The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-02-10

road companies. They have not proceeded
according to the spirit of the amendment to
insure the construction of the Land Grant
Railroads. So far as your committee can
discover the companies, since the passage of
the loan amendment, have not furnished one
dollar of capital to aid in carrying on their
gigantic enterprises. They have sold and
hypothetical the larger portion of their
bonds at ruinous discount. They have
paid extravagant salaries to incompetent
or inefficient officers. With the exception
of about fifty miles of we'll built superstruc.
ture,-incomplete, fragmentary and disjoin-
ted portions of grading, costing on the av-
erage less than $4,000 per mile, are all that
these companies can show in return for the
munifcent issue of bonds made to them by
the State.
The State is immeasurably worse off to-
day than if the Land Grant still remained
in the State, and not foot of ground bro
ken. What has been done could have been
more speedily done by the State ITSELF and
for less expense than the sum of its present
issue of bonds. The bonds issued to the
companies, have been, to a great extent,
misapplied.
Will the issue of the balance of the bonds
insure the completion of the roads hy these
defaulting, bankrupt companies The State
has already issued to them bonds to the
amount of $2,275,OOO, and behold the re.
suit. The credit of the State has been tenn.
porarly embarrassed, and the people have
got no completed Railroads. The bare
Of ho L.
rogatory, shows it to be chimerical to the
last degree. The three companies which
have defaulted are without means or credit.
Not bond should have been issued to the
companies unless they had the means and
knew how they could complete the roads. 1t
was not contemplated that they should con.
struct few miles of unfinished road-beds
which the elements would soon obliterate.
A poor return this for, first, the liberal grant
of lands donated by Congress, and second,
of s. 100000 of bonds to be issued by the
State. To expend the bonds without fin
ishing the roads, at least in part, was gross
perversion of the object and purpose OF the
loan. In addition to this, provision has
not been made, or secured to the State, to
pay the interest or principal of the bonds.
Within the spirit of the amendment, where
are the nett profits of constructed roads,
which were to be transferred to the State as
security? By reason of having constructed
portion of their roads, what bonds, by the
sale of which the interest on the State bonds
was to be provided for, are the companies
entitled to sell? What are the first mort
gage bonds on mere road beds worth, as in.
demnity to the State?
All the companies except one have de.
faulted in the payment of the interest on
the State Bonds. Owing to the broken
pledges of these companies, these bonds
stand this day dishonored and worthless.
Instead of hundreds of miles of completed
railroads, these companies have given us,here
and there, few miles of entertainments and
graded road beds, through lands which
they have rarely paid for, and which are
utterly worthless to the State, except to
serve as melancholy monuments of the
overthrow of moneyless railroad projectors
and of the ruin of too confiding people.
The great misfortune of the five million loan
policy was its utter impracticability. In
the first place, the loan was great deal too
large to be borne by the people of State
in its infancy, and at time when financial
revulsion had paralyzed the energy of the
west Again, the management fell into the
hands of men without the business capacity
or financial ability to accomplish their under.
taking. Is it then to be wondered at that
roads are abandoned, the companies bank
rupt, and that those who trusted them for
merchandise, produce and labor, implore in
vain for payment. What more could be
expected of companies where treasures are
empty, and where unadjusted liabilities
amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
To expect from them the completion of
these roads, is both vain and visionary. In
answer to the first interrogatory, your COM
mittee recommend the speedy passage of
law authorizing the Governor, by himself
or by his duly appointed agent, to bid in
and secure all the estate, right, title and
interest in the land grant companies which
have deiaulted in the payment of the inter-
est on the Minnesota State Railroad
Bonds issued to them respectively, in and
to the lands, roadbeds, with the grading
thereon, appurtenances and franchises of the
said defaulting Land Grant Railroad Com
panies when sold by the trustees of said
companies in the manner required by law.
Touching the second important PROPOSE
sion above stated, your committee would
earnestly recommend such equitable arrange
ment and settlement with the holders OF the
special railroad bonds, as should fully satisfy
this class of creditors, and which at the
same time will not defeat or jeopardize the
prompt completion of the roads. To effect
this equitable adjustment, will require an
amendment to the Constitution, which your
committee recommend should be submitted
to the people at an early day. They
further recommend that the terms of this
amendment shall finally fix the amount at
which the State will retire these special
bonds, by giving therefor new and general
bonds of the State-the interest on such
new bonds to begin at such times as the
same can be paid without hardship to this
class of creditors, or oppression to the peo-
pie. With respect to the per centage to be
paid in the new bonds proposed to be issued
to the holders of the special bonds, your
committee know of no rule of settlement
more wise and just, than to allow the cost
of the work that has been done upon the
roads. Moreover, as the State will doubt.
less sell out the companies, and take posses