Litchfield enquirer., 1873-10-09

our checks for the trunks, we met the conductor after, who kindly enquired if we found everything right. and being as- sured we had, hoped We had had pleas ant ride. Before crossing the High Bridge at Portage, it is announced in eve- " car, and which side to look for the falls E. w.
 RAILROADS AND POPULAR RIGHTS.
 We shall not be surprised if the great railway crash of 1873 do more toward the 1 solution of the problem of cheap freights than all the eloquence of the orators of the Oranges. It has furnished a remarkable illustration of the system upon which roads are built now-a-days, and shows very clearly who pays for them. Take the Northern Pacific Road for example. This concern was empowered to issue share capital of $100, ,OOO, 900, but of this amount only $2, DOC, 900 was required to be sub- scrlbed Tn advance, and only $20O, ,00O to be paid in. Although further calls might l be made upon the stockholders should necessity require, it is tolerably certain that they never expected to pay for tenth part of the road out of their own pockets, or to do anything more in fact than ad- vance the preliminary outlay for surveys, for legislation, and the other operations of floating their scheme. This was s1en- der provision. it would seem, for a road 2,O0O miles long through an uninhabited 1 country, without commerce at either ter minus, and without ap important town on it's whole route. But the projectors irl- tended that Congress should build the road and put them in possession of it. haey ssegdEssdq. dsdq.aa Eant gEant of nearlX 50. .QQQ. 900 of this magnificent estate they proposed to negotiate loan of $100 100000. As the estimated cost of the road was only $85, ,000, ,OQQ. this loan would pay for the 1 whole work and leave handsome surplus for contingencies. The land is now worth say $125, ,000, 900, or perhaps more the portions thus far sold have brought on an average over $5 an acre. As the country | becomes developed 1t will of course rise Tn value :; and 1t was calculated that the sales would be sufficient to pay whatever of the interest on the bonds the road might fail to earn, and to pay the princi- pal likewise at maturity. Any thing that remained would be the property of the stockholders. -.[... l If the bonds had been duly negotiated l have stood just thus few speculators would have subscribed $2OO, 900 and per suadea Congress to build railroad for them worth fifty times that amount out of the national estate. In short time they would get back their original investment Tn dividends. Then they would be the absolute owners of 2, GOO miles of road for which they had paid nothing, and pro- bably they would still have also a large 1 quantity of unsold land to divide among themselves. Whether we should have had repetition of the Credit Mobilier Build ing Rings, and a rapid absorption of the profits and estate of the Company by a little coterie of inside managers, railway Congressmen, and Christian statesmen, we leave our readers to conjecture. The bonds were offered i'll Europe and declined. Then the house of Jay Cooke & Go. un- dertook to place them among the multi tude, ss popular investment.-in other words, to persuade the middle classes to advance the money which the nation was ultlmately to repay with interest.
 Probably 1t was combination of acci- dents rather than any Intrinsic defect in the arrangements, which brought this scheme to grief Similar methods have succeeded before, and, if we are not eau
 
 we particularly wish to call attention to is the bearing of this case upon the trans portation question. If the Northern Pa cific Railroad were in running order to- day from Duluth to Puget Sound, the di- rectors would undoubtedly claim the right to put their tolls high enough to yield l eight or ten per cent on the cost of the work. But the cost of the work would have been paid wholly, or almost wholly, out of the national estate. Congress has made grant rich enough to cover the en- tire expense, and leave the stockholders handsomely provided for likewise. For more than twenty years the Government has given away land in reckless prodigah- ty to aid in the construction of railways. In 1871 the total amount of the public do- main thus appropriated reached the stu pendous total of 217, ,S47, ,375 acres. It is true that large part of this grant will fall short of the appropriation: but prob 1 ably over 100, COG, 900 acres have been or will be deeded to the favored companies. These concessions represent, at the very lowest computation, a money value of $500, 900, 600, and an area considerably greater than the whole of the British Isles and greater than New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Illinois com bined. But when it Is proposed that the roads for which the nation has done so much should
 be required to do something for, the pso- pie, we are met with the objection, ssOh, 3 you must not interfere with the vested
 rights of stockholders. 7 .isras
 Whatever may be said of the railroad question generally, it must be evident that , the land grant roads hold peculiar rela tion towards the people and may fairly be : compelled to do much more than roads , built entirely by private capital. ''Reas onableprofts on roads of the former clas: cannot be measured by a percentage or their cost, because their cost was defray ed in 8 great degree, if not entirely, ou 3 of the public fund. 1t cannot be meas f ured by their capita, because that is largel. . fictitious. The limit of their right to talk toll must be fixed by a general review Q f all the circumstances of the roads and th history of their construction; and common : sense will demand that in coming to! de 2 termination on this point the share whic | the public took in building them shall b h fully considered = Tribune. VI I0 9s