The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-04-22

49, ~ -NAtH - VIZ 49, t~'
depot-st1iIons, water stations. ani
the ike. You give 1t ali that as a
gilt. and II addition TO. that, Won
give il land worth. at the lowest
government price, $4,000 to the
mile. and thar TO build a road that
can be built more cheapiy than any
road OF equal length could be built
On the face oE the globe. Yes, sir,
more chcaply than any road can be
built on the face of the globe of
equal length, because nature has
graded the whole Of that road from
the Rocky mountains TO Lake Su-
pefIor. Any man who has passed
over the Union Pacific road has
seen that nature has done the gra-
ding for all these Pacific roads
From Omaha to the foot Of the
Rocky Mountains there is scarcely
4 cut three feet deep. scarcely a fill
thrse feet high, and We are told by
the engineers who have been over
this Northern Pacific road that the
route is better and the road can be
more chcaply built than could the
linen Pacific. 1t IS 81 dead level
plain almost the whole Of the way;
no grading to be done, no deep cuts,
no great fills, no expense in bridg-
ing, but all that is to be done is
first to dig the place for the ties,
put them down and pat the rails up
on thom.
The average ccst af the railroads
IN Ohio, of the three thousand and
odd miles in Ohio, with all their
equipments, with all their expcn>
sIve depot stations, water stations
and the like, has been about fifty
TWO thousand dollars to the milo.
OF that expense a very large por-
ton was occasioned by the ecess
ity of buying the right Ct way
through a highly cultivated conn
try; another large portion of 1t BY
lie necessity of fencing their roads
required by a statute of the state.
And yet with all these elements of
cost and with the immense equip
ment they have, four or FIVE times
rs much as thus road will need for
ten or twenty years to come, the
average cost Of the roads in Ohio
perfectly equipped, and the most OF
them fenced, according to the last
report of the railroad commission
ars Of that state. made in Deem
Der last. was $4,000 TO the mile; |
and that with 30 gilt at all of the
right Of way; no gilt Of materials,
no Gift Of sites fer water-statiOns,
dcpots, cattIe-yards, or the Ike;
nothing of this kind whatsoever;
ard with an equipment enabling
them to do the business of the rail
roads of that State, the great a
sit State, IS 1t may be called, in
the railroad system. of the United
States.
Why, sir, I affirm, and affirm
without fear Of successful contra
fiction, that the grants made by
the charter of this company to tho
company WI! delray every dollar
Of expense Of building and equip
ing the road, so that the result Of
the whole thing Is simply THAI the
government builds and equips this
road ana gives il to q private cor
poration- Say what yeo will abou:
1t, argue as much as you please up
on it, talk as much as you choose OF
the advantages to, the country OF
the road-the simple, naked result
of the whole thing /. that the gov,
eminent builds and equip5 tho road
and gives it 10 a private corporas
ton to be monopoly IN the hands
OF that corporation. That is the
whole Of it.
FIVE TIAE5 AZ MUCH LAND IS N OHIO
ALREADY GRANTED.
Mr.. President, before we shall
grant further privileges to this cor
porali0n, before we shall bcs,ow
upon it further gifts, 1t secmsto nc
we should have good roasons for
what We 10. When 1 spoke upon
the general subject of railroad
grants the othe: day, L gave the
figures from some estimates I had
seen IN unofficial documents of the
amount of The grants made by the
government of the United States
to'raiIroad companies. 1 find upon
examining the oficlal documents
that those estimates were far too
low; that the grants were far more
than l supposed they Yer Why,
SIR, what have been the grants TO
he Pacific railroad companies
alcre? To four Pacific railroad
companies what have been tho
grants. the Union Pacific, the Cen-
trail Pacific, tho Northern Pacific.
and the Atlantic and Pacific, four
roads? They are, as the commas
iOner of the general Iaad Office re-
ports in his last report, which is on