The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-09-29

shipwrecks and their Causes; sn article on the
Crystal Palace; theatrical, Financial and Com
neIcial Intelligence, &C., &c.
The Pacific Railroad rhe ClaPtrap Of the
Public Lands.
Our politicians are becoming learned ex-
Founders Of the constitutional powers Of Con
gress touching the Pacific Railroad. Mr.. Dix,
in bis letter to the soft she'll Young Mems
Democratic Union Club, which we published the
other day, dwells particularly upon this i'm
portant subject he is opposed to the appro-
priation Of the public money to this continen.
tai, interoceaDic enterprise but is willing to
vote to the road. (Which with private capital,
he seems to think will do margin Of the Wild
lands along the route.
But does Mr.. Dix know that from the western
frontiers of Missouri or Arkansas to the sum-
nits or passes Of the Sierra Nevada, which over
look the Pacific ocean, that the country is
mostly revolving desert that the route for
the Pacific Railroad anywhere within our limits
must inevitably traverse these desert wastes,
or human habitation?-that between the Rocky
Mountains and the Sierra Nevada there is 9
strip of ragged, volcanic, and desert country,
averaging some six hundred miles in width, and
extending from the centre of Oregon down
into the very heart Of Mexico, the aver
age agricultural value of which is scarce
" one cent per hundred acres? Does
Mr.. Dix know this? If he does not we
would respectfully call his attention to the
official reports and journals Of Fremont, Kear-
ny, Emory, Albert Cooke, and others. The
lamented Kearny once remarked to friend
Of ours that the whole country between
Paso del Norte, along the ella route, clean
through to the hills which overlook the Pacific,
along line of thousand miles, as far as the
eye could reach on either hand, was, for agri-
cultural purposes, not worth the mules which
his division Of the army lost in travelling over
it, And the Mermons having appropriated all
the cases in the Great Basin susceptible Of
culture by irrigation, what viii q Pacific rail-
road company do with the public lands on each
side of the road there, should it pass by the
emigrant route or by Benton's route? Why,
from the official reports OF Fremont Of his
industrious explorations of 1874 '5-'6, we should
say that solid body of the public lands OF one
hundred millions of acres may be measured out
in that Basin which would not &c worth, upon
an average, one penny to the acre for farming
purposes. even with the Pacific Railroad 10 full
operation through the very heart it.
Mr.. Dix ought TO know this; but i appears
that be does not. We have TO cross q ve-;-
table Desert OF Sahara on a snail scale in
| building Pacific Railroad 10y any route be-
tween Oregon and Mexico. And Oregon. we
venture to say, will prove to he worse thaa D
continuous desert for a railway, from its end
less labyrinth Of mountains, mountain deliles,
and those deep chasms OF its streams called
cGnones. As far az explored on the Eastern
side the extreme Northern route has been re-
ported ineXpedient, unavailable and impracti-
cable Tor a railroad from the absence o. timber
the abundance of swamps. &c There arc some
grazing districts along Col. Cookies route but
that lies south Of the ella, and leads as through
the Mexican States Of chihuahua and Sonora.
| We have no public lands there, however, and
are not likely to have, short Of draft upon the
public money in quiet treaty, o. IN q war
with Mexico, and treaty at the end Of it.
We are therefore disposed to pronounce this
idea Of building the Pacific Railroad from
grants of the public lands all along the route
an unmitigated humbug. A prodigious mar
gin through Arkansas or Missouri, includ-
ing all the available public lands in the State,
would perhaps, be sufficient 10 carry the road
to the Rocky Mountains but from that point to
the ridge which overlooks the Pacifc-say a
thousand niles-the public domain is q waste,
blank. desert OF sands. and rocks. and noun
tains, hardly yet cooled down from the vol
canic fires which have raised them from the
bowels Of the earth.
There is a plan within reach. perhaps of
4he strict constructionsts of the constitution for
Pacific Railroad, viz in the right Of way with
q wide margin through and {. liberal grant Ct
lands at both ends, by Congress, and bonus
fran the treasury in the form of an advance for
the prospective transportation of men. animals
provisions and munitions Of war for the army
and the navy, and for the carrying Of the
United States mails. &c. But the project Of
Mr. Dix, Of building this great road from the
proceeds of the territorial lands along the
route as an aid to private capital unless some
rich gald mines, only known to Che govern
ment. are ineluded-is, in orr humble opinion,
all moonsnine Private capital, with liberal
land grams across the State. at each end of the
road under good general law. will be equal
to the task. But we protest against any mis-
leading Of Congress or the public in reference
to the bowling and horrible deserts OF the
terrtorpe We ask Mr. Dig In lodi into thp
subject
But Mr.. Dix says Of this Pacific fGad -
am willing that Il should be aided ty liberal
donations Of the pnelic lands contiguous to it
il the territories through which it viii paas''--
a.concession which, Of course, conveys the idea
that these liberal donations will be valuable.
Perhaps the Democratic Young Mems Union