The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-01-06

A Southern Pacific Railroad.
1t is hard to believe that the Pacific Rail-
| road,-at one moment denounced as gi-
| gantic swindle, and the next lauded as the
great work which is to ELL the measure of
national prosperity,-was deliberately con-
structed so far north as to be of compare
lively little value to the South, or that SEQ
tional feeling and hatred Of the Southern
people dictated its unfavorable situation.
And yet, if reliance may be placed upon the
statements Of trustworthy Radical jour
nal-the Cincinnati Commemorative can
| hardly come to any other conclusion. The
Commercial says that Pacific Railroad, to
| be central, must run in latitude $50 3O/
But the Pacific Railroad begins at OMAHA
in latitude 41o 2O/, crosses Nebraska, Wyo-
ming, Dakotah and Utah north of latitude
420, trends to the southwest in Nevada, and
| diverges from it's meridian about two hun
dred miles, in order to reach San Francisco.
The Commercial then riddles the whole
| scheme in this wise:
For four-fifths of it's entire length it is far
north OF the meridian Of San Francisco. It
| must be subject to violent snow storms for
several months every year. It traverses
| desert across western Nebraska, across Wyo-
ming, across Dakota, across Utah, and thence
| passes into the Great Basin, one Of the most
absolute alkaline wastes on the globe-a pla-
teau where oil the streams sink into the bar
rem sands. where the wretched Indians live on
grass seed, and decent drinking water is un-
known. Crossing Nevada, the railroad threads
the sierra range, winding through Donner
La Lake se Pass ass where wot. soggy snow falls nine
| n nd vu1,
writer last August stood beside the track MAX
| ing snow balls from hugo banks that never
wholly melt away. All who have personally
examined the route will say that the pers Of
winter travel over the Central Pacific Railroad
OF California through Donner Pass, are so pal
pably great that no man will incur them who
is not foolhardy., The Nebraska end of the road
has icy terrors to contend with that are only
less repHlsiye than those pertaining to travel
across the Sierra during the average winter.
IN Inc California end is building snow sheds and
shed nor snow wall can stand before the noun
tain avalanches that sweep down giant trees
and huge masses OF stone as If they were fag-
| OTIS and pebbles.
These being facts, it is not strange that
the Commercial declares that the Congress
! Of the United States has spent fifty million
do'iars aad given away twenty one million
acras oi laao TO build d paoifc Railroad
lra
soutE or the EaKe cities, which ia indirect
! in reaehing Saa Francisco and unquesticr-
ably unsafe for nearly half the year.
Radical though it be in it's politics, the
Commercial does net hesitate to intimate
that the Southern States will be called upon
to aid in righting these wrongs. "Three-
"fourths Of the States are said to lie
0f ho
the Commercial, "whatever- may have
"been the status Of the Southern States
"during the war, it will hardly be de-
''nied that they are in the nation now.
'The Northern States that adjein them are
mot disposed to view the South as o region
permanently given over to poverty, po-
'litical intolerance, and hateful social ex-
''clusiveness. Time 10 mending these evils,
''and the chain Of central States are no
''longer willing to be considered as bound
Sing the republic on the south That, han
"pily, is once more the function Of the Gulf
"of Mexico"
These are cheering words; and we con-
tinue our quotation:
We have not heard that grass is growing in
the streets Of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pitts
burg, Cincinnati, Louisville, st. Louis, New
Orleans, Memphis, Nashville. Charleston,
Richmond, Savannah and Mobile; but we are
sure these cities are not content to be sneered
at by Chicago because they must pour into
that petted e'atrepol in order to journey over o
government enterprise to reach the metropolis
on the Pacific that is in about the same lati-
tude as Norfolk, Va. AS we'll might tho gov
ernment in former days have built a railroad
beginning at Buffalo, to accommodate the ma
tlonal travel to Norfolk, as to have planted the
great route to San Francisco in the latitude OF
the lakes. The country at large would have
been as conveniently served in one instaAce as
it will be in the other, and O good deal securer
against the death Of passengers by freezing or
starvation.
Our first Pacific Railway is mortifying geo.
graphical blunder. TO sanction another still
| further north would be crime against COM
mon sense, decent fairness, and human life
| itself. 10 refuse to construct central and
the year round, and along meridian where
snow seldom falls, and never to great depth,
will be to make as damaging sectional error
as Was ever committed under the old reign Of
the slayeholders: What we advocate is . road
| equally stretch out their iron arms. and SO
keep the cadence step Of natio aal progress rn-
broken. We feel no jealousy Of the Northwest.
What we want is justice and impartiality to all
| sections OF our reknitted republic; and under
those conditions may the best States and the
best cities win.
The only Pacific Railroad project that has
the merit OF being central to tho whole country,
is the continuation OF the Union Pacific Rail-
to the western line OF Kansas, and has sur
| veyed the rest OF it's route to California uid
| New Mexico and Arizona, That road must no
through for many and most conclusive reasons.
| The Mise Ana Coetom.