Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-03-09
which it reserves, from the railroad

company is required to execute an
deposit with the Secretary of tn
= Treasury bonds at the rate of $500
per mile for the fourteen hundre
5 miles between Fort Worth and Sa
Diego, to be held by the Government
and sold at any time to meet an,
! default or deficiency by the compan,
in paying the interest guaranteed b,
the Government.
, 9Th. AS an additional security
z first mortgage is given to the Gov
ernment on all lands granted by tn,
State of Texas for roads CONSTRUCTED
, in said State west of Fort Worth.
The financial crisis of 1878, whicl
prostrated so many interests anC
ruined so many fortunes, crippled
all railroad enterprises, and ha.
made it impossible to negotiate rail
road securities in any of the money
! markets of the world except at 1
heavy if not ruinouS discount. BY
this financial storm the Northern
Pacific was swept into bankruptcy
its mortgages fOreclOsed, and the
purchasers at the mortgage sale are
now here asking the same subsidy
lnally granted to that line. Up tC
this crisis the Texas and Pacific
Company was proceeding in the
construction of it road with the con-
fident belief and hope that they
would be able to conSummate the
great work without any further ap-
peal to the Government for aid and
without any assistance from the
Government they have now in sue
cessful and profitable operation 444
miles of road, with its western ter
minus at Fort Worth. The Govern
ment's guarantee of interest on the
bonds of the company will enable
the company to negotiate them at
par, and thus to push to speedy
completion, on cheap and favorable
terms, this great enterprise, which
will form the cheapest, shortest and
best highway between the two
oceans that has been or can be con-
structed on this continent, and this,
too, as the committee confidently
claim, without the loss of q dollar
to the Government.
By its legislation, Congress has
declared the necessity for three
transcontinental lines of railway,
one to afford facilities 10 the north
ern, another to the central, and the
other to the southern portions of the
| Union. To the first, the Northern
Pacific, grant of about 47,00O,000
acres of land, the most of which is
equal to any lands on this continent,
has been given. The second, the
| Union Pacific, with their branches,
| have received Government aid in
lands amounting to upward of 50,-
/ 000,0 900 acres, and in bonds amount
ing to upwards of $64 ,000, 900, on
which the Government has paid
s. interest. The third, the Texas
Pacific, has received a grant of lands
estimated at about 19,000,0 900 acres.
One of these routes has been con-
structed, and is in operation to-day.
The munificent land-grant to the
other, it is confidently asserted by
its friends, will enable that company
to complete its line, if the legislation
which they now ask of Congress is
given. The aid to the Texas Pacific
falls far below the magnificent en-
dowments bestowed by the Govern
ment ON either of the other two
| transcOntinental lines, and is well
known to be wholly insufficient to
construct that line-so clearly insult
ficiCnt that rival lcorporatiOn thinks
it not an unreasonable request to
ask of Congress the entire grant,
with which to construct about one
third of the line which is required
to be built in order to connect the
Mississippi river with the Pacific.
1t is true, two of these lines are in
the North, and the other in the
South. The aid to the two Northern
lines stands out in bold and striking
contrast to that granted to the South
ern line. No reason, in a sound
public policy, can be found for the
Government to grant sufficient aid
to accommodate one section of the
country and deny it to the other.
Whatever adds to the wealth and
prosperity of the South, adds to the
wealth and prosperity of the North
and of the whole country.
To about twelve millions of people
living south of the 37th parallel, the
line of the Central Pacific and Union
Pacific is of no practical value.
Southweft will have to travel and
send freight from five to eight hun
dred miles to reach the terminus of
the Union Pacific at Omaha, then
to meet with the nOtOriously exOr-
bitant rates which now burden and
embarrasS those more accessible to
that line, and which a great monop-
oily, unrestrained by the salutary
checks of competition and proper
legislative restrictions, is too prone
to exact. But if the rates over that
line were all that the public could
reasonably require, the remOteness
of the South and Southwest would
practically debar the people living
in those sectious from the benefits
of that great highway subsidized by
the Government to an extent and
in a manner before or since unknown
to our legislation. 1t has grown so
powerful as to defy the law of its
creation and the remonstrances of
an oppressed and helpless public.
1t has so used the magnificent en-
dowment with which the Govern
ment has enriched it that prudent
men are fearful, and hesitate to risk
any Government aid in affording
the only effectual remedy against
its power and eXactions, to wit, the
establishment of competing lines,
over which the Government shall
retain and exercise a supervision
and control which will render i'm
possible the abuses which the Gov
ernment and the public both suffer
at the hands of this seemingly ire
sponsible monopoly. 1t would far
exceed the proper limits of this re-
port to go into a history of the legis-
Iation out of which grew the great
monopoly represented by the Union
and Central Pacific, but really con-
trolled by and in the interest of
syndicate of capitalists composed of
only a few men. But the lesson
which practical wisdom should draw
therefrOm is, not that Congress
should timidly surrender the inter-
ests of this great people because mis-
takes have been made, but by wise
and judicious legislation to remedy
those mistakes and to secure to the
people and to the commercial inter-
ests of this country those connections
which the general welfare demands,
But all abuses and extortiOns out of
the question, no one at all acquainted
with the wants of our people and
the demands of our increasing COM