Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-01
THE NEW RAILROAD MANIA.

THE NEW RAILROAD MANIA.
The attention of railroad projectors and
spectators is at present turned largely if
not altogether toward the extensive series
of new transcoatinental routes which are
being Matched out in rapid and apparently
endless succession. Whoever will take the
trouble to review these bold projects willsee
that they together constitute complete
network of lines, capable of doing the en-
tire transportation business of country
half as large as the United States, but that
they are projected upon Territories and
States which possess a very small and scat
tered population, and which there is no
reason to expect viii be much more thickly
settled for half century to come. There
are now some fifteen new routes projected,
all of which have their termini in this
State. They are devised on the most mag
nifcenb scale, and every main line is pro-
vided in advance with its branches or
feeders. The capital stock OF these new
roads is enormous, on paper, and their
prospectuses are as a matter of course san
guine and alluring. 1t is possible that
there may be no difficulty in obtaining the
capital with which TO build them. No
doubt there is an immense fund OF idle
money both in Europe and this country.
which is ready for Investment in almost
any kind of enterprise. In matters OF
speculation it would seem that experience
goes for nothing 1t is not ten years SINCE
there was great collapse of Western rail-
roads They had been built far beyond
the requirements of the time. Hundreds
or thousands of miles OF expensive lines
had been pushed through uninhabited or
sparsely populated regions. The possible
limit of remunerative production had been
passed. It was found that the staples
could not in many cases be carried without
a loss either to the shipper or the carrier.
The business which had been relied upon
did not exist The impetus to settlement
did not work, or did not work fast enough
to save the new roads. Their failure de-
stroyed their credit panic followed and
scores of them went into the hands of re-
ceivers.
The Granger war which occurred about
the same time effectually prevented the
speedy recovery of railroad speculation,
and for several years conservative policy
ruled. 1t became necessary to show that
new lines were reasonably sure of a sup
porting business before capital could be
had to construct them with. For some
time the greater part of the railroad ex-
tension was carried out by already estab
lished and prosperous companies, to sup
plement and enlarge their business. But
as the country began to recover from the
panic, and manufactures looked up again,
and the labor troubles subsidized, and the
credit of American enterprises rose again
in the money markets of Europe, the in
eradicable tendency toward speculation
once more appeared. a few men who had
amassed immense wealth by judic;ous
speculation began to turn their attention
towards Western railroads, and the pro.
cess Of consolidation which had been set up
naturally by the constantly recurring sui
cidal contests between trunk lines, no
doubt induced these men to think seriously
of acquiring control of transcontinental
routes. But as usual IN such cases the
speculative Juror has already overcome the
purely business considerations, and the
question of getting new railroads built
across the continent is pat before the vital
factor of the business on which they must
live.
When it is asked sOberly where all the
new through lines are to obtain their bust
ness, there is no answer to the question.
AS fact the necessary traffic does not
exist, and equally as a fact it is mere
midsummer madness to expect that it will
exist for the next generation. There are
on this coast less than million and half
of people, and there is no reason to believe
that the present population will be much
more than doubled within the next twenty
years. But it will require population of
ten or fifteen millions at the least to supply
the railroads already projected with paying
business, and it may be set down as abso-
lutely certain that no such population will
be found here until 1850, if it is then.
Moreover it must be realized that there are
hundreds of miles Of territory on al these
new routes which are and must always be
desert. Which will never furnish ton of
freight or single passenger. Yet which
abound with obstacles and difficulties such
as are calculated to battle the highest en-.
cheering skill, and to strain the fullest
treasury. Perhaps there is something
attractive in the prospect of dozen routes
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but it is
nevertheless necessary to inquire where
these roads are to obtain business.
Assuredly that business cannot be had
to-day. AssuredlY if the business which
now exists were distributed among a
dozen roads they would none of them
secure enough to pay operating expenses.
And if their projectors expect to develop
trade and production by pushing their
new lines forward, the strong presump-
ton is that they viii meet the same fate
which arrested the Western railroad
speculation ten years ago, with this dit
ference, that their disillusionizing win
be quicker than in the former case. If,
however, it is intended to build these roads
mainly for the purpose of getting hold of
the capital of European investors, the
projectors will care very little what be-
comes of them after they are built. Certain
ly the men who are figuring on the directo.
rates are for the most part SPECTATORS of
the class which never goes beyond the
making of turns" They are not real
railroad men who are running these
projects. They are cunning manipulators.
It is highly probable that they have
seen the end from the beginning, and
that they themselves intend to lose moth