Evening star., 1869-11-04
The Pacific Railroads.

80 far a We are capable of Judging from
having passed over portion of the route four
umes and over the remainder of 1t twice, the
specihc observations of the Board of Commits
sioners last appointed to examine and report
upon the condition of the Union and Central
Pacific Railroads may be regarded as in the
main discriminating and just; but in the matter
Oh assumptions and general conclusions their
report submitted to the Secretary of the Interior
on the lst instant, seems very much like what
'ir- sumner would term whitewashing docu-
ment.
This apparently paradoxical view of the paper
IN question will bc reconciled Nv the intelligent
reader who carefully scrutinzes it, and particu
larly the opinions of the Board as TO what co,-
stitIfes first class road within the meaning of
the act OF Congress, set forth in the following
Introductory extract from the report and which
may he regarded as the KEY note to the whole
document They saw: 4
1.-The first question that comes before the com-
mlssIoh l.: What Is meant by Congress- i'm its
various acts relating to the Pacific Railroad, by
TIE words .hrst-citss railroad?' Railroads now
ranked as hrst-elass in this country are far from
being perfect at their opening, and have been
brought To their present high standard by large
expenditures, which a small traffic at the Begin
ning could never have justified. To reauire the
Pacific Railroads to be brought at first to tlee
standard other roads have reached after years of
money lt Il evident to the commission that This
"as not what Congress desired or intended i'm re-
quirlng hrst-class road
Now, reluctant a mere journalist should
naturally be about setting up his opinion against
that of Board of gentlemen evidently selected
on account of their supposed special fitness for
the duty assigned them, we feel bound to saw
that, in view of the enormous subsidies in money
and lands voted to the companies engaged in
building these roads. this is a most extraordinary
interpretation OF what was expected OF them i'm
return Had the work Of constructing the roads
heen left to private capital and private enter
Prise alone, reasonable people would doubles.
have been satisfied with their slow and gradual
development into first class roads, i'm the manner
Indicated a usual by the Commission. But.
manifesily, something more than this was
expected and stipulated for. Precisely i'm order
that this slow growth might be avoided and the
country placed at once in possession of properiy
constructed and completely equipped conti-
mental thOroughfare, the public domain, and the
public treasure were voted to il without gru,ige
and almost without limit
That the roads i'm question are quite up to II
not above the average standard of newly-built
railroads in any part of the country, must be. we
think, generally conceded. But that they are |
roads, in any rational acceptation of
that term, no intelligent person can HONESTLY |
pretend Nor do We believe that any amount OF |
will convince the country that Con- |
gress intended that their builders should pocket
what was contributed to make them such. and
wait for time and increasing traffic to bring
about that desirable and important result