The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-08
sPxR1x or TEE RRuss.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current pios-compiled Every
DAY for the Evening Telegraph.
A NEW PATH TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

A NEW PATH TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
From the ~ Y. Tribune.
It is pleasant to note that, while Europe
trembles and quivers in the agonies of war
and threatened wars, our American people
are quietly pushing our national enterprises
in every direction. The triumph of Ameri-
can genius and skill in the development OF
our country's resources forms an enviable re-
cord in our national history. The building
of the present Pacific Railway was not only
important and memorable, but has been
gain to the Government. 1t has been est-
mated that the saving in transportation of
troops mails, and war materials, and the
whole economy of the service, as COM
pared with the clumsy and expensive
wagon and stage-coach methods, is great
enough to compensate the Government
for its subsidies and endowments in lands
and bonds. This does not take into account
the social and political advantages of con-
nected railway communication between the
great commonwealths of the Atlantic and the
Pacific. Our far-seeing philosophers, who
prophesy division of the republic into minor
republics, make no account in their calcula-
tions of the railways and telegraphs There
are material and indiSsoluble bonds of union.
New York and San Francisco are as near in
point of time as New York and Brooklyn,
and as accessible as Boston and Savannah in
the colonial days. Every road across the
continent is another artery in the life of the
Union.
For these reasons-material as we'll as po-
litical-we are disposed to regard with a
special favor the enterprise which has already
been submitted to the people by Jay Cooke
Il Co., and which is known as the Northern
Pacific Railway. 1t is not merely a railway
enterprise, for it has national value, and
comes to us with unusual support. Mr..
Cooke himself is so well known in America
and Europe from his success in the negotia
tion of our war bonds, that his name has a
prestige of uncommon value, and gives the
bends a new assurance, if such could be
needed, of their stability and solvency. 1t
seems a large sum to raise-this hun
dred millions of dollars. 1t is no
more stupendous and impossible than it
was to place MIR. Chase's early loans, when
Wall street frowned upon our credit, and
compelled the Secretary to hunt for pur-
chaser at every sacrifice. We have means
enough to build this road and to spare, and
the duty of accomplishing it is national and
patriotic. The Northern Pacific, as the
scheme is presented by Mr. Cooke proposes
to run from Lake Superior to the Pacific
Ocean. 1t will traverse, for two thousand
miles, Minnesota, Dakota, Montana, Idaho,
Oregon, and Washington. 1t is en-
dowed with land grant of more than
fifty millions of acres-the most impe-
rial endowment ever bestowed upon any
enterprise. The character of these lands may
be easily inferred from our knowledge Of the
country America has fairer and richer
acres than those of Montana and Idaho. 1t is
the country Of timber and minerals-of wheat
bearing acres and streams. The temperature
is mild-so mild that the roses grow late in
the winter in Oregon; the cattle roam over
the hills IN winter without shelter, while we
read the other day that, while the snow had
stopped travel between Rochester and Buffalo,
there was a regatta on Lake Superior between
the champion clubs of Duluth and its neigh
boring town.
The land grant alone of this railway, if the
lands be sold in the open market, acre by
acre, for their value to settlers, after the road
is constr ucted, would realize far more than
the cost of the road We see what land
grant of two and a half millions of acres in
Illinois did for the Illinois Central. Already,
that company has realized from its lands
some twenty-four millions of dollars, and,
before the whole grant is disposed of, the
amount will probably reach thirty millions
1t is not too much to estimate that a greater
part, if not all, ofsthese lands of the Northern
Pacific will be as valuable when they are put
into market as the prarie-lands of Illinois.
They are worthless without the railroad; with
it, they are of great value.
Regarding the Northern Pacific as a ma
tlonal ana paulotlc enterprise, iuil oI promlse
to the people, and opening these noble Terri
tories to settlement, and a great step in
our national progress, we wish Mr.. Cooke
every success in his negotiation, and the
builders a speedy fulfllment of their grand
undertaking. We need this road. British
America wants il. The Dominion of the Ca
nadas and the Red River will gravitate more
surely to annexation with the United States
if their highway to the Pacific is upon Anne.
rican soil As an in 0astmant the bond is
drawn with unusual care, guaranteeing the
fullest security to the holder, and becoming
an investment as safe as any now offered tC
the people. And now let the road be built
Let the people take hold and build it, ant
assist Mr.. Cooke in giving to the republic
new and important element of peace, pros
perity, and union.
GENERAL GRANT AND THE TREASURY