Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1870-07-28
TFrom the Advance CChicago).1
The Northern Pacific Railroad, Con-
gress, and the Public Lands.

Il 1@~N-A~-Gs
i
AMONG the great commercial move
ments that characterize ard render
notable the present times, probably the
most important, both in amount o.
capital involved and in the character and
extent of anticipated results, Is the build
| ing of the Northern Pacific Railroad
| with its branches, feeders and connec.
| tions. The Suez Canal, constructed un.
der the auspices Of the French Govern.
ment, cost about sixty million dollars
| The Union Pacific Railroad, extending
from Omaha to Ogden, q distance of 1,032
miles, involved necessary outlay of per
haps forty million dollars, and the Central
| Pacific, completing the line from Ogden
to Sacramento, TAB miles further, did not
cost more than an equal amount. The
| Northern Pacific Railroad, controlled by a
| single corporation, will span the continent
| from deep-water navigation on. Lake Su-
! perior to tide-water on the Columbia
River and Puget Sound-a distance OF
about 1,750 miles; and the branches al
ready projected will increase the total
| length of road-bed to nearly two thousand
| five hundred miles. The cost of con-
struction and rolling stock will not fall far
short of one hundred million dollars.
It is the comprehensive design of the
projectors Of the Northern Pacific, not
simply to build a railroad from lake to
render results certain by a. securing ia.
vorable connections with the railroad
systems of the Pacific coast and the At
lantic States, and with the commerce of
the Pacific Ocean; Cd by constructing q
series of lateral branch roads to the South
and North of its main line, which viii
drain the entire Northwest between lati-
tude 40 and Central British Columbia I;
(3,) and by organizing such a thorough,
r,6 <rf
from Northern Europe and the thickly
peopled portions of our own country as
will settle and render speedily productive
the vast belt of fertile lands tributary to
the road and extending across the conti-
nent During the years occupied in its
construction the road VIII give employ
ment to thousands of men, and create q
large demand for everything that our
people manufacture or produce.
It 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 bene-
f1ting the region known as the Great
West. This greatest of commercial pro-
jects, viewed as q matter of national i'm
port, is entitled to the same hearty SYM
pathy and confidence that greeted the
first Pacific Railroad, and the recent at
tempts, in Congress and by portion of
the press, to represent the Northern Pa
ciic Company as an Unsuitable devourer
of the public lands, were as unfair as they
were unfounded. A bit of Pacific Rail-
road history may be in place:
The Illinois Central was, we believe,
the first railroad to receive a grant of
lands directly from the government OF
the wisdom and good results of that ini-
tial grant probably no one now entertains
q doubt When the Union and Central
Pacific roads were chartered IN 1852, two
al RknG
a Northern, and another for Southern
Pacific railroad. Upon the Union and
Central Pacific Companies, which pro-
posed to build their roads at once, sub
sidy of lands and bonds was conferred,
more than enough IN actual value to build
the roads-the bonds, however, being In
the character of a loan. The Northern
Pacific, which it was correctly believed,
would be the second line built, received
only a land grant, equal in amount, but
far 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 its construction should be near at
hand; and the Southern Pacific was left
with bare charter, the state of the
country then seeming to indicate that
many years would elapse before the
actual construction of a Southern
road could be thought Of In this way
the government made provision for three
main lines of railroad across the conti-
nent, and fully committed itself, Nth the
hearty dppr0udl Of both political parties, to
the policy of aiding the construction of
these three national highways. The mo-
tives which lead to thus action were OBJ
vious enough. Q.)e The Government
considered itself under some obligation to
assist in opening communication between
the older and the newer sections of the
continent, thus benefting both and be-
getting closer sympathy and better
understanding between distant communi-
ties and the General Government which
taxed them and claimed their allegiance.
(2.) It was known that in time of peace
the bulk of our standing army Is en-
ploYed on the Western plains acting as
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 transpor-
| tation, and the redoubled efficiency of
troops when they can be rapidly con-
Veyed from point to point, were legiti-
mate reasons for extending Government
encouragement to railroads built beyond
the settlements. (3.) The third and
Weightiest of the reasons which mtu-
/ 6uC6o OOukICo1 w 0AOPs viz As~S- o.
policy was one which appeals even more
directly than the former two to the com
| mon 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 Government
was proprietor of eleven hundred million
acres of wild lands, lying between the
Mississippi and the Pacific coast, not in
cluding the State public lands Of Texas
| Such a domain is too vast for compre'
hension, and only an approximate notion
| of its magnitude can be obtained by con
sidering that it is equal to ttiTty,fo
States the size Of NeSo York, or to two
hundred and four States as large as Mas
sachusetts OF these lands, the govern
ment, during the last five years, has beer
able to sell, and give away under the
homestead act, Tess than four million acre
per gear. at this rate the present gene
ration would reap next to no benefit iron
the public lands, and 275 years woulC
elapse before they would all be taken up
much less titled. The reason why thes'
lands cannot be given away to actua
settlers is that they are inaccessible anC
hence worthless. No farmer will agree
to live on them for them, and for the. ex
cellent reason that no farmer can afford to
| A farm without a market is w1thou
value, and market without a railroad L
| H.