The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1869-07-10
Will the Pacific Railroad
PayP

electric announcements from Pro-
montory Hill of the successive
strokers of a silver sledge ham,
mer upon a golden spike, clinch-
ing the last rail of the Pacific
railroad, having now subsided
sagacious Western journals with
their practical and versatile knowl-
edge of railroads, begin to indi-
cate what, in their opinion, the
undertaking actually amounts to.
Some question has from the first
existed as to whether this long
line, through an unpopulated
country, would pay in the outset,
though in the end the settlement
of the intervening lands might
render it profitable, and these, as
the company has been endowed
with such large portion of them,
it will be its interest to get settled
up as rapidly as possible. But
whether the railroad is at once a
success or not, the sagacious cor
porators have SO manipulated the
government that their own sue
cess is placed beyond the reach
of contingencies. The Cincinnati
Gazette, the leading republican
paper of Ohio, says:
"The Pacific railroad was a
great enterprise, worthy of a great
nation. 1t had become a political
necessity, and it had also become
a plank for the platforms of both
parties. The influence of easy
communications is necessary to
supplement the binding influence
Of political union. It was neces-
sary that the road should be built,
and it is subject for great re-
gret that the government did not
take the construction into its
hands. Its employment of an in
termediate agency was very IN
fortuhate, for it has resulted in
the expenditure of enough to
build and equip a road in the best
manner, without giving in return
a reliable road"
After referring to the munifi
cence of the government of the
road, the Gazette says:
"Thus the very bounteousness
of the subsidy worked against the
good construction of the road
The government gave land enough
Tor great empire, ten sections
per mile; a subsidy in bonds of
$4,000 per mile, and treble this
amount for 40 miles, which alone
would go a great way toward
building the road. Besides this,
it authorized the companies to
mortgage the road to the amount
of $4,000 per mile, and treble
this amount for 100 miles of the
mountain region, the government
taking a second mortgage only
for the security of It's subsidy in
bonds. ALI this richness gave the
companies a chance to build the
road and pocket an immense profit
and then abandon it.
"This chance they increased by
corrupting the government officers
who had supervision OF the work,
by which they procured it's ac-
ceptance by successive sections
in very incomplete state and by
which they perpetrated great
frauds in engineering, both by
increasing the length of the road
to procure subsidies. All this
fraud is believed to have been
greatly facilitated by making a
number of Congressman interested
in the profits of these enormous
subsidies.
| "What the manner of construc-
tiOn is our readers have been ad-
vised by the information published
lin this paper at various times
These companies can now aban-
don the roads and carry ON an
enormous profit. This would
leave the United States no re-
course for its claim than to take
the road and assume the first
mortgage bonds. 1t is question
yet to be determined whether the
road can be made to pay the cost
of running and of the current re-
pairs. The probability is that il
will come upon the United States
government to make this expert
ment.
: That the road will ever do any
extensive business in through
freight is a notion which can only
: be entertained, by forgetting the
conditions Of cost on roads where
the running is much cheaper. Ii
may carry the bullion of Califor
MIA hut this will NOT be a VERY