Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-05-20
Can 1t be Done!

A correspondent of the New Yorl
Times, stockholder in the Northern
Pacific Railroad &c. after stating the
history of Wizards late endeavor
says:
To this scheme three parties in in.
terest will appear: First, the North.
elm Pacific stockholders who have
not sold their stock to the Oregon
Railway and Navigation Company
second, the Oregon Railway and
Navigation Company; third, the Gov
ernment of the United States. The
interest of the third party is not on
sale in Wall Street, and has not been
acquired.
Passing for the present the con.
sidera,ion of the rights and equities
of the Northern Pacific stockholders
the Governments relation to the
Northern Pacific Railroad is that of
II grantor on conditions, having the
! general right to resume the thing
granted on forfeiture of the con-
ditions. and the special and eX-
traordinary right reserved in the law
which chartered the company, thai
elf the company make any breach of
the conditions hereof, and allow the
same to continue upward of one-year,
Congress may at any time do any and
all acts and things which may be
needful and necessary to insure a
speedy completion of the sold load. "
That Is, Congress may take posses
sion of the located lines of the un-
finished divisions and cause tleir
speedy completion, either by con-
tract or hired labor superintended by
the engineer officers of the Army,
and paid for out of the Treasury of
the Uuited States, the cost to be
reimbursed from the company's land
grant.
The Northern Pacific Railroad
Company was created to construct
and maintain q continuous rail-
road" on line north of the forty
fifty degree of latitude, from q point
on Lake Superior GO to some point on
Puget Sound" The route of road
is the essence of it's charter. The
route of the Northern Pacific is fixed.
and cannot DO changed except by
act of Congress. 1t must run from
Lake Superior to Puget Sound, and
the point on Puget Sound to which
it must be built was designated and
established by the Company's Board
of Directors in 1873. That point
was Tacoma. The route, length,
and western terminus of the North
ern Pacific Road are fixed, and can
not be changed except by the legis-
lative action of the Government.
The Company is bound to construct
and maintain its located line to Puget
Sound. This is condition of its
charter. To stop the ROAD at the
Columbia river would be breach OF
condition on which the Government
could declare and enforce q. for
feiture.
This will not be a good year for
monopolies, or schemes to effect
monopoly. The people of the Uni
ted States have rightfully grown
used to looking to the Northern
Pacific Road. when finished, as an
independent and competitive high
way across the continent. Their
representatives in the Thirty ghth
Congress created it expressly for
this purpose, chartering the Com
pany to construct continuous
railroad and telegraph line" from
Lake SUPERIOR to Puget Sound. 1t
will require no labor to persuade the
Forty-seventh Congress that this
" continuous" line of railroad cannot,
without it's permission, lawfully be
divided; that new management of
the Northern Pacific Company,
effected by buying majority of it's
stock in Wall street, cannot legally
break the continuity; nay, more: that
any arrangement between the North
ern Pacific Railroad Company, as at
present organized, and the Oregon
Roilroad and Navigation Company,
to stop the Northern Pacific at the
Columbia river or tho foot of the
Cascade range, or any point short
of Puget Sound, and thus to break
the continuity of this " continuous
lailroad and telegraph line" would
be null and void.
Esape from this conclusion of law
and public policy will be sought by
showing that down the Columbia riv-
er to Portland, across the river and
IL miles lover down it to Kalama,
and thence horthward by the North
ern Pacitic's EXISTING road 10 Taco
ma, continuity OF railroad and tele-
graph between Lake Superior and
Puget Sound can be maintained
without loss of either time or money
to the public, or detriment to the
Government. Conclusions of law
and the requirements of statutes are
not thus to be balanced away or
smothered under seeming equival-
ents. A genuine seaport on the Pa