Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-03
SHALL we have railroad TO the Pacific ?

| government Is now paying on ocean mail
routes TO the Pacific enough TO support q
daily coach mail overland, which would en-
tirely supercede the necessity for the others.
Establish that on the best route to California,
and the wilderness would be conquered and
the railroad question decided. The employees
fthe mail company would at once constitute
the pioneer nuclei for emigration thus bring
| ing that irresistible element of American ma
ture-the propensity to emigratc into the
wilderness-into the settlement of this ques-
ton.
The route would become safe almost as
soon as established. Valuable packages
would be transported by It. The passenger
travel would keep pace with the facilities
furnished, and probably exceed them. The
business and travel of the route would make
a demand for the products of the settlers, and
the route and the settlements would build up
each other. The business thus provided in
advance of railroad would of itself make IL
a necessity; and as successive sections from
East and West were completed, the increas-
ing business would occupy all the coach
the tide of emgration-the element that
made the splendid early dividends on most
of the Western railroads-would concentrate
on this route; the competition of the road
would be urged forward by demand con-
stantly in excess of its facilities; and when
completed, it would have local business
without which no railroad can pay running
expenses.
The last mentioned item had better be
kept in view. All the splendid pictures of
'the wealth of Ormuz or of Ind" that is to
penetrate the bowels of our land by these
railways, are the merest CANNON. A slight
calculation, based on the minimum cost of
railway carriage, would dsipate these Asiatic
dreams. The chief support of any railroad
must come from local traffic. The Pacific
Road will be no exception. Its through bus
iness must depend chiefly on mails, passen-
gers and valuable packages of small proper
tionate bulk. The tide of emigration will
be to it ten-fold richer mine than Asatic
commerce.
Keeping the legitimate business of the road
the best route becomes vital to the success of
the road, and this question has introduced
considerations inimical to the road. 1t is
looked upon as something that may be used
to create q sectional preponderance of politi-
cal power. 1t is well established that the
present overland mail route was seriously
damaged by a diversion of seven hundred
miles to the southwark. This shows what the
location of the railroad may have to en-
counter. Government can build such a road,
but it will only be kept running by Govern
ment aid.
The tide of emigration and the settlements
of Pixies Peak and Utah have pointed out the
central route as the one offering the greatest
inducements to that which must be the sup
port of the road, that is emigrants and settle
ments, as well as the most direct route.
To resist that will be perpetual conflict of
government with nature, and nature is sure
to win in that contest. The sectional contest
over the location of this route shows the
fatuity that seems inseparable from any thing
into which the negro question enters-and
the negro is at the bottom of this contest.
The road will probably carry with it an
emigration that will exclude slavery from all
the Territories through which it passes.
Will that increase such Southern prepon-
derance as the South wants?
If slavery enters into the question of local
ity at all, certainly the South should go for
locating the road on territory which is now
ut,ra To I'm nd anti uIo oh
urge its location through that most exposed
to slavery. The negro question is unworthy
of moments consideration in the location
of this road; and if any diversion is to be
made from the central route on pretext of
feasibility, it has been pretty well established
that an extreme Northern route is vastly
more feasible than an extreme Southern one.
To build two or three routes, as has been
proposed in order to settle this sectional con-
| fict, would only be ruinous to both or all.
To undertake two routes, merely from sec
tional jealousy, when one has hitherto been
regarded as an enterprise rather more mag
nifcent than practical would make the ma
ton ridiculous, as showing willingness to
destroy work of public benefit and neces-
sity, for fear of its benefits.
The question of locality once decided in
favor of the interests of the road, and the
pioneer coach road established there, the
building of the road will be secured, whether
Government aids it, otherwise than by its
mail and other service, or not. 1t will be
only question of time, and Government
aid, wisely applied, will hasten the time.
But here we run into other elements dam
aging to the project. Plunder is regarded as
inseparable from all projects which depend on
government aid. Besides, our untold mil
lions of public lands regarded as an mex
haustible mine, and schemes are boldly pro-
posed, based ON donations of public lands
which would never dare to show their fea-
lures if they demanded money directly from
the taxpayers.
Yet no appropriations are so costly to the
nation as these grants of the public lands.
They take the inheritance of the people,
which should be a provision for homes for the
present and future generations, and put it
into hands of capitalists and SPECTATORS
that curse which our squandering land sys-
tenn has entailed on every new Territory and
State.
Great grants Of lands on this route may
hasten its completion, but will be damaging