Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1875-12-28
RAILROAD SUBSIDIES.

change, has paid its owners a profit
since the day # its completion, and
is to be considered as good railroad
property as there is on the coast.
The completed line is over eighty
miles in length, and has been built
without subsidy from town, county,
State or General Government, or
without bonding it to foreign capt.
talists. If these statements are true,
it is probably the only considerable
line of railroad in the United States
which has been built without public
aid, and will stand as an honorable
precedent for railroad builders
throughout the West. There are
many populous sections of the West
through which narrow-gauge rail-
roads could be profitably operated,
did large capitalists have the nerve
to build them independently of
county and State subsidies. Al
though the granting of small subsi-
dies to railroad projects by the
counties through which the road is
to pass, and by which the counties
so substituting are to be particularly
benefited, in some instances may be
proper and right; still, the principle
is wrong. Corporations of this kind
should be self-establishing and self
sustaining, and would soon become
SO did they not rely on a subsidy
from the people as part profit Of the
project. In every section where rail-
roads are built, or thought of being
built, the people desire and need
them; and, rather than not have
them at all, are willing to give a
bonus for the accommodation. Rail-
road corporations know this, and are
not slow to take advantage of the
fact. This proposition has been more
than exemplified in the case of the
Territory of Montana, which is now
about to enter upon its third or fourth
effort to provide itself with north
and south line Of railroad communi-
cation which shall connect her prin-
cipal towns with the Central and
Union Pacific roads, the East and
California. On the proposition of
county and Territorial subsidy the
people have, up to the present time,
been almost equally divided. All
recognize the sore need of such
road; not man in the Territory but
knows that it is the immediate saliva
ton Of the Territory; all know that
q line of railroad which, with its
would traverse thousand
miles of rich agricultural valleys and
hundreds of miles of valuable silver
and gold-producing districts, would
be a well-paying investment to those
building 1t. A large portion of the
people, taking this view of the case,
have persistently refused to lend their
acquiescence to Territorial or coun-
ty, subsidy, and have kept the enter
prise at bay. The railroad subsidy
party" knowing as well as the
'anti's" that capitalists could afford
to build the road without subsidy,
also know that it will not be done,
and have fought for the subsidy on
the ground that it will pay to be
robbed to small extent, so that the
desired communication is. afforded
the Territory. If our information is
correct, both parties will at the COM
ing session OF the Legislative Assem-
bly,, compromise on moderate, gen.
eral subsidy by the counties through
which the road is to pass and a small
Territorial subsidy. Should this
policy be adopted, Montana will have
railroad communication within the
next three years, a population of
100000 in five years. and grow into
one of the richest and most thriving
Western States inside of ten years.
We are we'll aware that the prosper
ity of that Territory is not of vital
importance to the State Of Nevada;
yet when we view it as an additional
source of wealth to the nation, there
is no man or State but should feel
concerned in the speedy develop
ment of Its natural resources and the
adding of them to the country's
wealth and glory. No matter how
much we of the Pacific Coast, or they
Of the Atlantic Slope, may try to
ignore the importance Of our Rocky
Mountain Territories, there will come
III - Il
their sisterhood in the great chain of
States. Montana is now poor in the
midst Of wealth, and a railroad alone
will bring her out of her poverty.
The Mexican raiders are still
operating on the Rio Grande, and
it IS said that the affair is now re-
ceiving some attention from the Ad