The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-02-05
KANSAS RAILROADS.

In the Senate on the 18th inst, Sena.
tor Harlan made a long reply to let
ter written by Gen Boyntoh and pub
lished in the Cincinnati Gazette in
regard to land grants for Western rail-
roads. Senator Ponieroy also spoke
briefly, concluding as follows:
The general tenor Of this letter is
against the sy stem of granting lands to
aid IN the construction of railreads. /
submit it to- Senators from the old
States, whether they have not uniform
~ approved OF that system. found it
here when | came to the Senate eight
years ago. We have not deviateo from
it. The Government gives alternate
sections of the public lands to certain
roads within certain limits, and adds
SIPS to the price of the other sections,
and thus does not give away q. dollar.
i know men who own large tracts of
land, but do not know one of them
that would not give away every other
section to any party who would build q
railroad through the entire tract. The
Government owns the public lands, and
the Government can very well afford TO
give away every odd section if by so
doing it can double the value of the
even sections. That is the basis on
which these land grants are made. haI
am disposed to continue that SYSTEM
am for the, extension of these. States of
ours to the West. We will soon have
a line of railroad to the Pacific, and in
that way viii develop the publicdomain
and promote the sale of the public
lands, The settlers are satisfied; our
new States are Increasing rapidlyunder
this process, and why should any one
undertake5ito attack il merely for the
purpose of rejecting upon some indi-
YIdual as being Chairman of the Com
mittee on Public Lands
/ am referred to in one letter as haV-
ing "fathered''itwefve land grant bills.
suppose shall report twelve more if
l am continued chairman of the com
mittee. If not. some man who is the
chairman will do so, have no doubt.
We intend to pursue this system of de-
veloping the public domain by encouP-
aging the building of thoroughfares
through it, and that develops the State.
Tell me of a railroad iE Missouri, Iowa,
or Kansas that has been built without a
subsidy of public lands? You cannot
pnt yourlfinger on a road, and yet those
States, are growing rapidly Hnder this
system with magniticence and import
ance that has been unparalleled in the
history of the country anywhere else.
My own State, as the Senator from;
Iowa says, has butone member at pres
ent, in the House of Representatives,
but at the next census we shall have.
three, if not four. The progress of our
empire isthus IN owing westward, and all
bytthe8 deYelopmentnof thesState, and
that Development is secured by the
building of railroads, and those rail-
roads are secured by the grant Of public
lands. That is tile question that we
who live in the newiStates are able and
willing !, to defend anywhere and q
wholesale attack like. this falls very
harmlessfy upon u.s., do not care any,
thing about any personal illusions to
myself L am looking to the interest of
my people at home and the nation at
large, aud if they are satisfied. with my
conduct L shalt not try TO make my
peace with any writer of the Cincinnati
Gazette or the New York Tribune. 'zsi