The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-02-27
Thirty-nfth Parallel Railroad.

Inc frequent and lncOnvenient obStruc-
tons upon the Union Pacific railroad has n
tendency to direct public attention to the ne
ccssity of road through region not liable
to such severe storms. Up to this winter,
since the completion of the trans-continental
roads, the weather has been unusually mild,
very little snow having fallen, and the road
was kept clear with but slight difficulty.
Now, however, although the season has not
been remarkably severe, the whole business
Of oil the country west of the Rocky
Mountains has been deranged, owing to the
Interruptions Of railroad travel And from
the nature of the ground haversed by the
railroad such Interruptions are liable to con-
tlnue, even in seasons Of moderate severity.
The Union Pacific road, for some four hun
dred miles, runs through comparatively level
plains, over which, from the absence of trees,
the winds of the winter months sweep with
fearful violence. For some reason or another
best known to the engineers the road-bed
runs through series Of cuts Of moderate
depth, instead Of having its grade kept up to
the level of the higher ground. To such an
extent was this system carried that in some
places the floods have rendered change to
a higher grade necessary. The snow from
great distances is driven into these cuts by
the prevailing high winds, so that q few
inches of snow falling upon the level plains
is quite sufficient to entirely fill the cuts, and
there being no room to throw the drifts to
one side with the suow-plougb, shovelline,
and sometimes actual hauling away, becomes
necessary.
The loss to San Francisco by these inter-
ruptions to trade is almost incalculable. Not
only are our merchants kept out of the goods
Gov, fhnfr lot1 t,,,f
many perishable articles are damaged, and
sometimes, indeed, totally ruined upon the
transit. But beyond all this is the distrust
created abroad in the American route from
China and the East. A powerful English
steamship company already is sharp COM
petitor for the trade, and the fact of such an
obstruction to travel as we have eXpe-
rienced and are now suffering from is the
best possible argument in favor of a diver
sion Of the traffic into other channels. We
have long looked forward to the trade of the
Orient to place San Francisco in the front
rank of cities, and we cannot now afford to
lose that trade on account Of few snow
storms.
The Southern road is not open to these OBJ
jections, and should at once be built for, by
its means, we would be assured of uninter-
rupted daily communication with the Allan
tic seaboard-a communication without which
San Francisco sinks to the level Of an isolated
interior town. But, apart from all these con-
siderations, the Southern road is necessity
to our trade, and would pay for itself in a
short time from the new territory which it
would open to us. Traversing as it does the
entire breadth of New Mexico and Arizona,
it would bring to our very doors country
teeming with mineral wealth and admirably
adapted to agricultural purposes, and which
now, for want of communication, is practi-
cally yaluelcss. The lines Of settlement,
gradually radiating from the railroad, would
become impossible barriers to the savagcs,
and civilization and industry would rapidly
extend themselves over what is now to all in
tents and purposes desert.
St. Louis wants this road, and San Fran
cisco wants it more. Cannot our citizens and
those Of that city come together and devise
means for its speedy construction ?--San
Francisco Chronicle.