New-York tribune., 1880-02-22
4 s1rPEyDOUS RAILWAY PROJECT
FROM BEHRING'S STRAIT TO CAPE HORN

FROM BEHRING'S SIRAlI " tAII- lD''-''
MIR. HELPERS SCHEME FOR BACKBONE CoN"
NrNrAL RAILWAY LINF-Sj.O00 OFFERED Foi
PRIzE ESSAYS AND POEMS.
Mr Hinton Rowan HELPER, of 81. Louis Is III
author of a way project which. for maShi'u''
and possible results upon civilization, Throws IL
former achievements and ideas of the kind qnit'
in the shade. He proposes the construction oil VIVA
he calls "a longitudinal, midland, double-iracF
railway from a point high north in North America
running more or less southwesteTly through Mexico
and Central America, TO point far sou'i
in Sonth America looking to its ultimate extension
IN Behring's Strait and Cape Horn. Mr.. Hclpc
has so much faith in this magnificent scheme ina
he has gone 10 work in earnest to attract pnbhc al
tention to it, His first step is TO deposit f1OOo IL
the Bank Of Commerce at st. Louis, 10 be distrlD
uted bv committee in the shape OF rewards lor -
saws and poems on the enterprise. For the oeS
trcatso III prose prize of 81 800 will be gwen io
the second best $1,000 and for the thlrd pes
81 .O0O while the hest poem will earn fI,OOo' ant
the second best $500. The articles and poems mus
he sent before the first day of Octoher mex
to the chairman of the committee, Hon. Thomas
Allen. president Of the Iron Mountain and Sou'heri
Railway. No. / North Fifth-st, ST. Louis. Mir
Helper requires that the prose essays shall com
prise from 60 to 100 pages of closely written ear
paper. and that the poems shall contain not more
than 500 nor less than 333 lines
Mr. Helper intends to print his Prize essays ano
poems in a book, and hopes thereby 70 awaken sucl
an interest in the project throughout all the couh
tries from Alaska 20 Patagonia, that all the re-
quisite governmental guarantees and charters VIII
be granted before October, 1882 and lJOOoO men
pnt to work on the road by that date. Seven years
AT most he says ought to suffice for the completion
slal La RI o.
the opening of his great Continental Backbone
Railroad by holding a Worlds Fair in st. Louis on
the four-huudredth anniversary of the discovery OF
America. Mr.. Helper makes 10 estimate OF The cost
o. The road. or Of its probable receipts and running
expenses. nor does he present any plan Tor raising
the vast capital required. No details as TO the
route are given. Whether the line should run east
OF west of the Rocky Mountains III trayersing the
United States is qucs ion the protector does nc'
answer, but it may be presumed from his
interest in st. Louis that an eastern route
would be preferred. 80 account is made of the
fact that for vast distances the road would traverse
desert country, where the traffic never would pay
for the fuel burned in the locomotives.
These objections do not however dotract from the
merit Of Mr. Helpers general idea. and if his cnthu-
sasm has led him Ia disregard grave practical Oh
staclrs il must bc remembered that enthusiasm Is a
potent factor in the organization of all great enter
priscs II Mr.. Helper succeeds IN awakening a gen
c9al interest i'm the problem of railroad from some
pont on our Texan border TO the city Of
Mrx,co and thence to the Isthmus, with
an eventual extension down tho Pacific
coast to Chill he Will have done a great work and
may be content 10 postpone until the next century
the full realization of his grand project. longtu-
dina line across the centre Of the United States will
be completed IN few years. ~ links owned bv diff
feIent companies. The branch Of the Union Pacific
from its main stem toMontana will be one link. and
the Denver and Rio Grende Railroad now pushing
southwark 10 Santa IL Will be another. On
the Pacific coast north and south limo
j. now III operation from the CHA River
10 a point we'll up ~ Northern California, and VIII
soon b, completed 10 Portland. Oregon. Whether
either of these lines can pTottably be pushed north
ward into the forests of british America or south
ward into the deserts OF Northern Mexico may be
doubted, but there cgn be no doubt of the inmedi-
ate value of % road from San Antonio 10 the City oi
Mexico. The link from san Antonio to the RIO
Great Northern Railroad. which now traVers :
Texas diagOnally from Marshall To Austin. ana VIII
b. extended TO san Antonio this year iI,l ms
and, AS its name indicates. - designed to
:cach the frontier. In Mexico, after delay of
wears and "a tedious conflict between two Ameuca an
companies for charters and government aid som"
progress j. ~ last being made IN the building OF q
road from the capital toward the RIO Graude.
study Of the condition of Mexico, and knowl
edge of the rapid development OF Texas, aud the
steady advance of population toward the RlO
Grande, will convince any one that the time IL
close at hand when railway communication be-
tween this country ami the capital of onr sister Re
public will he an imperative demand of commerce.
Once let the iron horse cross the Rio Grande and q
new era will open for Mexico. The commercial aud
industrial $50 alton III which she has lived will be
NJ nn end and tho long epoch Of revolutions and
awlcssess sho Is passing through will give place to
one of peaceful development. Capital ana iInml-
grafton will flow in. the wealth oi the country will
b. developed 10y American enterprise. 0nd Whatever
may be the political future ~ the country, we may
be that close busn relations will DO cstab-
shed with the United States. railway from the
CITY of Mexico through the Central American
states to the Isthmu5 would eventually follow rs
soon as the new life shoud he fully infused into
the dcad-aud-alye realm of the MOntczumas, and
then either through the enterprise the South Amcr-
can STATES or by the efforts of our capitalists.
Mr.. Helpers dream would soon be nearly realized
by the construction of line along the
Pacific Coast or through the interior valleys OF
SOuth America as far az Santiago or Valparaiso,
and it NAV be 10 the Straits of Magellan Looking
at the results 10 flow from such road IN open-
ing new folds of industry. in eXteudngthc influence
Of Anglo-Saxon civilization and in unifyng and
developing tho entire American Continent, Mr..
Helpers enthusiastic cagcrness 10 push The project
night along at once Is not 10 be wondered at.