Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-13

That the whole western portion of this con-
tinent is
DESTINED SHORTLY TO ASSUME AN IMPORTANCE
In the industrial and commercial world which
a few years ago would have been deemed in
credible, may now be clearly seen. There is
in all the past no parallel to the rapid devel-
opment now going on west of the Mississippi.
Railroads are built in every direction, and
with the railroad is everywhere going settle
ment and improvement. Farms are being
taken up; mines, not alone of the precious
metals, but of the finest qualities of iron and
coal, are being opened towns built and vast
plains that but a short time ago were the
range of the Indian and the buffalo, are being
grafton already reaches the base of the
Rocky Mountains, and very..soon its currents
must pass on to the Pacific.
-Four more great roads are now pushing for
ward to connections between ocean and
ocean-the Southern Pacific, the Allan
tic and Pacific, the Northern Pacific and the
Canadian Pacific OF these, the one which
will be soonest completed, and is of the great.
est Importance to California, is the Southern
Pacific, which by its junction with the Atch-
ison, Topeka and Santa Fe, has already
opened a second line of communication be-
tween San Francisco and the East and which,
having secured some links by purchase, has
now less than four hundred miles of rail to
lay to finish its own continuous line to Gal
weston and New Orleans.
THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
The Importance of this road to the develop
ment of California, arises not merely from
the fact that it brings vast and rich country
into commercial relations with San Fran
cisco, and opens q route from tide-water to
tids-water a thousand miles shorter than the
present route, but from the fact that it is an
extension of the California system, and from
ocean to ocean will be owned and managed
by California company. 1t is in some
quarters the fashion to rail against railroad
consolidation, and to point to the great
captains of industry" who in the natural
development of the railroad system have
come into the direction of this business, as
examples of a concentration of wealth and
power 80 vast as to threaten the perpetuity
of our institutions. In part these fears
may spring from honest, though, l am
inclined to think, mistaken views, but
in greater part they are simply appeals to
jealousy. We have not been exempt from
this in California in truth we have probably
heard even more than the people of the East
err States, of the injuries and dangers of an
overshadowing railroad monopoly, and the
fact that our entire railroad system, with the
exception of some short local roads, is owned
and controlled by q few associates, who
twenty years ago were far from being the
richest men in the State, is often alluded to
in other parts of the country as a striking
instance of the dangerous concentration of
wealth. It is true that the men who at the
time when a Pacific railroad was still looked
upon as
WILD DREAM,
Had the enterprise to risk their regulations
and means in the effort to carry an iron
highway over the Sierras, have reaped a
splendid reward, and as the fruits of their
faith and business talent, now own and
operate still extending system, which al
ready embraces nearly 4, 200 miles of line.
But despite all the jealousy that their &C.
QUESTIONS may have excited, there is no
doubt that it has been on the whole good
for California that railroad management has
been thus concentrated. Railroad develop
ment has unquestionably been more regular,
and thorough, and healthy, and the economy
in building and running much greater than it
would have been had the California railroad
system been in the hands of dozen differ.
ent companies, each working independently,
and often at cross purposes, and each main.
tanning separate staff, and wasting means
in opposition and rivalry which the public
at large must ultimately make up. OF the
enormous sums thus saved by
SINGLE INTELLIGENT AND HARMONIOUS MAN
AGEMEHT,
The portion taken by these men for Their
own personal purposes amounts to an insig.
nificant percentage. And after all that is
said Of their colossal wealth it still remains
true that they have used this wealth but as
trustees for the whole community. The
profits of the roads have not merely been
larger than they would have been under di-
verse arrangements, but these profits and the
credit that has been acquired have been used
in building more road. If the people of Cal.
ifornia have had any reason to complain of
high freights and fares they cannot complain
that the taxation to which they were thus
subjected has been used for personal pur
poses On the contrary, all the revenues and
resources of the California railroad managers
have been directed to such extensions of the
system as would ultimately secure the lowest
possible freights and fares, and be of the
largest benefit to the whole community.
THE FIRST PACIFIC ROAD,
Although it accomplished the great desidera.
tum of bringing California into railroad COM
munication with the States east of the
Missouri river, did not, as l have previously
said, fulfill all the expectations and supply
all the needs Of California. The long dis
lance from ocean to ocean, the steep grades,
the terrific battle which every winter must
be wsged with snow, make it too expensive a
route for the great mass of immigrants. and
for the transportation of all but the most
valuable classes of freight. And, fur
thermore, the fact that the California
road was but the western link in
the chain, placed its managers in abb
solute dependence upon other companies
as to any policy they might wish to
adopt for the encouragement of immigra-
ton or the development of California indus
tries. The men whose enterprise and energy
were equal to the feat, at that time unpar-
allelled, of scaling the Sierra, and carrying
the California end of the road to junction
with the Union Pacific at Ogden, saw these