Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-27
a NARROW CRITIC CRITICISED.

The Chicago Times has attempted to an.
swer Governor Stanford's letter, but from
the narrow and fallacious standpoint COM
mon to demagogues and smatterers. 1t
appears to think it has completely refuted
the argument of the letter in asserting
that the Central Pacific Railroad Company
is a corporation holding and managing
% property furnished to it as gratuity by
&c the Government. The point of this as
sertion is somewhat weakened by the con-
sideration that it is falsehood. The DEM
agogues have so long held this position,
however, and the craven fear of offending
the many-headed sovereign OF these realms
which takes the place of servile sub
servience to the throne in demoeracies, has
so overawed the intelligent minority that
the actual facts of the case have
usually been thrust out of sight. For all
this it remains true that the United States
furnished no ''gratuity" to the Central
Pacific Railroad. What it did do was to
enter into contract with that corporation,
by the terms of which certain lands and
certain financial aid were to be exchanged
for the national benefits and advantages to
accrue from the construction of a Pacific
railroad. The financial aid, in the form Of
bonds, has proved positively disastrous to
the corporation for the credit of the Fed
eral Government was so low when the
major portion of them was issued that they
brought less than 40 per cent. Of
their face value, at the same time that
they represented obligations to the
Government of one hundred cents on
the dollar. Neither these bonds nor the
lands would or could have built the rail
road without other assistance, moreover.
The company was compelled to issue its
own mortgage bonds, and the Government,
because of the poverty of its credit, was
compelled to give them the precedence, be-
fore the funds with which the road was
completed could be procured. Had the in
corporators known beforehand what the
Government bonds would be worth, it is
very doubtful whether they would not
have declined them altogether, and it is
quite certain that had they done SO they
would have saved money. The plain truth
is that as regards the financial aid ex-
tended by the Government, the Central
Pacific made very bad bargain for itself,
and that the United States will have very
much the best of the corporation when the
account is finally settled. To anyone
who knows the facts of the case nothing
can appear more preposterous or outrageous
than the continual recourse to the reck-
lessly false and unjust statement which the
Chicago Times has just now fathered.
When it is further considered that the
Government has used its power in the most
arbitrary and despotic manner to compel
the payment of the debt of the railroad to
itself in advance of maturity, this false
representation assumes malignity and a
wantonness nothing less than disgusting.
1t ls perfectly true, as Governor Stanford
has said, that the railroad is under no obi
cations to the Government. 1t accepted a
contract which it fulfilled to the letter,
and it received in compensation for its
services property a large proportion of
W lich proved worth less than what it pur-
ported to stand for. The corporation has
honorably and Loyalty carried out every
part of its undertaking, but the Govern
ment has been necessarily trying to evade
its obligations, and when it could not find
legitimate excuse for doing SO it availed
itself of its supreme power, and violated
its faith in the most shameless and tyran-
meal way That is the truth of the situa.
ton, and it is well that it should be told
plainly once in while, no matter what
demagogue's corns it may hurt.