The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-03-30
Report of Sen ate Committee on Pacific
Railroads,

Railroads.
The report of the majority Of the Sem
ate Committee on Pacific Railroads, Made
February 49, 1869, is an exhaustive ar.
gument IN favor of two additional trunk
railroads TO the Pacifc-one from Lake
Superior TO Puget's Sound; the other from
Little Rock, in Arkansas, and from the
terminus Of the Kansas Pacific railway in
Kansas, by the route of the thirty-ffth
parallel. to San Diego and San Francisco
The report declares affirmatively that the
bill reported by majority the committee
was intended to be the fnality of legisla-
ton in aid of Pacific railways; that after
having provided substantially two addi-
tional trunk outets--one for the Northern
States and one for the Southern States
at suitable initial points, it was intended
to stop there all Congressional aid and
| leave to private enterprise and State en-
dowment The future construction OF branch
es. Tie report shows at length, and with
large array of statistics, derived from
the experience of the influence of railways
F, in England, France, Belgium, Hollsnd,
and the United States, that they are the
greatest of all modern agencies for the pro-
dnction OF wealth and the development of
that the import and export trade Of the
principal countries in Europe are in precise
proportion to the development of their
railway systems, respectively; that the ex-
perience of Belgium, France. Austria,
Spain, and Italy, shows that a tax on
railway receipts is the best sinking fund
thus far devised for the speedy payment
of national debts 1t also shows that two
additional trunk railways to the Pacific
are commercially necessary, demonstrating
that single line cannot do the work that
will be thrown upon H. that additional
lines, free from obstruction by SNOW. nre
needed 10 maintain uninterrupted inter
course; to prevent the ellis Of II monopoly
to avoid political discomfort in the Moth
ern and Southern sections of the Union;
to brig the public domain into market:
to increase immigraiinr fram Europt. To
quadruple cur yield of gold and silver to
save two-thirds of the cost of wngoning
supplies to the 100 military posts in the
Indian country, which now amounts to A.
bout seventeen millions year; 10 reduce
by one half the number Of troops maintain
en- in the Territories by the greater mos
bility the Dads will give the remainder,
and to practically end Indian wars, which
the report shows cost the country during
the last campaign about one dollar a week.
The mojarty Of the committee urgently
recommend aid to the roads as measure
of immediate and las ing economy 10 the
Government. The report proves that it
is safe for the Government TO aid then,
without reference to the incidental advan-
tages OF doing SO, by showing from the ac-
counts of the Quartermaster' Depart mrnt
with the Kansas Pacific Railroad that up.
on an average use of 220 miles Of the
road its earnings for work done for the
Government not only paid the Interest on
the bonds advanced to the road. The re-
port opposes grants hereafter of Govern
nent aid like that given 10 The Union Pa
cific and Central Pacific, in bonds directly
issued, but advocates a guarantee Of the
interest of the morigage-bonds OF the two
additional trunk Pacific roads, TO be issued
TO defined and limited extent 1t de,
cares that they are military, Commercial,
and political necessities, and concludes
with the averment that the people demand
their construction, and do not, as has been
alleged, participate in, or sympathize with,
the recently raised cutlery against Pacific
Railway aid