Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-01-27
TEXASPACIFIC RAILROAD
Tom Scott, Before the House Committee, In
Favor of the Enternrisa

Tom Scott, Before the House Committee In
Favor of the Enterprise.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26-Areuments in the
Pacific railway question were resumed this
morning before the House committee on Pa
clflc railroads. Mr.. Storrs having finished
nus statement OF the legal points upon which
the Southern Pacific of California desired
the right to build through to Ell Paso. Gov.
>. e. Brown. Vice President of the Texas
and Pacific road discussed fully the broad
general questions which had governed the
policy OF the government in aiding in the
construction of commercial highways. The
Texas Pacific, he said, had built already AS
miles of road without dollar of aid from
the government, and justice required an e1-
tension of the aid asked by it as the Union
and Central Pacific companies had received
54.OOO.OOO of bonds and SO, 600 900 acres of
land; Northern Pacific Al ,OOO, 900 acres and
the Texas and Pacific only 100000 acres,
no portion of which could the latter receive
until after it built thousand miles through
Texas.
Thos. A. Scott, President of the Texas 4,
Pacific Il. r. Co., briefly reviewed the
asked, and the advantages which the govern
ment and people would secure through a
competing line. He showed that at the pres
ent prices of labor and material, and ability
to market the bonds at par, which would be
secured by government endorsement of the
| interest therein, the whole amount of the
annual interest to be paid out of the earnings
OF the line, would be less than two million
dollars, while the present trans-continentaI
| railway has to earn more than four times
that amount. He further claimed that I'M
DER the plan proposed interest would be paid
every six months by the Texas Pacific Co.,
| while the sinking fund would gradually re-
deem the principal and leave the road ulti-
mately without debt. That under the powers
reserved to the government to regulate rates
| SO as to take care of the actual capital, these
rates would be annually reduced to the great
benefit OF the government and the people,
and the government alone would save three
millions yearly by building the road, more
than the interest on the bonds if it never
earned a cent.
Mr. Scott claimed that the Central Pacific
Company had no intention to build the line
to compete against themselves, but merely
offered to build the road to prevent its con-
structlon. They were not bound to build a
! A.AAo' tNAi>t - eaioli I'LL I)d3stu COulu SIMPLY
SIT still SIX years. and during that time mo
nopolize the entire traffic across the CONT
nent and tax it as enormously as they were
doing now. Without any action the the Texas
Pacific Company had spent sixteen million
dollars III good faith, and had it not have
been for the panic of 1873, would have had
the whole line nearly completed by this time,
and under the aid proposed would complete
it by the year 's2.
Mr.. Scott closed with a strong appeal to
the committee to look at the question, not in
the light of technicalities, but on the broad
ground of the interest of the whole country,
and expressed his conviction that every
member of Congress who aided in securing
this great highway on basis just to the
people and the interests of the government,
as competing line between the two oceans,
would in after years regard it as one of the
proudest achievements of his political life.
The committee then adjourned until Tues
day, when the arguments will be concluded.