SP was required, along with the UP, to financially guarantee the contract granting the Oregon & Washington (a UP subsidiary) trackage rights from Portland to Seattle over NP tracks. You can read the details here:

[books.google.com]

So while the SP didn't run trains to Seattle/Tacoma, Harriman considered that the SP did gain benefits (presumably traffic) from the arrangement. I'd say that justifies the statement in the News-Tribune article about SP getting a piece of the Tacoma action.