Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-02-01
at'ashinatua Standard
UAYMfIA WASHINGTON TER
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY /, 1879
Drawing Near.

Central and Union Pacific Railroads
are having it all their own way, but
the days of their ~nrighteous thrift
are Numbered. The last rail that
stopped the gap between these two
roads was laid in 1860; thus, for ten
years, the two companies have been
bleeding the people by extorting
from them unheard-of charges for
passage and freights. AS said the
frogs in the fable, 1T is fun to you
out death to as" The commerce OF
the road, between Omaha and San
Francisco, is the commerce Of the
world; the streams of humanity that
daily and nightly are flowing either
way, is likeshe constant deportation
of great cities, while the linear meas
ure of passenger, stock and freight
trains in motion every hour of the
twenty-four, must be estimated by
miles. This stupendous causeway of
iron may be represented under the
similitude of a mighty river. The
network of railroads commencing
along the Atlantic seaboard and
stretching beyond the confines of the
Northwestern States constitute its
head-waters, and from their confu
ence at Omaha, the rivermakes clear
sweep totSan Francisco. From this
point as an estuary, it's currents di-
verge and mark out q grand delta,
limiteddby Alaska, Mexico and China.
When this great trans-continentol
trunk started into operation, nepo-
tism was the leading element in its
administration. and nepotism rules
its conduct to-day. And yet, this
road was so largely Subsidized that
il NAV he said to have been built by
the Government for the people. But
there is a glorious comfort in the
thought that other trsas-continensal
railroads are in process of construc-
f1on. These roads, too, are largely
subsidized, and when completed, the
tocsin of q triplicate competition
will be sounded, when, as all good
people hope and pray, reasonable
reductscn.of rates may sbe expected.
The Southern Pacific aroad is pro-
crossing as fast as nseG and money
can build it. At last accounts the
track was laid we'll on towards one
huadrsaw4As. -sastSSf Haffa. Then
the Northern Pacific. Oaoe completed,
the two will conspire t. place the
Union and Central between two fires
that shall never be aaeached. Al
ready, the eastern division of the
Northern Pacific is making serious in
fromissions upon the business of rival
lines, and itssighteons perhnrbations
will continue to increase antil its fin
al completion shivers to asan4s the
iron-hearted monopoly nOwcxisting
from Omaha to san Francisco
A practical inustration comes ex-
actly in point. Ehe new steam fire.
engine lately purchased by Me au-
thorities of Seattle weighs about two
tons, and the railroad charee Oa,it to
San Francisco wene, 1880 .25, or about
twelve cents per paund. In jdstice
TO the roads east of the Missouri, lit
should be borue in tnaind that from
Omaha TO San Frar CISCO 1.-The charges
were eight cents per pound, just
double the price demanded by the
eastern roads. Now, could the en-
CINE have been dismantIea and divid-
ed into packages not exoeeding four
pounds.in weight, it could have been
sent in the United States mail, from
one end of the Union to the other,
for one cent per ounce avoirdnpoise,
or sixteen cents per pound being
only one-thisd more than the price
charged by the continental railroads
for what is denominated heavy slow
freight. The engine was shipped
from San Francisco to Seattle at
living rates. fos which nc fault is
found. When we take into consd-
eration the almost endless array of
minor charges that are ever besetting
apiece of heavy freight along it's
way, such as carriage. wharfage, stor-
age, demurrage and other items al +.
most I'd inyfnitum, We are quite in
clined to believe that the mail-bags
offer the better inducements, since
our friends, the Seattleites. might
thus have gone to the Postoffice and