The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1878-01-31
The Texas Pacific Question.


gument on the Texas and Pacific Rail-
road question was resumed before the
House Committee on the Pacific Rail-
road. Mr. Harris having finished his
statement of legal points upon which
the Southern Pacific of California de-
sired the right to build through to FL
Paso, Gov. j. G. Brown, Vice Presi-
dent of the Texas and Pacific road dis
cussed freely the broad and general
questions which had governed the pol
icy of the government in aiding the
construction of commercial highways.
In this connection he argued that all
the statesmen of the school of
strict constructionists, with Calhoun at
their head, had maintained absolute
power as to the extent OF this aid, and
that one of the main inducements of
the recognition of the Gadsden treaty
had been the acquisition of territory
along the thirty-second parallel,
through which ran a natural route for
a transcontinental railroad. He then
maintained that by the decision of the
United States Supreme Court Con
gress had full power to authorize the
erection of bridges over navigable
streams, and that the Southern Pacific
of California had no authority to
bridge the Colorado so as to come
eastward, the Texas and Pacific alone
having that authority. lie quoted
from the sworn reports of the Central
and Southern Pacific companies joint
ownership, which was practically in
Messrs. Stamford, Huntington, Crock
er and Hopkins, showing that the
present floating debt is nearly S14, 00O,-
900, besides a bonded debt of nearly
so, coo, 600, on the constructed por-
ion of the Iuthern Pacific road, and
argued from this that these gentlcm en-
had neither the money nor the credit
to build any more line, and that their
only purpose in appearing here was to
prevent the construction of line that
would compete with the Central Pa
cific. He then discussed the various
bills presented by Messrs. Stephens,
House, Chalmers and Wilkes, and
showed that they all favored the Con-
struction of competing line between
the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean,
differing only as to the branch to be
built from the terminus of the Texas
and Pacific to the river; also, that
none of them permitted single bond
to be issued by the company except to
represent the actual cost, which could
not exceed $23, 900 per mile; that the
Texas and Pacific had quilt already
445 miles of road without dollar of
aid from the government, and that
justice required the extension of the
aid asked by it, as the Union and tie
Central Pacific companies had received
$54, 600, 600 Of bonds and So, 900, 900
acres of land, the Northern Pacific
Al, coo, 900 acres of land, and the
Texas and Pacific only $4,000, 900
acres, no portion of which could the
latter receive until after it had built
thousand miles through the State of
Texas.
Mr.. Thomas A. Scott, president of
the Texas and Pacific, then briefly re-
viewed the grounds upon which gov
eminent aid was asked and the advan-
tages which the government and peo-
pie would secure through competing
line, and showed that, with the pres
ent prices of labor and material and
the ability to market the bonds al par,
which would be secured by the gov
ernment's lndorsIng the interest there
on, the whole amount of annual inter-
est to be paid out of the earnings of
the line would be less than twenty
millions of dollars, while the present
transcontinental railroad line has to
earn more than four times that amount.
He further claimed that under the plan
proposed the interest would be paid
each siE-months by the Texas and Pa
cific Company, while the sinking fund
would gradually redeem the principal
and leave the road ultimately without
debt, that under the power reserved
to the government to regulate the
rates so as to take care of the actual
capital, these rates would annually
be reduced to the great benefit of the
people, and that the government
would save the country millions of
dollars yearly by the building of the
road; more than the entire interest on
the bonds If it never earned cent. |
Mr.. Scott claimed that the Central |
Pacific Company had no intention to |
build line 10 compete against them
selves, but merely offered to build a
AOAl " PACNCub lib HGN
were not bound to build 4 mile, and if |
this bill passed could simply sit still
six years and during that time monop-
Ollie the entire traffic across the CONT
nent, and tax it as GENEROUSLY as they
were doing now, without any aclIon;
that the Texas and Pacific had spent
$40, 600, 600 in good faith, and, had it
not been for the panic of 1873,
would have had the whole
line nearly completed by this time,
and, under the aid proposed, would
complete il by the year 1882. Mr..
Scott closed with a strosg appeal to
the committee to look at the matter,
not in the light of technicslities, but
on the broad ground of the interest of
the whole country, and expressed his
that every member of Con-
gress who aided IN securing this great
highway on a basis of justice to the
People and IN the interest of the gov
eminent and the competing line be-
tween the two oceans, would in after
years regard it as one of the ploudest
of his political life. The
then adjourned until Tues
day morning, when the arguments will
be concluded.
Officers and Uni;ed States