The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-04-10

Pacific Railway LegislntiOn-Let Us Have
n Reformation in the Subsidy Business.
We care nothing whatever for General
Negley's particular resolution in reference to
the management of the Union Pacific Railway,
but we are glad to welcome any legislation
that looks towards thorough examination OF
our railway system, SO far as it has been sub
sidized by the government. The HERALD has
time and again called attention to the manner
in which the government has been served by
the great corporations who have shared its
support, and the sensitiveness shown by Mr..
Brooks, who is a government director in the
Union Pacific, indicates suspicious anxiety
on the part of the managers. We are not in
position to charge these directors or those
who built the road with manifest violation of
law We desire to know if the law has been
violated and to have certain ugly questions
answered. If some of our demagogues in
Washington were really anxious to investigate
into something worth knowing they would take
up our Pacific railways and give us the neces-
sary light.
The case is too plain, read as simple
statement of facts, TO be neglected or over
looked. The Union Pacific Railroad was built
in response to the general wish of the country
for overland communication with California.
A Commonwealth had grown up on the Pacific
in less than a generation, our brothers and
friends and children obeying the same laws
and under the same flag. They were practi-
cally isolated, as far from communion and
intercourse with the A tlantic States as we are
from Norway and Russia. So in time the
country was menaced with what threatened to
be a divided nationality. Considerations Of
love for the Union, not to speak of CONNER
cial and business reasons, made the building
of this road national measure. The Southern
statesmen opposed it, as they opposed every
measure that looked to the aggrandizemento of
the free West. Manifest destiny meant with
them to go South, where slavery might follow.
Mr. Buchanan gave cold endorsement to the
project as bid for the electoral votes of the Pa
cific, but his administration took no steps
towards its completion. Mr.. Lincoln was
| elected upon platform directly pledged to
| the enterprise, and when his friends took pos
| session of the government bill was passed
providing for the work. A road was wanted,
the country as it were commanded it by
popular vote, and Congress justly answered
the country's expectations. But we knew
really very little Of the business we proposed.
Congress was cropping in the dark. Little was
known of the country to be traversed. We
had had exploring expeditions and surveying
parties, but their reports were dismal and
proftless, and rarely went beyond the cult
nary and sporting experiences of the officers
who composed them. So when Congress came
to endow this railway and grant a subsidy it
gave money and lands enough to build four
railways. The bill as passed made the Union
Pacific Railway the most richly endowed cor
poration in the world.
The men who received this endowment
built single track in hasty, shabby man
ner. Government examiners were induced to
report in favor Of its acceptance by influences
which might be explained before an intelligent
committee, for it all happened in the easy,
happy times of the good Andy Johnson.
While building the road the managers formed
themselves into o ring called the Credit
Mobier and paid themselves the whole
endowment. The profits Of this Credit
Mobier were emo rmous. The money
and lands intended to make this
Union Pacific Railway real, gen.
une, lasting bond of union between the
Atlantic and the Pacific were diverted from
their proper uses and made to aggrandize
the few members of the ring. The ring has
dissolved. The Credit Mobilier has faded
away. The road in its stripped and famished
condition has passed into the hands Of Mr..
Vanderbilt, whose genius for railway resusci-
tation has made him nation al benefactor In
his hands it will be mac de, we trust, benefit
to the country. But what we want
to know, and what the country is bent
upon discovering, is, what became of the
endowment voted to this railway by Congress?
Who were the members Of this famous Credit
Mobiler? What dividends were paid? Who
were the men high in place who were repre-
sented in the directory? How did it happen
that Mr.. Collax and Mr.. Blaine appointed
committees to suit the interests of this combi-
nation? What influence induced Johnson to
name commissioners who would only see what
the ring desired them to see? Who received
the half million of dollars which an officer of
the road testified he had expended in WASH
ington in "behaf of the road ?" This
money was paid to somebody. The officer de-
clined to give vouchers TO the directors, as he
regarded bis expenditures in the light of
confidential transaction. What did he do
with the money? 1t came from the sale Of
bonds which were given him by the people,
and was the peoples money to be used by
him in trust for building the road. He did
not build railroad in Washington, nor pur-
chase rolling stock, nor erect statues. nor con-