New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-28
THROUGH TO THE PACIFIC.

We give this morning the closing letter of
the graphic, trustworthy, and widely trusted
series from our special correspondent, upon
the Pacific Railroad and its immediate effects
lie found the new thorOughfare far better than
the Eastern public generally believed. Indeed
all concurrent testimony if we except that of
| Commissioner Morris - goes to show that it is
! unusually good for a newly-opened American
| road, and that four or five thousand labOrers
\ are still employed in remedying defects
II and bringing it up to the standard required
\ by the Government. Since the enterprise
began, both corporations have suffered heavily
l through the appointment of incompetent and
dishonest Commissioners. Current reports
allege that some of these appointees have
sought to black-mail the corporations; that
others have in6nlged in sweeping denuncia-
tions. apparently for the sole purpose of max
ing a sensation, and that others still have rid
den over the line by night, at the rate of
twenty miles an hour, drinking whisky and
playing poker, and in the morning have certi-
fed that the new section was ga first
"class American road In the keen rivalry
between the companies, both perhaps were
ready to offer any character of work which the
commissioners would accept, and it has since
cost large sums to perfect what might have
been well done at first for a moderate outlay.
Leaving out altogether the question of integ-
rity, our whole system has been radically
vicious. Appointing boards of railroad COM
missiOners not composed wholly or chiefly of
engineers and practical railroad men. is like
sending clergymen to inspect an army, or tailOrs
to accept new public building. In this
respect we should learn wisdom from expert
ence But it is gratifying to believe that, in
spite Of mistakes and abuses our great ma
tiOnal work has been, on the whole well done.
If it had consumed fifteen years instead of
FIVE, it would still have been marvel. And
we may well doubt, with our correspondent,
" if the child is now living who will witness
again the amazing spectacle of thousand
" and seventy miles of railway, across remote
" deserts and over difficult mountains, begun
and completed in the same twelvemonthn
Another phase of the subject is less satisfac-
tory. Our recent congratulations upon the re-
duction of fares-based on an Associated Press
dispatch from San Francisco-prove to have been
premature. The Union Pacific has lowered its
freight rates, but the freight and passenger
tariffs of the Central continue to be exorbtant.
So far from emigrants being carried through
from ocean to ocean for $50, the fare between
New-YOrk and San Francisco stands at S173,
with no secOnd-class rate whatever. The Cal
ifornia company lshould understand that this
matter interests the whole country, and that
not merely promise but performance is de-
manded.
The opening of the road has quickened
California into new life As yet, high fares
have prevented the expected flow of mmgra-
ton from the Atlantic States; but the general
advance of real estate from one to two
hundred per cent in twelve months is a sub
stantial result and sure index of the future.
California needs men, and sooner or later the
lOcOmOtiye will bring them-men to open
FARMS to work mines, to build factories, and
to multiply the finer industries. The road
stimulates all the interior mining States by
cheapening labor, living, and machinery. 1t
promises to supply the East and South with any
required number of Chinese immigrants And
its effect already, in swelling our trade with
China, Japan, and Australia, in opening a new
and close intercourse between America and
ASIA in changing the channel by which silver
flows to the East, and in giving fresh impetus
throughout California to the cultivation of the
grape, the olive, the tea-plant, and the null
berry is marked and interesting.
How large its passenger traffic is to be, de-
ponds mainly upon the wisdom Of its manage
ment. But the agents of one line between the
Atlantic coast and Chicago are already selling
a hundred tickets q month from European