Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-06

= FRANCISCO raised IN cash out OF Gov !
eminent bonds, lands and mortgages of
" their franchises, four or FIVE times as
"much as they necessarily expended upon
" their roads. These roads, THUS built at
!" the public expense, and in some cases
paid for by the public five times over,
care now claimed as private property of
+" the companies, and the right of the
"public to use them as highways is utterly
denied" 1t is remarkable that after
this gross and reckless misrepresentation
of the facts, Judge Black should conclude:
Nevertheless l think the claims of those
(" companies TO take reasonable tolls stands
upon the same foundation as that of a
" company whose roads were built by the
I" stockholders themselves at their own
proper expense. This conclusion APP
pears TO be the only sane point
in Judge Blacks letter. Ali else is vitiated
by his acceptance of the confused and
erroneous views with which malignant
demagogues and credulous simpletons
have endeavored to obscure the subject.
The truth is that the original relation be-
tween the Government and the railroad
builders was contract. The Government
wanted the Pacific Railroads built, and in
order to induce private enterprise to I'M
dertake the work it offered special induce
ments. 1t undertook to lend its credit to
the projectors, and for this loan it took
mortgage upon the roads. Every dollar
advanced by it in this way was simply
loaned, and security was taken for repay
ment. The gifts of land were necessary
in order to invite enterprise, for scarcely
anyone then believed that the undertaking
would be Immediately or largely remuuer
alive. 1t was, in fact, regarded as a
visionary scheme, and private capital held
aloof from it. How the advance of loan
to these companies could give the public
any right to call the resulting property
its own, it will puzzle Judge Black to
demonstrate. II the roads were, as
he asserts, built with public money,
then it is clear that the public ought
not TO demand this money back. 1t cannot
claim both the money and the property.
1t cannot undertake to confscate the prop
erty on the ground that it was created with
public funds, and then go on to compel the
repayment of these funds. II an individual
were to propose this it would instantly be
denounced as amonstrous outrage. How then
can q government be justified in attempting
it? 1t is very discouraging to find man
of Judge Blacks standing uttering such
pernicious nonsense on subject which
has already suffered so much from misrep-
resentation.. 1t is certainly hardly to be
expected that the masses can entertain
just ideas concerning the relations between
the Government and the Pacific Railroads,
when so veteran a jurist is SO profoundly
ignorant of the facts, and so ready to lend
himself to the propagation of untruths.
1t is the more necessary that the truth
should be told in this connection because
the parties to the contract do not stand
upon equal terms. The corpora
tions are powerless to save them
selves as against the weight of the
government, and if Congress does not
choose to do them justice they must put
up with whatever wrongs may be inflicted
upon them. The simple fact is that they
owe all the opprob;um to which they have
been subjected, to their success. The con-
tract into which the Government entered
proved more profitable to the railroad
builders than could have been anticipated,
and frcm this circumstance have sprung
all the attempts to evade the contract and
to coniscate the property of the companies
which have been made since the compile
ton OF the roads. Mr. Jere Black does
not appear to have given the subject any
study, but il is noteworthy that even
though he has imbibed the most fallacious
notions respecting the relations between
the Government and the railroads, he is
still of opinion that the claim of the roads
to take reasonable tolls rests upon the
same foundation as in the case of lines not
having any special relations with the Gov
In other words, he does not
think that the Government is justified in
availing itself of its contract with the
to excuse acts of spoliation and
confscation.
uEyurpTiS urrrNsp