The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-13
RAILROAD GRANTS IN THE FAR
WEST

AN interesting digest of the extent of the
public domain west of the Mississippi, pre-
pared by the "Veteran Observer" of the New
York Times, which was recently published in
this journal, knocks great deal of the nom
sense out of the virulent opposition to the
land grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad.
1t appears that even if 2O,OOO,OOO acres are
given to this and other continental railways
there will still remain S73, 900 acres un-
sold and unappropriated, exclusive of Alaska,
so that emigrants who wish to settle in re-
gions remote from railways can
be fully accommodated for an indefinite
period of time. In Pennsylvania we have
now population of more than one person
for every ten acres of land and nearly half
our territory remains uncultivated. By the
time the region west of the Mississippi is
equally well filed up it will contain one hun
dred millions of people, and even then room
will be left there for new accessions of popu-
lation. But it is on or near the rail-
way lines, above all other places, that
settlements will first be estab-
lished In former times the rivers were
necessarily selected as the centres Of civiliza-
ton because they offered the only natural
facilities of cheap and speedy travel and trans
portation. Now railways perform the same
Office in a much more satisfactory manner,
and bring the farmer and his products within
bailing distance of civilization, whether he
breaks ground in Minnesota or Nevada. No
body works half as hard to put public lands
in the market, and to crowd them with set
tiers, as the railroad companies which obtain
land grants. Theirpeouniary salvation depends
on the establishment of settlements, for with
out them, neither the land nor the iron track
is worth baubee. The man who bemoans
land grant to a live company in an important
and fertile region, on the ground that it will
retard settlement, should study the history of
the operations of the Illinois Central Railway,
and trace their stupendous influence in ad-
vancing the Garden State to a foremost rank
in the American sisterhood. The argument
founded on the allegation that land grants
and gigantic railways will necessarily enrich
few spectators is superficial. In this age,
progress, improvement, and marked success
of any description necessarily put money
into the pockets of those who encounter the
risks and surmount the difficulties involved
in great enterprises. If we are to stop every
wheel which renders profit to its owner, we
shall soon be brought to standstill. The
projects which do not pay in some shape are
necessarily forced, sooner or later, to stop
from sheer inanition, and if we arouse public
indignation against every enterprise that may
permanently prove remunerative, we shall
retire from the ranks of live nations into the
hopeless and helpless company of effete con-
servatives. If we had stopped the war be-
cause contractors made money by furnishing
supplies, or if we had told railroad men for
the last thirty years that they should never
realize dollar of profit on their operations,
America to-day would be the scoff of her
rivals instead of an object of mingled dread
and admiration.