The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1878-01-10


inside the time fixed by the law, from San
Fancisco to Fort Yuma, shall be engaged.
In this way the road from San Francisco to
Omaha was finished more than two years
earlier than the time fixed by law. The
Union Pacific building from the east
and the Central Pacific from the west,
the stimulus of competition quickening
the efforts of the two com panies 70 almost
superhuman activity. The last proposition
does not ask the Government TO guarantee
cent of the bonas of the Southern Pacific
Road, which it brings into the field as a
worker in completing this great thirty Sec
ond parallel route. The reader may ask,
vely naturally, what objection can be arged
to this proposition Il does not ask for any
thing except the lands asked for by the
Texas and Pacific,and which have been ded
icated by the United States 10 the building
of this road marked upon the maps of the
Interior Department and withdrawn from
the market; it asks no Government guar
antee of bonds; it proposes that both COM
panies shall build until they meet, but
OF junction The bill introduced by me
provides as carefully as possible to have the
road built in the sho rtest time. There is no
infringement of the rights of the Texas Pa
cific in the Territories, for it has forfeited
by failure to build as required, and, besides
it could have no title to lands along the
route until its road was built, and it has
not yet acquired title to a single acre be-
cause it has not built single mile. To
prevent the high price of monopoly the bill
provides that each road connecting shall
carry passengers and freight at the same
rate per nile, and shall afford such facilities
to each other as will secure the accommo-
dation of a continuous route to trade and
travel.
| am unable to understand how South
ern men who really wish the road can OPP
pose my bill. The trouble is not to find
reasons for it, but to find reasons against
it; it secures what we want and more
quickly than by any other way proposed,
My position Is just what it was in the LIST
and ID sessions OF the 44th Congress. | am
and have always been willing to vote for
the Texas Pacific bill if it's managers will
strike off the help asked for the Vinita
| branch. That | never will vote for, and
| for this reason, if finished as proposed to
| the Tooth meridian in Texas to connect
with the trunk lire, it will be the shortest
connection with st. Louis and Philadel-
phia. Tom Scott controls and manages
over 5000 miles of roads converging at ST.
| LOUIS and Philadelphia as q business man
and COED railroad manager, he will not
drop freight aud passengers not quite half
way across the continent to be picked UP
| by rival lines when he can carry all the
way across the continent to Philadelphia.
With that connection secured We
| would have road built in the
name of the South as compensa-
ton for the aid given Northern
roads and yet virtually Northern road
taking away from our Southern cities the
rich trade of Asia and the Pacific Slope for
which we are now longing. The Southern
Pacific Company owns no road east of the
| Mississippi river. What it wants is the
| nearest water base and connections with
Southern lines of roads. The capacity of
southern California for wheat production,
| is only limited by transportation, with this
road through to New Orleans, Vicksburg
and Memphis,the grain trade would be i'm
! mense. The copper of New Mexico now
paying SIS per ton freight, and ship
ped Havana would come to our Southern
! cities. These advantages of the road, how.
ever, are too obvious for presentation.
| 1t has been objected to the Southern Pa
cific that Huntington is monopolist. 1t
might be difficult to establish that. If he
| is, because he has stock in about 1000 miles
of roads, what is Col. Scott, who controls
| over 5000 miles Of roads? But as far as mo-
nopoly is concerned, the bill provides against
monopoly prices. Then it is said that
Huntington will not build. Why should
he not? Is it to his profit to build a road
to Fort Yuma, over 700 miles to nowhere,
and find no business? About $50 miles (the
| last built,) is over an alkali des-
ert some of it two hundred feet below
the level of the sea. Why was money thrown
away wantonly? Besides, l know that
| Huntington has now ready sixty miles of
steel rails to be put down as soon as Con-
gress says 60 ahead. He would not have
| been boring the tunnels at Tchuchapa and
San Fernandina passes (next to the Hoosac
LA iChStnJ anu pueeiAS uoWu iaiIc III Tile
desert in order to stop building. He must
| build or break he must have connection
| with some road from the East and the ques-
| ton with him is whether he is able to await
the slow progress of Tom Scott, who since
1873 has only extended his road short dis
lance, and that believe by State and local
aid.
believe that a corporate n of Southern
men would have been more successful in
securing Government aid than any of the
companies now organized, and have ex-
pressed that opinion repeatedly in the last
| two years. Some newspapers both in and
out of the State who do not seem to under
stand my action, or whether they do or not