The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-12
A RAILROAD FROM THE RIO GRANDE
ACROSS MEXICO.

point on the Rio Grande across Northern
Mexico to the city of Mazatlan on the Pacific
which has en- excellent and ample harbor
The writer credits q Mexican official OF Lare
do with certain information, which We copy
as presented, so that our readers may have
the same opportunity as We have of judging
of it's authenticity. The importance Of the
statements depends upon the proportion in
which facts are mingled with prophecy.
When told that the writer predicts that the
immense emigration of "German Repubi.
cans and free thinkers" from Kansas and
Nebraska is going soon to change Texas into
an anti-D Democratic State, our readers will con-
cude that his statements are to be received
with caution:
"When is this Mexican Pacific Railroad to
be built?" I asked Mexican official at Lare-
do on the Rio Grande, the other day.
"The last survey by the Mexican govern
making the entire 500 miles Of road has been
signed by Mexican contractors The road
will be completed inside of three years"
"Any American contractors interested in
the work." inquired.
"No, sir. Tue great work is to be entirely
Mexican work. The iron will be imported
| tree straight to Matamoros. All the American
railroads running into Texas will be feeders
to their road but the road will be independ-
ent of them ALL"
"Who furnishes the money for building it 2"
"The Mexican Government has granted
subsidy of SIS, 900 per mile.
"What American railroads will be benefited
BY your new Mexican Pacifc?'
"Why, it will form direct line from Chi
cago to the Pacific coast, by way OF the c.,
B. and @. and Missouri, Kansas and Texas. 1t
will connect Toledo by the Toledo, Wabash
and Western, and with St. Louis direct by the
Iron Mountain. The c., B. andQ and Toledo,
Wabash and Western, with the Missouri, Kan
sas and Texas, will form almost straight lines
to Houston, Texas, where they will turn an
obtuse angle and run straight to San Antonio,
only one hundred miles from Laredo, on the
Mexican border"
"What will be the time from Chicago to
Mazstlan y
Three days and half, and day and
half from Galveston. The regular time from
Chicago to Galveston, you know, is forty-nine
hours, or fifty-nine hours to San Antonio"
show about the gap of one hundred miles,
in the State Of Texas, from San Antonio to
the Mexican border 2" asked.
"That is already arranged for, sir. The
Iron Mountain Road, in connection with the
Texas Northern Central, have surveyed the
route from Austin to Laredo, and Mr.. Pierce.
Of New York, has a road almost parallel from
Houston to San Antonio, which is surveyed
also to Laredo. Besides this the United States
Government has had the route surveyed,
and President Grant and the Secretary of War
will recommend q government subsidy in
completing railroad communication with the
border, as military necessity. The great
military supply depot for the Rio Grande
country is being built in San Antonio, and
thousands of supply trains are now crawling
with their caravans Of freight to the border.
Nothing but God, sir. can stop the building
of this little one-hundred-mile railroad when
once the Mexican road is finished"
"What was Tom Scott doing down in
Mexico last week?
1T was this very road, sir, that drew Mr..
Scott to Mexico. He sees that it will be hun.
dreds of miles shorter than his Texas Pacific,
and through rich region Of country, while
his road only taps the deserts and ''staked
plains" The Mexican Pacific runs through
Durango, the richest alluvial farm region in |
the world. It taps Monterey. In Durango |
cotton is perennial It is only planted once |
in seven years. It grows so luxuriant that |
miles to the City of Mexico, and then make |
money. Mazatlan has . splendid harbor, |
with wharf accommodations for the largest |
Pacific steamers. In less than five years, sir,
Chicago will get her box Of tea from Japan in
three and Q half days through Mazatlan instead
Of in five days through San Francisco"
"What effect will this road have on the
Rio Grande troubles ?"
sit will end them sir. It will make the
people homogeneous It will open up all of
Western Texas to settlement, and a thick
population will be able to police the line and
stop depredations. Then the United States
Zone, which extends from Matamoros 800
niles north, and three leagues wes, to break
t up and stop the smuggling which is killing
10th Mexico and Texas"
Monetary stringency and hard times have
public enterprises, and almost put
stop to railway construction. When pros
,erity revives the railroads projected before
1873 will be continued and new ones begun.
The fast increasing population of Texas, and
he always increasing want Of cheap and
ertain transit from the Lower Mississippi
ALLEY to the Pacific, will call for the compile
ion of the Texas Pacific railway to Southern
or that of road substantially as
ketched above from some point on the
,ower Rio Grande to the nearest and best |
arbor, known to be at Mazatlan. This route
as long been in contemplation by those who
SEX the best means to develop Southwestern
,terests.
The Mexican Government has not for many
ears been aveTse to railroads across Mexican
'rritory, although naturally unwilling that
,ch roads should be under the control Of the Z
overnment of the United States or that of q
,mpAny consisting mainly Of our citizens. G
ven now, it is probable that Mexican con- 8
,ssions would be much more liberal to Brit l
b railway builders and capitalists than to /
merican. {
But before the moneyed men Of this coun- =
y undertake the building of road in G
exico, from Texas to the Pacific, there is s
UGH to be considered. The Mexican grant
the right of way, with all the pledges /