The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-12
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
SECOND ARTICLE.
ny HA""' SCI r"yaeT .S Soli@S, slce-Fresioeh'
w ILL 1T W

BY Hon. Schuyler COIfax, VIce-President
of the United states.
little over five years ago Messrs. Bross,
Bowles, Richardson, and the writer hereof made
stage coach journey from the Missouri river
to California, and thence up the Pacific coast
through that State and Oregon and Washington
Territory, to Puget Sound and Vancouver's
Island. When we returned we all stated
to the public that the Pacific Railroad could
be and ought to be completed within five
years; that it could be run as regularly and
as uninterTuptedly as our Eastern roads; that
the subsidy and the land grant proffered
by Congress were sufficient for its construc-
tion, and that Its receipts would be largely in
excess of its expenses, from the very day on
which it should be opened for travel aud
freights. Very many doubted the correctness of
these statements. But they have been more
than verified. In but little over half the time
suggested the railroad became an established
fact. Its trains have been run with great regu-
larity and freedom from accident. And the
avails of its land grant, when realized, will, with
the subsidy bonds received from the Govern
ment, cover all the actual cost of the construc-
ton.
But If we had predicted, in addition, that the
total receipts of the railroad line from Omaha to
San Francisco, operated by the two companies
Uhe Union and Central Pacific), would be, as
they prove to be, FOURTEEN MILLIONS OF DOL
LARS PER YEAR, and the net receipts over
expenses SIX MILLIONS PER YEAR,
would not nine out of every ten
have turned incredulously away? Their
estimates for 1871 reach the still larger sum of
sixteen millions gross and eight millions net,
even with the competition, at each end of the
line, of the Kansas Pacific road on the east and
the California Pacific on the west; aud do not
doubt that these estimates for the coming year
will be realized.
All experience in this rapidly growing country
has proven that the locomotive is not only the
eivilizer but the developer of our States and
Territories. Wherever its pillar of cloud by
day and its pillar of fire by night are seen, and
wherever stern Nature does not positively pro-
bibit it, emigration is invited, villages and
cities spring up, agriculture and the mechanical
arts thrive, water power is utilized, manufacto
Iies are established, resources developed,
business is literally created, and the waste places
are isolated and solitary no more Take a re-
gion through which daily stage-coach has
heretofore been supported. Build railroad.
And, unless the locality actually forbids settle.
ment or business, as marsh or land absolutely
untillabe, the passenger and freight trains on
the line will, within few years, be far beyond
all original estimates. Build another road, and
another on lines twenty to fifty miles distant,
and the same results follow, without affecting,
in any marked degree, the original line.
In fact, the railroad development of the
United States is one of the most wonderful of
the wondrous incidents of its history, aud one
of the most potential elements of its extraordi-
nary advance in all that makes a nation great.
Thirty years ago, when there were no railroads
in Indiana or Illinois, heard eX Governor,
in q public address at Indianapolis, prophesy
that, within the lifetime of some of his hearers,
that city, with then but few thousand inhabi-
system lines of road running from il in every
di, ection, like the spokes of wheel from the
hub. This prediction was laughed at as the
dream of crack-brained enthusiast Not only
however, has it been literally fulfilled, but who
ever will look at a railroad map of those two
States will, even if they reside within their
limits, be surprised when they aggregate to-
gether the number of miles of railroads built
and being built, where but thirty years ago
they were so utterly unknown.
know that some of the many railroads in the
United States have not reimbursed their build
ers. EXtravagant prices for construction, heavy
discounts on bonds, ruinous competition with
other lines, and reckless mismanagement have
rendered some of them poor pecuniary invest
ments. But doubt whether any railroad can
be found that has proved loss, considered in
its relations to the aggregate wealth of the ma
ton. Even if every dollar expended in its con-
struction were lost, doubt if there is any rail-
road now in operation which has not raised the
Ualue of the lands along its line TO the full
amount of ats cost saying nothing of the bene-
fits it has conferred on the people in quick and
easy transit and ready and accessible market fol
all products of industry as compared with the op-
portunites of ''the olden time" That the powers
of railroad companies are sometimes welded
oppressively does not impair the strength of this
statement.
But the question proposed to be considered in
this article relative to the Northern Pacific Rail
road is, "WILL 1T PAY?" Before the American
people invest in great enterprises no matter
how important they may be to the development
republic in power and wealth, and the founding
of prosperous States to add to its glory, they
carefully consider this brief but important ques
tion which have used as a caption.
/. At the risk of being considered an enthu
siast, as i was few years ago, in regard to thu
Central line, predict that all three of th'
transcontinental lines-Northern, Central, anC
Southern-will, under wise management, prove
remunerative to their builders as they certainly
will to the nation. Hundreds of miles apart
they traverse our vast interior, waiting ant
ready for development-the future home, no
only of millions of our own population, but O
the millions flocking TO our open gates from th
Old World. They have different and widely
separated termini on the Pacific as they hav
at this end of their respective lines. And eac
has advantages peculiar to itself.
ii. The first advantage that can be elaine
for the Northern Pacific is that it has no govern
mental subsidy bonds. No principal or interes
pletion, an incumbrance, then or thereafter
upon its receipts. Every dollar that it earn
for transportation, military, postal serviC
for the United States goes into its treasury
with its other receipts from passengers {
freights. And thus the absence of subsidy bond
will preve hereafter blessing instead OF an IL
jury to it.
III. Instead of the pecuniary aid given
bonds to the Central line the United State
InagnifceRtly endowed this line with a Ian
grant, double in its area to that conferred upo
the other. Over fifty millions of acres in alte
nate sections were ceded to 1t TO aid in its col
struction, with the power TO mortgage them,
well as the road itself, and the right Of selecto
extended to SO wide breadth of country tina
unlike other land grants, the company is sure
obtain the full amount intended to be col
Veyed. This ''superh estate" larger than O
New England, seven times as large as Belgium
is free gift from the nation, and opens up
fFara mn