The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1858-02-27
A Big Debt for Small Pieces ofRailrOads
No COutinu0nn Lines. n


No Continuous Lines.
If by the passage Of the Monster Loan
Bill we were mourning State Debt to
build or aid in building one Railroads.
Railroad that would be LINK with Rail-
roads in other States, and thus connecting us
with the East and South in winter, affording
at all seasons an opportunity for immigrants
to settle amongst us, and at the same time
facilitate our business men in their commu-
nication, with the East there would be some
sense in it.
Opposed as We are on general principles
to the policy of young State mourning in
its infancy burdensome debt, we might with
such a plainly beneficial and practical OBJ
ject to be attained before US, be notified in
our opposition to the issuing of three or even
five millions of dollars of State Bonds for
such purpose.
We might still oppose the thing on princi-
pie; for we have lived in State borne down
by monster debt, and dread to see Mime
sofa similarly encountered for any purpose;
but we should have this consolation, in case
we were overruled, that the money would
not be spent for nothing-not frittcd away
| in merely commencing four or five Railroads,
beginning, some of them, no where, and all
of them ending at almost an equivalent
point-mere pieces of roads about thirty
miles in length, which will afford no accom-
mediation to the people of the uhole State,
but may give while building, a temporary
Importance to some isolated localities, which
would prosper at the expense of the rest
of the community.
This is what the proposition of the Rail-
road people amounts to!
Is there anything more ridiculous than the
provision that the Cedar Valley Railroad
must commence at Faribault, and be built
simultaneously in two directions, one North
of that place and the other South and so
by the time the money obtained from the
State is expended, we will behold in opera
ton one fifteen mile piece pointing in the d.
rection of Minneapolis, and another fifteen
mile piece pointing down to the Iowa line /;
each breaking off short, in the middle prob
ably of big prairie, and without business
or either to give revenue adequate TO pay
the daily running expenses of the cars, let
alone paying the interest on the portion of
State Bonds that this Company will have re-
ccived
Is it asked why such a ridiculous stipula-
ton is inserted in the proposed Constitution
al u provision We answer, the solution
of the question is very simple. 1t was in
serted to get votes for the project! Fari-
bault has two Senators, and Rice County
three members. Steele County has also two
or three members. We are gratifed, how
ever, to know that except one of the Farri-
bault Senators, and he the Democrat, the
members from those localities spurn the To-
cal bride; and take the true view, that to
benefit one or two towns, and the spectators
in them, the people of their whole county
should not be borne down by inevitable and
|
source of permanent prosperity-that deriva-
bic from gration-should be entirely
cut off by the prospect of enormous debt and
the enormous taxation requisite to pay it.
which tens of thousand tongues will clamo-
rously bruit over the Union as the certain
lot of every person who should venture to
settle in Minnesota after the adoption of this
suicidal measure. 1t is consolotory to the
heart Of the patriot amidst so much merce-
nary action by public men, to find members
from our agricultural districts taking course
dictated by an honest and enlarged view of
the premises, and acting rather upon convic
tons of general right than upon those of To-
cal or temporary expediency.
Nor is the Cedar Valley Company the
only one which will favor us with piece of
a Railroad of no Importance as link in the
chain Of Eastern Railroad communication
There is also the Transit Road in which are
certain great Eastern or Wisconsin Railroad
capitalists who are guiltless of possessing a
dollar Of capital but who would like the
State to help them by this bill to few.
This Company proposes to start at Vino
ma, and the money the State is to furnish
will probably build the road to Rochester, in
Olmsteal county, a distance of twenty-five
or thirty miles. Here it will stop, and no.
body expects it will move farther for years
but, in the meantime, Winona and Rochester
spectators will take advantage of the ex-
element they think will be raised by the tenn
porary spur given to those localities while this
piece of Road is being built, and sell out
their ssock in trade and move off in time. to
some region not SO favored with big State
debts and short Railroads. What end of a
great public policy would this fragment of a
Railroad serve? How much would the peo-
pie at large be benefited by it, after it went
into operation ? 1t might be of advantage
to Winona, little, as the trans shipping
point for small amount of freight landed
from steamboats, to be transported to Roch-
ester, which would be sort of distributing
point for whatever goods would be required
within the circuit of few miles-but that is
all.
We can understand why the immediate
Representatives of Winona, Mr.. NORTON
and Mr.. BALcoMBE, should 60 for it, and
why, also, Senator LINDSEY, of Rochester,
with his heavy pecuniary investments there
should be in favor of it, but we arc surprised
at any country members, even in Winona
and Olmstead counties, giving it the slight
est favor, when the measure as whole must
blast the immigration upon the farming lands
of Minnesota and retard the prosperity Of