Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-07-20
The Northern Pacific Railroad. Con-
greSS and the PUbaiD Lands. 3
From the Advance {Chtcag3.


Is From the Advance {Ch5cag3 o. SOD
al Among the great commercial movement
o that characterize and reader notable th
a present times, probably the most impori
# ant, both IN amount Of capital involves
IS and In the character and extent of anticj
: pated results, is the building of the North
/. ern Pacific Railroad, with It's branches
| feeders and connections. The Suez canal
\ n constructed under the auspices of tn
a french government, cost about sixtv mill
t ION dollars The Union Pacific Railroad
V extending from Omaha to ogden. a dis
= tance of ], ,O32 miles, involved a necessary
outlay OF perhaps forty millions dollars
and the Central Pacific, completing tht
. line from Ogden to Sacramento, 743 miles
a further, did not cost more than elua
: amount The Northern Pacific Railroad
controlled by single corportion, will spar
the continent from deep water navigation
t on Lake Superior to tide-water on the Co.
: lumbia river and Puget Sound-a distance
Of about l, ,750 miles; and the branches al
ready projected will increase the total
length of road-bed to nearly 2, 300 miles. =
The cost of construction and rol!ing-stock
will not fall far short of one hundred mill
s ions dollars. tFH 8i
1t is the comprehensive design of the
projectors of the Northern Pacific, not
simply to build q railroad from lake to
ocean, and then wait for results, but to rem
der results certain by Q,) securing favora-
bic connections with the railroad systems
of the Pacific coast and the Atlantic states
and with the commerce of the Pacific
ocean; CD by constructinga series of lat
eral branch roads to the South and North
of its main line, which will drain the en-
tire Northwest between latitude ~ and
Central British Columbia; g, } and by or
ganlzlng such thorough, wise, and hu-
name system OF emigration Afrom Northern
Europe and the thickly peopled portions
/ OF our own country as will settle and rem
der speedily productive the vast belt of fer
tile lands tributary to the road and extend
ing across the continent. During the
| years occupied in its construction the road
will give employment to thousands of men
| and create large demand for everything
that our people manufacture or produce.
1t is impossible that such an enterprise,
| managed by the sort Of men that control
this one, should not benefit the whole
country, while specially and vastly benefit
ing the region known as the Great West
This greatest of commercial projects, view
ed as matter OF national import, is enti-
tied to the same hearty sympathy and con-
hdence that greeted the first Pacific Rail-
road, and the recent attempts. IN Congress
and by portion of the press, to represent
the Northern Pacific company as an insat-
liable devourer of the public lands, were as
unfair as they were unfounded. A bit of
Pacific Railroad history may be in place:
The Illinois Central was, we believe, the |
first railroad to receive a grant of lands di-
rectly from the government. Of the Wis |
dom and good results of that initial grant |
probably no one now entertains doubt. |
When the Union and Central Pacific roads |
were chartered in 1862, two other charters
were also granted-one for Northern and |
another for Southern Pacific Railroad =
Upon the Union and Central Paci-
fic Companies, which proposed to |
build their roads at once, subsidy |
of lands and bonds was conferred, mora |
than enough in actual value to build the |
roads-the bonds, however, being IN the |
character Of loan. The Northern Pacific, |
which it was correctly believed, would be |
the second lineIbuilt. received only land |
grant, equal IN amount, but lar superior in |
quality, to that of the Union and Central. |
The question of a money subsidy or loan |
to the Northern line was left IN allegiance
until the time when it's construction should |
be near at hand; and the Southern Pacific |
was lett with g bare charter the state of
the country then seeming to indicate that
many Years would elapse before the actual
construction of o Southern road could be !
thought of. In this way the government /
made provision for thee main lines of
railroad across the continent, and fully |
committed itself, aoitb the he0rty approval of |
both political parties, to the policy of these
three national highways. The motives
which lead to thig action were obvious
enough:
ID The Government considered itself |
under soma obligation to assist in opening |
communication between the older and the |
newer sections of the continent, thus bene-
fitting both and begetting closer sympa-
thy and better understanding between |
distant communities and the general gov.
eminent which taxed them and claimed |
their allegiance. q Tt was known thatin
time of peace the bulk of our standing az
nv is employed on the Western plains act
ing as q police between the Indians and the |
white settlers, and that large part of the |
great expense of maintaining troops at |
frontier stations consists of the excessive |
cost of transporting men and supplies
where there are no railroads. The saving |
of several millions year in army trans
portation, and the redoubled efficiency of |
troops when they can be rapidly conveyed |
from point to point, were legitimate reasons |
for extending government encouragement to
railroads built beyond the settlements. 80 |
The third and weightiest of the reasons
which influenced Congress to adopt the
land grant policy was one which appeals
even more direatly than the former two to
the common sense of plain people, and is
enough Of itself to justify the system, as
applied to the three continental lines of road.
Five years ago the United States Govern
ment was proprietor of eleven hundred
million acres of wild lands, lying between
tha Mississippi and the Pacific coast, not
including the state public lands of Texas.
Sueu a domain is too vast for compTehen-
sion, and only an approximate notion Of its
magnitude can be obtained by considering
that it is equal to thirty-foesr states the size
/ of Nea2 EOTG, OF two hundred and four
states as large as Massachusetts,. OF these
lands the Government, during the last five
years. has been able to sell, and give away
under the homestead act, less than four mil
lion acres pe1 gear. At this rate
the present generation would reap
! the public lands, and 275 years would
elapse before they would all be taken up,
much less titled. The reason why these
lands cannot be given away to actual set
tiers is that they are inaccessible and hence
worthless. No farmer will agree to live on
them for them, and for the excellent rea.
son that no farmer can afford to. A farm
without O market is without value, and
market without railroad is usually I'M
possible. Under these circumstances the
government, through its systera Of grants,
says to responsible corporations, "Build
railroad through these waste lands
of mine, rendering them accessible
and valuable, and [ will give you ten per
cent. of the lands affected. 1 regard
this offer not as charity or gratuity,
for you have no claim to either, but con-
s1der it business transaction, in which l
shall receive back in the enhanced value
of my own lands and the increased area
and constituency for taxation, very much
5 more than this grant is worth to me or to
: you, So farmer, owning q submerged
marsh which is absolutely worthless except
a for raising frogs, and, not caring to ven
t F11re his own money in the doubtful enter