The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-27 00:00:00

THE UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY.

he following extract from the report of John J.
Cisco, treasurer of the Union Pacific Railway
Company, gives many items of interest :
" The prospective value of the Union Pacific
Railroad, as a promoter of emigration and of in-
creased production of the minerals of the West, is
beyond question. But its value and profit as a na-
tional undertaking are by no means confined to the
future. Each year of its operation, even in its un-
finished state, insures direct, unequivocal profit to
the national Treasury, as the following figures,
furnished by General M. C. Meigs, United States
Quartermaster-General, abundantly proves. Previ-
ous to the building of this continental railroad, all
Government freight, consisting chiefly of supplies for
the troops on the frontier, was carried by waggons
under contracts given to the lowest responsible bid-
rlers. . At the time of the Mormon war the annual
expense of maintaining troops upon the plains
amounted to about $l,OOO per man, most of this
sum being chargeable to transportation. In 1866
waggon transportation upon Route No. 1' (the
route now occupied by the Union Pacific Railroad)
cost au average of 28.4 cents per ton per mile. In
1867 an average of 39.4 cents was paid for similar
service, while, on account of the increased distance,
for the season from Jan. 1, 1868, to March 31, the
lowest contract that could be made was for 50 cents
per ton per mile. The average tariff of Govern-
ment transportation over the Union Pacific Railroad
is 10.01 cents per ton per mile, but even this is in
excess of the actual cost, as may be seen by the fol-
lowing extract from a letter from Quartermaster-
General Meigs, under date of September 1, 1868 :
" It may properly be assumed that the average
rate per ton per mile charged by your company,
10.01 cents, being based upon your:published tariff
rates, is somewhat in excess of the actual average
rate paid by this department for its transportation,
owing to the fact that the greater portion of the
freight carried for it is comprised under the lower
classes, and that ten and one-half (10.5) cents per
ton per mile would approximate the rate actually
paid.'

" The amount paid by the Quartermaster-General
to the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867, for Govern-
ment transportation, was $699,698.81. Had this
same freight been transported by waggons, at
the contract price for that year (39.4 cents), the
cost would have been $2,625,536.41. In other
words, the money -actually saved, in one year, in
the transportation of Government freight with the
road in operation for an average distance of but three
hundred and eighty-six miles was $1,925,837.60.
As has been stated, one -half the company's
charges against the Government for transportation
are paid in cash, the balance being credited toward
the payment of the United States bonds and their
interest. The United States Treasury Department
officially reports that the total amount of interest
which had been paid by Government upon bonds
issued to the company up to June 30, 1868, was
$761,655.75. The amount paid by the company
on account of the above charge to the same period
was $615,914.58, with a balance then due from the
War Department of $55,229.42, one-half of which
was applicable to the payment of the interest
account. It will therefore be seen that the Go.
vernment ham actually paid out only $121,126.46,
which itself will probably be more than paid by
Government transportation during the present
year, while its actual saving in one year's transpor-
tation was almost two million dollars. M the rail-
road is rapidly carried forward, the amount of its
Government service and the corresponding saving
to the Treasury will increase even more rapidly,
while in other respects the national gain will be
equally manifest. By the building of the road and
the emigration which it renders possible and pro-
fitable, the value of all Government lands along
its line will be increased beyond present com-
putation. Lands which before were entirely in-
accessible, and therefore worthless, are now
brought into direct connection with markets whose
demand for all productions of the soil will steadily
increase, while those sitting near the town sites
established by the company will at once become of
very great value. The population thus supported
and encouraged by the railroad will not only swell
our agricultural and mineral productions, but, if
the present ratio of national taxation be kept up,
the people along the line of the Pacific Road will, in
ten years' time, pay not less than $10,000,000 as
annual tax into the United States Treasury. In
short, it is safe to assert that this railroad will
prove by far the most profitable of all the internal
improvements ever aided by Government."
The Cheyenne Star, of Sept. 22, thus writes :
" The astonishing progress made by the Union
Pacific Company, in the construction of the great
national highway, as well as that of the California
Central, confirms us in the belief that trains will
run from New York to San Francisco before the
close of the summer of 1869. It is said that the
Central Pacific Company are moving with almost
miraculous energy to reach Salt Lake before
meeting the Union Pacific. In opposition to
this, we are advised that the latter company will
commence grading at Humboldt Wells as soon
as the force for that purpose can be got there.
They will, of course, work eastwardly from
that point. In connection with this, we will
say that the California Central are about to com•
mence work at the north end of Salt Lake, and
this has led to a telegraphic- correspondence be-
tween Dr. Durant and Governor Sanford, Presi-
dent of the C. P. R. R. Company, or rather to a
telegram from the former to the latter to the fol-
lowing purport :—' If we lay any track on your
grading, we will pay you for the grading. If you
lay any on ours we won't charge you a cent for it.'
If this be true (and we have no reason to doubt it,
for it is so exactly like Durant), we have the ut-
most confidence to believe that the Union Pacific
will be built to Humboldt Wells, on the Hum-
boldt river, and will there meet the California Cen-
tral."
The Mormons already begin to cry out at the
effects, and one of their papers innocently asks the
tide to flow on, and not to contaminate their sacred
settlement by any deposit. The natural result is
to induce the more to stay, and therefore the
"saints" every day find themselves face to face
with more and more sinners. If this happens be-
fore the railway has even been graded to Salt Lake,
what will be the state of things when the two
branches meet in their Jerusalem ?

The earnings of the following railroads were as
subjoined in the month of September in the present
and previous years :
___

Railroads. 1867. 1868.
Michigan Central
Michigan Southern 428,752 ' 480,763
Rock Island 404,600 478,600
North-western 1,063,236 1,265,831
Fort Wayne 606,217 653,281
Illinois Central. ..• 709,326 764,138
Atlantic and Great Western 475,257 407,388
Ohio and Mississippi 322,521 287,557
Marietta and Cincinnati 114,716 126,556
Milwaukee and St. Paul
Chicago and Alton 415,982 570,353
Alton and Terre Haute 220,780 201,596
Wabash and Western 364,723 484,208
Western Union
DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exporta-
tion. Quotations on application to Messrs. Dunville and Co.,
Belfast; or 4, Dnufort-buildings, Strand, Lyndon, W.O --[Ad-
YertiSeraeut.]