fifty thousand men from either coast to the other in the course of twenty or thirty days we have already expended some scores of millions of dollars on and are required to as many more especially on the pacific is their construction demanded i do not decide how fast nor how far this demand may or should be responded to but i do say that a railroad whereby the of the mountains could be brought to the pacific within three days and those of the within ten would afford more security to san than ever so many gigantic and costly but enough on this head the social moral and intellectual blessings of a pacific railroad can hardly be glanced at within the limits of an article suffice it for the present that i merely suggest them our are now carried to and from by in twenty to thirty days starting once a fortnight the average time of from writers throughout the atlantic states to their on the pacific thirty days with a to the pacific a pacific railroad this would be reduced to ten for the letters written in or would reach their in the of quicker than letters sent from new york or philadelphia would reach san with a daily mail by railroad from each of our atlantic cities to and from it is hardly possible that the amount of both letters and printed matter and consequently of should not be speedily the first need of to day is a large of intelligent capable virtuous women with a railroad to the pacific avoiding the miseries and perils of six � thousand miles of ocean and making the a pleasant and interesting journey of ten days at a reduced cost the of this class would be immensely and increased with wages for all kinds of women s work at least thrice as high on the pacific as in this quarter and with larger opportunities for honorable and fit settlement in life i cannot doubt that of thousands would cross the plains to the signal benefit of and of the whole country as well as the improvement of their own fortunes and the profit of the railroad thousands now staying in expecting to go home so soon as they shall have somewhat improved their circumstances would send or come for their families and settle on the pacific for life if a railroad were opened of thousands who have been to and come back unwilling either to live away from their families or to expose them to the present hardships of thither would return with a to the pacific a pacific railroad this would be reduced to ten for the letters written in or would reach their in the of quicker than letters sent from new york or philadelphia would reach san with a daily mail by railroad from each of our atlantic cities to and from it is hardly possible that the amount of both letters and printed matter and consequently of should not be speedily the first need of to day is a large of intelligent capable virtuous women with a railroad to the pacific avoiding the miseries and perils of six thousand miles of ocean and making the a pleasant and interesting journey of ten days at a reduced cost the of this class would be immensely and increased with wages for all kinds of women s work at least thrice as high on the pacific as in this quarter and with larger opportunities for honorable and fit settlement in life i cannot doubt that of thousands would cross the plains to the signal benefit of and of the whole country as well as the improvement of their own fortunes and the profit of the railroad thousands now staying in expecting to go home so soon as they shall have somewhat improved their circumstances would send or come for their families and settle on the pacific for life if a railroad were opened of thousands who have been to and come back unwilling either to live away from their families or to expose them to the present hardships of thither would return with a to the pacific all they have prepared to spend their remaining days � in the land of gold if there were a pacific railroad education is the vital want of second to its need of true women school books and all the material of education are now scarce and dear there almost all hooks sell there twice as high as here and many of the best are scarcely at any rate with the pacific railroad all this would be changed for the better the proportion of school houses to would rapidly increase all the elements of moral and religious would be multiplied of thousands of our best citizens would visit the pacific coast receiving novel ideas ami impressions to their own profit and that of the people thus visited civilization intelligence refinement on both sides of the still more in the great basin by them � would receive a new and immense impulse and the union would acquire a greater accession of strength power endurance and true glory than it would from the acquisition of the whole continent down to cape horn the only points of view in which a railroad from the to the pacific remains to be considered are those of its cost and the ways and means let us look at them i as to there is no room a ion or doubt the western the the and the and have each encountered difficulties as formidable as any to be overcome by a pacific railroad this side of the were the railroad simply to follow the principal s a to the pacific trail up the and down the snake and to or south from the south pass to the foot of the it would encounter no serious obstacle ii the of timber on the plains is tho chief difficulty to be overcome 