Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-07-01
The Union Pacific RaiIroad-a76
MILES open for TraveI-tO Jules.


The telegraph has announced the COM
pletion of this road to Julesburg, 376 miles
from Omaha, and the materials are nearly
all on the ground to lay the track to the
base of the Rocky Mountains-l4l miles
further-by September next. This is GER
tainly very rapid work, but intelligent cor
respondents say it is we'll done, and that
the road is well equipped that its depots
and stations are of brick and stone, and its
locomotives and cars of the best. The Z.
). Commissioners are also compelled to
testify that tits in all respects r-tclass.road
before the Government will accept it. The
business of this road is already surprising.
The thousands of teams that once spent
summer in toiling over the prairies have
transferred their loads to the rail-tIack.
and by autumn the locomotive will be at
the base of the Rocky Mountains. The
Editor of Hdrper's Weekly remarks that
when the Union Pacific is completed, all
other lines of railway will become, to a
certain extent, les feeders. Along its en-
tire route over the great Plains lateral
branches will be constructed, which will
pour into it their way-side contributions to
an extent that can not to-day be approxi-
mately estimated. .t.. .
'Already, with less than one-third of its
length complete, IL is earning several times
its operating expenses, as officially stated.
Such success is without precedent. When
it reaches the already populous gold re-
gions of Montana, Idaho, and Nevada, the
freight to and from those points alone is
likely to be almost fabulous. And popu-
lation follows the road as it extends. A
town or village marks each stage of its
progress. Who can calculate the quantity
of way freight that the road is destined to
carry for these rising communists? Who,
indeed, can estimate the passenger traffic
alone? When hundreds of thousands of
persons, with their faces toward the West,
have tramped over the Plains at the risk of
their scalps, how many peradventure will
ride, when they can make the journey with
safety in a few days? But a short time
will elapse before the demands of trade
will call for second track, to be used ex-
clusiyely as a freight road, over which an
endless line of slowly moving vans shall
continuously pass, leaving the other track
for the use of impatient passengers only"
Our readers will perceive by reference TO
the Company's advertisement, that it offers
its First Mortgage Bonds, paying six per
cent. interest in gold to subscribers, at
ninety cents on the dollar. These bonds
are first lien upon the road, and are limited
in amount to SIG 600 to the mile.
The Company state their net earnings
for the month of May, while only 200 miles
of road were in operation, at $26l,7S2-a
sum which, after deducting operating ex-
penses. is several times the interest on the
bonds they are by law permitted TO issue
upon it. If the earnings are so large upon
tne aoay business, what may we not reason
ably expect when the connection is made
in 1870 with the Pacific Coast? We can
see no reason why the First Mortgage
Bonds of such a road are not a safe securi
ty, and they are l5 per cent. cheaper than
Government Bonds at the market rate.
subscriptions are already large, and are
received by banks and bankers generally
throughout the country.