The Georgetown news., 1856-03-13
The Railroad.

of gunnery is to send the heaviest balls the
farthest possible, and with the most destruc-
tive power. Civilization seeks to use its
cannon, the locomotive, with its attend
ants population, intelligence. books, news
papers. schools, churches, laws, commerce,
trade, cultivation-in similar way, by
sending it the farthest possible, and with
the greatest influence where it will have the
most effect. The better the country rail-
road trayerses, the more profitable will it
be. the more good will it do, other things
being equal. When to the advantages of
country are added commerce at each end.
the road must be additionally productive
At the present moment New York city
is connected with Iowa City, the capital Of
the State of Iowa, by an unbroken line OF
railroad, with the single exception Of the
Mississippi at Rock Island, where a rail
road bridge is nearly completed, and over
which it is expected that trains will pass
during this month. The latest forged link
in this chain, which is stretching out west
ward and approaching San Francisco just
as certainly as come light and population
from the East was completed and opened
for the transportation of passengers on the
Sd of January last. Iowa City is fifty-five
miles west of the Mississippi river, and
there at the date named opening ceremo-
MES were held, and Gen. John A. Dix, Pre-
sident of the Mississippi & Missouri Rail
road Company, made speech, now lying
before US.
The company named was organized for
the purpose of connecting the Mississippi
river at the city of Davenport with the Mis-
souri, at Council Bluffs, distance of three
hundred miles, of which more than one-ffth
is already completed. When it shall have
been built to Council Bluffs, an unbroken
chain of railroads from Augusta. the capi-
tai of Maine, will extend to within a few
miles of one-half the distance to San Fran
cisco. Twelve hundred miles from New
York city toward US have already been
completed. All has been done by private
enterprise. While government gabbles, the
people act. While politicians make speech
rs. their constituents make cars. While
members of Congress lay pipe for their own
reelection, the public lay the 7 rail. And
with less noise than that made in the House
of Representatives, the locomotive is sent
ont thousands of miles westward on it's
course of civilization, making the rich,
richer. the sparsely settled, populous.
Within twenty years twenty thousand
miles of railroad have been constructed
within the United States, and in doing so
energetic business combining their efforts
by interpretations and associations, have
drawn forth capital from almost every class
of community to the amount, probably, of
more than five hundred millions of dollars" "
The pamphlet containing the speech of
Gen. Dix says, in view of such facts, "Is it
not possible, or even probable, that the
energy and effort may construct two thou
sand or twenty-five hundred miles of rail
way on the most eligible route from the
Mississippi or the Missouri to the Pacific
/ Ocean?"
Gen. Dix is decidedly of opinion that the
first finished railroad to the Pacific Ocean
will pass through Iowa from Rock Island
| Council Bluffs. This is the only feasible
central route. He examines the natural
advantages of this route from New York
city westward along the line already con-
structed, and concludes that it affords the
greatest facility for cheap and expeditions
transportation by railroad as well as the
most beautiful country naturally for suS-
tanning the works which traverse it. OF
the country west of the State line of Iowa,
he says for the fist thirty miles in Nebras-
ka, it is easily crossed by railroad, and
capable of producing abundantly; and all
the examinations show that the valley OF
the Platte river for hundreds of miles, al
most to the base of the Rocky Mountains,
is highly favorable for a continuation OF
the road.
Gen. Dix says "what the country needs is
an uninterrupted communication by rail
road between the two great commercial de-
pots of the two oceans. These are the cit
les of New York and San Francisco; they
have been fixed by nature-by the laws of
physical geography; and no arrangements
Or contrivances of men can change them"
He puts down the chief advantages OF this,
which he calls the central route. as:
lst. 1t is completed from New I ork to
Iowa City, fifty-five miles west OF the Mis-,
sissippi. and more than twelve hundred
miles from the Atlantic ocean;
ID. 1t strikes the Mississippi at point
central to the population, and nearly so to
the territorial area of the Union;
Sd. 1t traverses east Of the Missouri, a
country of extraordinary productive power:
18th. The formation west of the Mississip-
nj. NAV say. cast of the Rocky Noun
tains, is peculiarly adapted, from the ex-
tremely low sum of its ascents and descents,
to rapid and economical transportation;
and
5th. The populousness and wealth of the
district already traversed, not only furnish
the means Of sustaining the railroads which
have been completed, but of contributing
very largely to the continuation of the line
further west
There is the argument, and it is unan-
swerable. Cal. Chronicle.