Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-18
PERSISTENT SUBSIDY scHsnEEs.

Inc peTllDaclLy Oh CERTAIN Suusluy WE
gars before Congress is phenomenal. Though
the justification for such aid as they So
licit has long since passed away, and
though all the conditions under which the
National Government first assisted private
enterprise in the construction OF transcon-
tinental railroads have ceased to exist,
these importunate lobbyists exhibit the
same greed and impudence they have man
Tested from the first There is bill now
before Congress which embodies the latest
lob thew have manufactured. 1t sets out
with the pretense of FORGETTING all railroad
land grants which have not been earned
by the fulfllment of the terms OF the
grants. This proposition, however, is only
a blind, the real purpose OF the bill being
to take the lapsed grants and distribute
them among the subsidy seekers who are
besieging the Capitol. Theworst of these adj
venturers is the Texas and Pacific Railroad
Company, which is now clamoring for the
passage of a bill renewing its land grant
and extending the time for the completion
Of its line The New York Evening Post in
a recent article thus states the case of the
Texas and Pacific ga bill now before Con-
"gress gives the company six years further
&c time to complete its road from Marshall,
"Texas, to the Pacific Ocean, and of course
''revives and continues the grant of land,
''25, 900 acres for every mile of road, sub
eject to the right of actual settlers on such
Gland to purchase certain quantity there
''of at fixed price. The company has
constructed about one-seventh of its road,
60 from Marshall westward, and for this and
'for the remainder of its road yet to be
"built within Texas it received from the
estate large quantity of valuable land.
IF the bill should be passed the effect of
"the law would be to confirm the grant to
the company Of public lands beyond the
estate of Texas, on the line from Ell Paso
to the ocean. This includes lands on the
&c line as laid down across the whole Terri
"earth has been turned by the company or
"a single thing done to perform the agree
"ment by which it received the grant. But
I" this is not the whole of the case. Across
"the Territory of Arizona railroad has
"been nearly finished. The Southern Pa
I" cific Railroad Company has laid its tracks
substantially parallel with theroute of the
"Texas Pacific Railroad Company, and not
" far from the tracks of the latter company
if its tracks are ever put down at all.
SIT is asserted on good authority that
"within three hundred days the Southern
'Pacifc will have its road in running
"order from Yuma, at the western line of
" Arizona, to Ell Paso, at the western line
"of Texas" This being the case it fol-
lows that the Texas and Pacific is asking
Congress to help it build road the need
for which has chiefly been disproved by
the actual construction of line across
Arizona without any Government subsidy.
The Southern Pacific has asked no help
from the Government, and has built the
road. The Texas Pacific now comes for
ward, and, on the plea of public welfare,
asks that the nation shall enable it to enter
into perfectly useless and injurious rivalry
with private enterprise and capital A
more monstrous proposition was never
made.