The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-05-18

Public attention all over the country
Is being aroused to the huge robberies
of the public domain. Senator Thur
man is doing ycoman service. 1 tie
senate laud crlntsto four Of the Pa
cifc railroad conpanies-the Union,
the Central, the Atlantic and the
Northern--a an aggregate of one kindred
and t1centy-fom- million acres? Nearly
as much land as there is in the, States
. of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin
and Michigan. Five times as much
land as there is the State Of OHIO. In
addition to TINS, nifty eight million
acres hive. been granted 10 other rail
road corporations, making one Ham
dred and e~Ighty-twO miliioL acres in
ALA grant, IN tho aggregate nor
than the entire territory of what used
to be called the Great Northwest,
This was said while the bill Of the
Northern P.uiic Railroad, about
which. there has been so much talk in
and out of Congress, was under con-
sideratioGAthe, rold, which of all
others, as Senator Harlan, of Iowa,
clearly proved, It's been the greatest
beneficiary of the government, but
which is yet crying for more. Its
present application has for its object
three things, xiz. To make q land
grant 70: the branch line from Port
land, Oregon, tCPuget Sound, which
now has nothing bu! a right of way;
to authorize Tx com2TRY t. m2rtJ1Je It's
rhoe. me and Ill is hJtds, and to give
it more land than it cla now get under
existing laws. Yhe original &C. oesiX
years ago gives tic company the old
sections Of land within twenty miles
on each side of the line in Wisconsin,
Minnesota and Oregon, and within
forty miles on each side in all the
Territories Since it was passeJ set
Tiers have taken up some lands in the
States, anil the company now ask to
have the original grant made goo | by
IN eriensioa IF t~A mics on c tes SD! OF
the limo, of the limit within which ii
may make selection-thus giving the
company huff the land i'll a bcl5 a
hundred miles vile across the CONT
nent. Philadelphia, has been. the
great center of the manipulation nee
cssary to the revival of this six years
neglected enterprise, Some fiyefmil-
lions, more or less, of seven per cent
gold bearing bouds were originally
divided in twelfths among ring" Of
operators, to be again divided and sub
divided, until they finally fail into the
hands of small capitalists and people
who. are lily able tobear the loss which
must be experienced before the work
can become productive, if eve it
should be. The five milIionzof bonds
now being sold are. intenlel for the
construction of two hundred miles Of
the eastern end Of the road-a sum-,
as experts estimate, more than twice
rs much as is necessary fol the pur-
p)se,, leaving the very handsone mar
gin, if the esti4nlte be corfe3t, o. over
two and a ha!f m~iIi;oDsof dollars as
profit to contractors and their confcd-
crates There are two reports clrcu
lating in connection with the rasucsci-
tation of this enterprise, which may
or may not be entirely correct. Oae
Is that the five millions of bonds be-
ing placed on the market is at a cost
of twelve per cent or six hundred
thousand dollars on. the entire five
millions, az amount, ii true, indica-
tag an extraordinary risk; and the
other is, that the control and direction
of the work is TO be confined to the
ring of directors Who have compare
lively little, If any, interest in if. TO
the exclusion of the bondholders who
furnish all the money. If these re-
pOrts are tru3 they account for the
great zeal manifested. by the sellers of
the bonds and show pretty c~onclusive-
1y where the risk of failure is thrown
in the end. But this is not alr.s SEN
ator Thurman, In following up this ex
sposure, says: "The promoters of the
road Qhe Northern. Pacific) when
they asked Tor it and asked for this
enormous grant Of land, such a grant
rs never had been made before, pro-
1essed hat with it, and without any
money subsidy, and without any mort
gage on the roNd to dcfraua dny5 ,dy,
they would go IN and make the road.
They professad extreme honesty. l
infer from the charter that was passed
giving them this grant, that they
would not put any bonds upon the
market by Wkieh anybody could be de-
ceiued or Gy pAieh tie road could be sold
out. They would not ask any money
subsidy from the government at all,
bat that they would raise the necessary
capital and go on and build the road,
and rely on the land subsidy to REIN
burze themselves, together with the
profits of the road. ~
"Now, sir, what is it that they ask?
They ask that Congress shall author
ize them to make a mortgage, not
simply on the road, but upon every
dollars worth of property, real, per
sonal, or mixed, hat they WI and
not only that, but upon their corpo-
rate franchises and franchise of being
a corporation. If that mortgage is
given-amortgage given before there
Is enc single shovelful of earth dug
= out, before there is anything done
% whatever; a mortgage put upon this
road without any Limitation whats0
ever as to the price for which they
shall sell or the interest which they
shall bear? Does not any man who
has the least experience in the history
OF railroads in this country know that
there can be but one outcome to such
mortgage as that, and that's the sale
Of all this property under that mort
gage and its purchase by a ''iring" ii
the company itself? That is th'
common history of railroads-the sale
of everything under this mortgage
and Il purchase by a firing" anon:
the STOCKHOLDERS themselves. That i