Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1869-07-30
h IRON BANDS.

Probably no country in the world
owes more to railroads than the United
States. We have become SC, aecus-
toned to the iron road and the steam
boat that the thought Of travel and the
transit Of merchandise in any other
mode than by steam rarely occurs to US.
Yet he is not necessarily ar old man
who can remember when the railroad
was among e and doubtful expe-
riments. II required no little ingenuity
and influence to get some of our older
roads fairly before the public, and to in
duce the careful to venture mnoey
upon a scheme apparently 80 hazardous.
Now, railroads are among our absolute
necessities, aud We AN travel further
without "chauge of cars" than the
people Of any nation in the world.
Think of a journey from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, without the troublesomea APP
partition Of a single cu~stom-house Off
GER. The journey can be made, too, al
most without the production Of your
purse on the road. The fare paid, you
have no call for money, except for meals
aud slesping-berths. No doubt, in due
time, the railroad managers will board
as we'll as lodge their passengers.
The railroad ia politically no less than
commercially useful to us for no "Cum-
berland Road" and no number Of such
roads, could have kept up the necessary
and rapid intercourse which makes
North and South, and East and West
more and moro assimilatsd. Without
railroads the national domain, extend
ing only to the Mississippi, would, ere
this, have proved too unwieldy for
union. The one weak spot a year or
two ago was the vast tract which inter-
vened, uninhabited, between the Allan.
tic and Pacific populations. Now even
that is bridged over BY the s%tupendous
Pacific Railway undertaking just COM
pleted by the aid Of the Government Of
the United States.
We have noticed that complaints are
made that tho freight charges on the
Pacific Railroad are too high. Into
that question 1--WE will not enter. But
causes are in operation which will
abate these charges. Tho rapid filing
up of the continent BY emigration will
furnish way traffic. There will be no
need Of pushing California products to
the East, for the immediate ~populace
will consume a large proportion ; and
only what will bear heavy Transports
ton charges will End its way to the At
lantic. The present Pacific Railroad,
too, will not be long without rivals.
Other through lines will be in operation
within ten years, built too, We hope,
without any Government aid except
land grants. Already there 10 a move
ment for another link in the Kansas Pa
cifc Railroad, a stretch of more than
two hundred miles to Denver, Colorado.
This addition will give nearly seven
hundred miles of a new route from the
Missouri River to the Pacific. The first
Pacific Railway peoples the country,
and the building of other roads be-
comes a necessity as the population in
creases, and, moreover, aids in SWELL
ing the tide of emigrants. We shall
in due time hear no moro Of higher
charges at the West than We have a,
the East:
The railrosd is the iron band which
binds together this great Republic. Men
are selfish; and while no nero e1horta-
ton to patriotism will unite the States
without the aid Of interested motives,
SO neither can disunion be successfully
attempted against the evidence that in
union there is wealth az we'll as
strength. The various industrial pur.
suits-agrieultural, manufacturing and
mining-are making great progress a.
the West, the mineral and agricultural
advantages of the country in their de.
vslopment giving birth to new manufac-
turing industries and strengthening the
old. Who can predict the future Of
this nation? Who, fifty years ago,
would have dared to p~rophssy what We
now see? Only those who can rsmem-
Der the days when there were no rail-
roads and no telegraph can appreciate
the results which these agencies have
beeu mainly instrumental in producing.