Delaware Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1843-1874, 1874-04-30
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAtLR DAD
By HON, SCHUYLER coIFAx.

The gross Inconsistency aud shameless in-
Justice of the attack Oh almost every body and
every thing, with which many of the newspa-
pers OF the present era abound, is strikingy
manifested in their structures as TO the land
grant of the Northern Pacific Railroad. A
short time agolheIr columns were filled with
deDunciations Of the protigacy of Congress In
voting millions upon millions of acres of valu-
able land 10 aid in the construct ion If that
road.
The amount Of this grant was ascertained
with mathematical aecuracy-its value was ex-
aggerated to the highest possible figures that
the public could be induced to believe-and
the millions OF money accruins thereirom,
whca WIS to enrich the builders of
the road besides paying all the cost of con-
struction, was indignantly, aud eloquently, aud
persistently commented upon. A lew months
pass, and now the same papers are in full cry,
in exactly the opposite direction. Now, these
| very lands, with inconsidersble exceptions, are
, absolutely valueless, in their opinion Crops
they say, cannot he raised upon them. Set
tiers are frozen out or starved. And the rail-
road directors are sweeplngly denounced now
| as pack of swndlers, who have been cheat
| ing ignorant purchasers into buying these mis-
| cradle lands To reprint in parallel columns
| the editorials Of year ago, which lampooned
I Congress for recklessly giving away millions OF
| acres OF such valuable land to help build rail.
|
pooh tue company for 50 wickedly cheating peo-
pie into buying such good-fOr-nothing, sterile
| land, would illustrate the utter Injustice oil
| such inconsistent attacks, far more than any
| argumentatlve reply. The truth, need scarce.
| ly say lies between these two extremes, Much
Of the land, without railroad facilities, would
| be almost as inaccessible and undesirable fol
agricultural purposes as Alaska. and would
| scarcely bs worth penny per acre. But, will
| Tina II, m
grafton, this very land becomes attractive &c
vast numbers who do not fear frontier lie aul
who, lk. the New Englanders OF til New
| World, do not shrink from the WINERY temper
AZURE OF northern lafitudes.
The Northern Pacific Railroad has never re.
ceived dollar from the Government az sub
sidy, in cash or in bonds. The Company &C
cepted grant Of wild land which no capital
ist in the world would have purchased al th
time, as whole at three cents per acre in cash
If the prospect Of railroad being built through
IL during this century was excluded. And tn
problem the Company ought to solve va,
whether they could, by the sale of bonds base
on these lands, and always redeemable il
them ii desired build aud equip ami ruu
railroad hundreds Of mile: beyond settlement,
and then, after this work was done, svl tn
laud u viii Ia this railroad buii lag hal -nt
tied them, and which they had lLus brou /
| in prox unity to civilization AMI ~ mai kets
, they failed in ths-if tight times arrested the
work aud crippled them in their enterprise
they were ten or twenty years III advance
tie times-the Government lost nothing b
, their endeayors.
On the contrary, Just To the extent IN whiC
that heretofore undeveloped interior has bee
made TO blossom with waving grain-tsds au
rural homes-jns. 80 far as national productio
t has been iicreased-just So far as the homee,
have obtained homes in that new Northwes
1 rther by purchase Of the Railroad or by 81
e tlement Oh the reserved government sections
: has the natioA az u whole been benefited
n the enterprise, oven which the shadow VI !
verse has trust, only temporarily fallen,-Ch
q | cdgO Iirdnce.