The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-04-27
For the Daily Press.l
l Two Western Raiiroads =

Next Tuesday, (April 30th) the citiEens OF
Portland will be required to answer at the
ballot-box very important question-sscond
to none ever submitted to then-inyolying the
loan OF the city credit in the early future, to
the amount of fourteen hundred thousand dol.
lars, and quite likely necessitating another
equally large loan, when the first one shall
have been exhausted to complete the two rail-
ROADS now contemplated and make thsm avail
ablc. l.. al4..-
The proposition reduced to question ia in
substance-Shall the city ION certain cond,.
tions not necessary here to name loan its cred
it to the Portland & Rochester and to tho
Portland & Ogdensburg railroad corporations,
each, in the sum of seven hundred thousand dol
lars on their respective mortgages, two hundred
and fifty thousand of it o be issued 20 the for
mer company forthwith and unconditionallyY
These two roads are TO start from Portland
and diverging at or near the Ssco river, tho
one is to pass through the northern. the other
the more southern portion of New Hampshire
and Vermont, coming together again at Mont
pelier, and both alike having their western OBJ
jective terminus at Ogdensburg. Thus is the
city virtually asked to father these two children
(even before one of them is fairly born) and to
commit itself to the project oil building, or Sc
curing by loan of its credit taeo railroads to
Ogdensburg. Very modest, surely! and in
view of the fiery ordeal through which we have
just passed, and the life and death struggles vet
upon us, we may we'll exclaim-"Insatiato
askers, would not one suffice?" The reader will
excuse the parody, but mark well the point
two competing roads to Ogdensburg, diverging
about half their length, identical the other half
and requiring about three millions of dollars
at this end of the lines to ensure the through
connections, and the city to be pledged to both
undertakings We cannot, if we v. .uld sepa-
rate them as the question is put to US in tho
call for the meeting, q vote for one Ia vote for
the other-for both.
Fenow-citizens, are you ready for this quss-
ton? As many as are in favor OF both roads
will ballot yes" Those who prefer 10 await
the developments of certain SURVEYS now being
made, and others which are to be made-wl q
desire to find and secure the best way and not
to $50 1t blind" will be compelled to vote "no"
even though it should seem to place them
where they do not belong the opposers
of a city loan to Western railroad.
One snch road, connecting Portland with
Ogdensburg, and thence by lake navigation
with the Great West, would seem to be almost
a necessity to the future development and
growth of the city; and whenever the most
direct and practicable route tall things consid-
ered) shall be fully established, by aotual, thor
ough, scientific surveys, it will doubtless bo
clearly seen to be the imperative duty OF the
city to grant to the enterprise all necessary aid
to secure the connections and complete the
road.
But is 1T wise,-is it prudent In the present.
state of our finances, with our bonds at O dis
count, to undertake ta0o such roads? to shoul-
der two such loads? would not one suficeYp
Is there not great danger that we should be
crushed by two, and that both roads would be
miserable failures, stopping short of the great
object at which we should aim-a through
route West9 ff
Fourteen hundred thousand dollars divided
between these two roads would scarcely more
than half finish either, leaving the New Hamp-
shire portions Of both (as yet without even
charter) entirely unprovided for, making
Rochester and Conway at best their western
termini, where Portland cars would come to
dead lock" more than two hundred miles
short of Ogdensburg.
whereas the same amount of money Judi
siously appropriated and prudently expended
on either route, OF on the best one, (wben we
ascertain which it Isl would secure to Port
land, beyond all contingency, the grand desid-
eratum of this day-a through railroad to the
Lakes.
Let us then husband all our recources and
energies, individual and corporate, for the
right time, and then concentrate them all on
the right ,ody. In union on one road there Is
strength and success; in division on two, there
is weakness, waste and almost certain failure.
COMMERCIAL STREET.