Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-04-19
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC.
To Withdraw the Land Grant Would Be an
UnspeakGbEe Calamity.
lPhiladelphia Times

To Withdraw the Land Grant You'd Be an
UnspeaEGbEe Calamity.
philadelphia Times.
It is alike mistaken craftsmanship and un-
wise party policy for the majority that rules
in Congress to deny the Northern Pacific
Railroad company the necessary extension
of time to complete its line and receive its
land grant. There have been millions of
acres of the public lands worse than wasted
in mere speculative enterprise, and millions
of direct subsidies have been lavished
upon spectators to secure needed
public improvements; but the plumbers
and profigacy of the past can be no
reasonable excuse for denying to so legiti-
mate and indispensable an undertaking as
the Northern Pacific railway the land grant
profered it years ago when capital was much
more easily commanded for public improve
ments than it is now. Of all our trans-con-
tinental railway lines the Northern Pacific
is the most important to the country. The
central line, constructed entirely by govern
ment money and lands given besides, is the
only one of the three that cannot be run at
all in severe winter storms and that has a
exhibit green field. The Southern Pacific
is of vastly greater value. as it has the ad-
vantages of 10 wer mountain attitudes, tempe
rate climate and mineral or agricultural
wealth to be developed on most of its route;
but it has the intractable population that
came with the acquisition of Mexican terri
tory and than is certain to hinder progress
for several generations. The emigrant to
the Southwest goes no further than the fer
tile lands of Texas, and American energy is
reluctant to force its way into the old Mexi-
can settlements. There is more civilized
progress in year in the Northwest than
there is ia a decade in the Southwest, and
the active men of o-day will not see the two
sections equal in population and thrift.
The construction of the Northern Pa iic
railway is now the most important public
of the age, and its results to
the far West, to the nation and to the world
must be of the grandest character. 1t was
undertaken in the food-tide of speculation
that the initiation of war created, and many
have inconsiderately censured Mr.. Jay Cooke
as reckless enthusiast in his conceptions
of the value and destiny of the enterprise.
He failed, as many other men have failed
who were in advance of the age, but whose
thorny footsteps have been safely followed
as paths to fame and fortune. He under
stood and predicted the incalculable advan
tages which must result from the construc-
ton of the Northern line from the lakes to
the Pacific, and the certainty of profits from
the investment; but when financial
revulsion came that made the
of our railways re-
duce or suspend their dividends, and that
involved hundreds of millions of trusted
ventures in utter bankruptcy, the croakers
came to the front to tell that they were wiser
than other men, and to denounee the failure
of the Northern Pacific as the logical result
of financial dreamers. 1t required the slow
work of years to restore shattered confidence,
and those who had this great enterprise in
their hands struggled against fearful odds
to save it from hopeless destruction. With
government aid refused, credit destroyed,
and all the broods of croakers-snarling at
that was broader and greater
than themselves, it was no easy task to re-
vive and keep alive the grandest trans-con-
intelligent faith and indomitable pluck stood
by the great work, and the lesson of seven
years is that the Northern Pacific assets of
Jay Cooke & Co. are to-day worth more
than all the liabilities of the firm, with
greatly increased prospective value. AS the
clouds of ignorance and prejudice have been
it has become manifest to the
world that every calculation of the intrinsic
value of the Northern Pacific railway, pre-
sented by Mr.. Cooke ten years ago, is Ger
tain to be justified, and if the enterprise
should now be interrupted by the withdraw
al of the land grant, it would be an unspeak-
eble calamity to the wsSale country.