Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-05-30

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$4,000 per mile; and from the termination
of this section to the California line (about
1893 miles, ,Sthe grant is doubled, making
$32 600, per mile,-the whole amount being
S44 20S,000. These bonds are issued by the
Government only on the completion of
each section of twenty miles, and after the
Commissioners appointed by the President
of the United States have certified that it
Is thoroughly built and supplied with all
the machinery, &C., of first class railroad.
The interest on these bonds is paid by the
U. s. Treasury, and the Government re-
tains, as sinking fund to be applied to re-
payment of principal ald interest, one-hat
the regular charges made for transportation
by the Company against It.. These bonds,
which are second mortgage, are not due
for thirty years, and it is not improbable
that the value of9the services to 7be rem
dered to the Government during that PEI
riod will constitute a sinking fund suffi-
cient for their redemption at maturity. IN
- 2d.-THE FIRST MORTGAGE BoNDs.+The
permits the Company to issue
its own Mortgage Bonds at the same time,
and on the same terms, and for the same
amount, and By special Ast of Congress these
bonds of the Coxspdrsa are made a FIRST MORT
GAGE on the entire line and property of
the road, the Government bonds being sub
ordinate. The amount or these Bonds to be
issued by. the Company is limited to an
amount equal to- those issued by the Gov
ernment to aid in the construction OF the
road. go
3d.-THE LAND GRANT-While this is
certainly munificent, at the same time it is
most advantageous to the Government for
without it, all its own lands would remain
almost worthless. 1t is donation ofevery
alternate section for 20 miles on each side
of the road, or 12sO0 acres per mile, and
amounts to 20,032,O0O acres, assuming the
distance from Omaha to the California State
line to be 1855 miles. Much of this land,
especially in the valley of the Great Platte,
is a rich alluvium, and is considered equal
to any in the world for agricultural pur-
poses. Hon. E. D. Mansfield, the learned
Commissioner of Statistics for the State of
Ohio, estimates that at least 9,40O,O00 acres
will be available to the Company within a
moderate length of time, and that it is far
within bounds to estimate this entire grant
at 81 so an acre, OF. S300OO,OOO. The Illinois
Central has realized more than four times
this sum from q similar grant. --a .
REoAPITULATIoN OF MEANS FOR 1,565 MILES.
q. s. Bonds. equal to money. IA 20s, 900
First Mortgage bonds A, ,20s 900
Land grant, 90 OBJ, 600 acres, say-..-. 100000
-4s a-: % z.a..sfa1 aa7 sG Sis, 900
equal to cost of nearly s76,O 1000 per mile,
which is believed to be liberal estimate.
This does not take, into the account the value
of the right of way and material, the stock
subscription already paid in or to be paid
in the future, or the present discount at
which the bonds are offered, as they are ex-
pected soon to be at par. ---.
The interest on the bonds is more than
provided for by the net earnings of the
various sections of the road, as they are
completed. On the 3O5 miles on which the
cars are now running west from Omaha,
the receipts tor the first two weeks in May
were $4,000; and as the road is extended
toward the great mining centers, the busi-
ness in freight and passengers constantly
increases-and as there can be no competi-
tion from rival roads, the Company has full
power to charge remunerative prices:*
.- PROSPECTS, FOR FUTURE BUSINESS.
It needs no argument to show that the
traffic of the only railroad connecting the
Atlantic and the Pacific, and passing
through the great mining region, must be
immense.
Although our annual product of the pre-
cious metals is now officially estimated at
500, 100000 per annum, vastly greater
sum will be obtained as soon as the Union
Pacific Railroad opens the way to the gold
en- regions of the Rocky Mountains. Now
the difficulties and cost of communication
are so great, that none but the very richest
veins can be worked; but with cheap trans
portation, hundreds of thousands of hardy
miners will successfully develop other
mines, that, with less costly working, will
be even more profitable than the average of
those now in operation and the business of
this constantly increasing mining interest
must pass over this road.
The records of our shipping offices show
annually travel by sea between the Atlantic
ports and san Francisco; and these reckon
ed at $3.50 each (about one-half the steamer
price, would produce revenue of $780,
600. ~ 7'a p. .s-,r2..' 's-
The overland travel is even greater. In
a single year, taoenty-seuess thousand teams,
comprising a vast number of emigrants
and travellers, departed from two points
only on the Missouri river on their west
ward journey. If the truth of this state
ment was not familiar to all frontiers
men, it might well be questioned. But, es-
timating the overland through travel at
the same figures as that by steamer, and we
have $l5,oOOO00 as the minimum estimate
on the same number of passengers. But
the facilities for cheap and rapid transit
furnished by railroad always vastly in
creases the amount of travel with the same
population. The difference between
the numbers who would take Gn ocean
steamer or prairie wagon and
modern palace-car, with it's luxurious
state-rooms, where the traveller eats and
sleeps almost as comfortably as at home,
may be as great as the difference between
the numbers who are jolted over the noun
tains in an old-fashioned stage-coach and
those in an Express train between any
two great cities. Then, is it not safe to say
that this through travel will be at once
doubled OH the completion of the road in
1870, and, with the rapid increase of Pacific
Coast population in the next few years.
more than quadrupled? Is it at all ex-
travagant to assert that the through passen-
ger business during the first year after the