New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-03-26
Tuk PACIFIC RAILROAD.

A fairly chosen Select COMMITTEE, WheleLn every
section of the Union is represented, has decided
that the Federal Government shall aid the con-
struction of one Railroad to the Pacific, instead OF
undertaking two. We are sure this was q wise
snd beneGcent decision, and we trust the strenuous
efforts now being made to reverse it viii not pre-
vail. If they do, We shall apprehend that few OF
us now past the prime of life will be enabled to
pass by rail from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
For il must not be forgotten that the cost Of
structing even one trans Continental Railroad must
be very great, and that considerable part of it
must probably be contributed BY the Nation. II
one Railroad may be safely and promptly con-
structed on subsention Of Fifty Millions or less
from the Treasury, if By no follows that two
can be carried through for double that cost, or any
thing like it. For the Company which should con-
struct one Railroad to the Pacific would be morally
certain of at least Ten Millions income the frs
year after its completion from through business
alone, with at least half as much more from way
travel and traffic. We belie7e such Railroa /
from tts Missouri or Mississippi to Sal
Francisco over tolerably central rout
would earn more than Twenty Millions the first
year; but existing data prove that Fifteen Millions
may be earned beyond contingency, Ten Of it
by through business alone. But let US suppose two
Railroads constructed and in operation who can
say how much one of them would earn1 Who will
guarantee that the one having the most circuitoas
or dsagreeable route, or the worst track or equip
merit, would not in order to attract business, re-
duce fares to a point absolutely ruinous to both
Suppose the Government were able aud willing ~
contribute One Hundred Millions toward the con.
structon Of two Roads, whe believes that the odd
Two Hundred Millions would be put up by private
capitalists On what data should prudent men
and large capitalists are VIGOROUSLY csutious-in-
vest such immense amounts in enterprises so mani
festly precarious
If one road be run through the heart of our
country, We all know that parts of it will earn
considerably before the whole snail be completed.
If such road were built this day three hundred
miles eastward from San Francisco and seven hun
dred miles westward from the Missouri thetravela and
traffic to and from the new mineral Developments
in Carson Valley and the Rocky Mountains, would
make them both remuneratng. Then swift stages
would be put on connecting these two pieces in q
short weeks constant ride through Utah, and
bringing st. Louis and San Francisco within ten
days travel Of each other Mails, troops, NUM-
tons, gold washing machinery, and thousands of
tuns OF provisions and other supplies for the miners
on either rim Of the Great Central Basin, would
keep both sections of the unfinished road hard at
work throughout the year. But like fragments Of
road stretching southerly from San Francisco "
Los Angeles and San Diego, and westerly from
Memphis to the Cimarone or Rio Grande would
not pay one per cent. on their coat.
And then, it will be impossible to start two roads
on the lines proposed without provoking intense
hostility in the North. West. 1t ia demonstrable
that Railroad from st. Paul to Puget's Sound
would bs shorter, encounter fewer obstacles, and
traverse better wooded and more arabic country,
than one through Northern Texas and the valley of
the ella. The North West might possibly be over
powered now, but the next House is to be chosen
under the census Of 1860, which viii nearly double
her voting strength. 1t would not be found posi-
BILE to make the needed appropriations from year TO
year in defiance of that strength.
In fact, there is just one way to put through a
Poetic Railroad; and that is by agreeing that it
shall be built, and that commerce and capital shall
be aided, within specified limit in constructing IL
on just thai route which they shall deem most in.
vitirg. ket tho Government bind itself to contrib
ute the smallest bonus for which responsible parte
will agree to construct within ton years Railroad
from the Missouri or Mississippi to the Pacific,
thfy STIMULATING to carry daily mail each way
within ten days from river TO ocean, and to trans
port troops and munitions ut the lowest rates for