The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-09-28
to be paid by the United States.

To the Northern Pacific Railroad
Company the land subsidy, originally
granted, was Al, 100000 acres, to
which Congress, at its last session, ad-
ded nearly 5000, 600 more So that
to this one private corporation has
been given, of the best lands belong
ing 10 the people, a territory equal to
THAT of Pennsylvania and Ohio COM
l,bined. mother words, Congress has
.tgiveh to this corporation the means to
4 build, perhaps to build and equip,
about 5000 miles of railroad, to be
the private property of few private
individuals. Suppose that the govern
ment had built the road itself, with
the means thus provided for its con-
struction, and then bestowed it as a
gracious gift upon company OF pri-
vate persons, favorites of Congress and
of the party in power. what would the
country say And YET where is the
difference between that case and the
case as it stands? What is the differ
ence between giving away road al
ready built and giving the means to
build it? There is but one difference,
and that is prejudicial to the existing
case. By giving to private corpora,
tion this vast body of land, Congress
has made it the greatest land monopo
list the world ever saw.
BY its grant of over 10000, 900
acres to railroad corporations, it has
deprived millions of landless people of
the chance to get homes, except upon
the payment of exorbitant prices
lands that should have been reserved
for actual settlers and given to them
under a system of homestead laws.
Not only this, the wealth, power
and dominion thus conferred upon
these great and favored corporatiers
will make them the overshadowing
and ruling power in at least dozen
States. In reality, they and not the
State Legislatures, will choose Sena-
tors in Congress; they, and not the
unbiased voice of the people, will elect
Representatives.. They, and not free
States, will speak in the choice of
Presidents. -zr
Think of road stretching from
Lake Superior to the Pacific ocean,
embracing with its branches more
than 1000 miles of line, the property
of single corporation, and that cor
poration owning every alternate Sec
ton of land, or its proceeds, in a belt
of 80 miles wide for nearly the whole
length of its line-40 sections, or 25,-
600 acres, to the proceeds of their sale
at such prices as the corporation may
see fit to exact-with towns and cities
owned by the corporation or favor
ed ring of its stock holders, scattered
along the road, and the great stock
holders, those owning nearly all its
stock and ruling its affairs, residing in
Boston, New York and Philadelphia,
and you will have some idea of what
the Northern Pacific Railroad is to be,
and what chance for political promotion
any man within the limits of its infu-
ence would have, should he dare seek
to restrict its monopoly, restrain its
exactions or otherwise opposite its
will. tS
Much is being now said about the
relative rights of capital and labor
much complaint is being uttered at
what is said to be the exactions Of
capital and the depression of labor.
The working men are everywhere
forming unions. holding congl esses,
and issuing books, pamphlets and news
papers to advocate their claims and
protest against the unequal distribution
of wealth, which they assert is result
ing from existing laws, and especially
from the tendency to aggregation capi-
tai. But what aggregation of capital
and privilege was ever seen equal to
that created by Congress, by the char
tiers it has granted and the donations
it has made to the four railroad COM
panies have named? What other
corporations have ever become the
owners in fee of territory equal to
seven States of this Union, greater
than the area of Germany; and in ad-
dition to this wealth been clothed with
a corporate existence and immense
corporate privilege of perpetual dura-
ton? am certainly not so absurd
as to be an enemy of railroads. No
man acknowledges more fully than /
do the immense advantage they are to
a country. No man honors more than
I do the men who wisely project and
honestly build and manage them. [
could mention names-some of the
dead, some of the living-to whom
Ohio owes great debt of gratitude
for the construction and liberal, wise
and successful management of her
railways. but there is a vast differ
ence between roads built under State
authority, with capital furnished by
the State, controlled and managed by
her:.citizens, and limited in extent, and
roads chartered by Congress, built with
donations of the public domain, span
ming more than half the continent,
and owned and controlled by few
rich men in the great cities of the
East.
Before I leave this topic, I must
call your attention to an alarming
step, taken at the last session of Con-
gress, in the matter of these land
grants. Before then Congress had
never granted any but the alternate
sections, designated by odd numbers,
and in defense of these grants it was
saidthat the construction of the rail
roads would double the value OF the
even numbered sections retained by |
the Government, and hence there |
would be no loss of money. And ac-
cordingly the price of the retained sec
tions was raised from $1.25 to $3.50
per acre. This defense never had any
weight with me, for 1t treated the
Government as speculator in lands,
seeking to extort the highest price
from the settler; whereas I thought,
and yet think, that it is not as a