Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-06-25
THE RIVAL RAILROADS.

The proceedings by which Jay Gould has
endeavored to stay the progress of the
Southern Pacific Railroad through New
Mexico are more suggestive of that legal
brigandage which James Fiske Junior was
so fond of, and which he practiced so often
and so successfully with the aid of venal
Judges, than of the course of honest and
upright railroad builders The land grant
of the Texas and Pacific Company in New
Mexico was allowed to lie unclaimed for
years. The company had, SO far as equity
is concerned, forfeited the grant, for it
had not fulfilled the conditions of the grant
ON its part The Government undertook
to give it a certain amount of land if it
would build railway. 1t agreed to build
the railway. 1t did not build the railway
Apparently it had abandoned the project.
The Southern Pacific Company, on its side,
began to build eastward to meet the Texas
and Pacific. When it reached Arizona it
found that the Texas and Pacific was
still far off, in Texas, and that it
was making no progress. The South
ern Pacific could not, after build
ing several hundred miles of road
afford to stand still in the middle OF the
desert. 1t was compelled to seek tide
water and market So, relying upon
the United States statutes, which give free
permission to all corporations to build rail-
roads and secure the right of way over all
public lands, it went forward. And now,
when it is in the middle of New Mexico,
The Texas and Pacific, suddenly awaken
ing to remembrance that it surveyed a
line in that neighborhood some ten years
ago, and that it was given or promised GER
tain lands If it would build the railroad
which it never built, comes forward and
coolly asks the Courts to epjoin the South
ern Pacific from proceeding further, and
not content with this, demands that all
the work of the Southern Pacific already
done in New Mexico, including its prop.
erty in rails, equipments, depots, ETC.,
be handed over to the claimant. A more
impudent and baseless demand was
never made. The Southern Pacific
would have had the right to go on and
build its road even if the present claims of
the Texas and Pacific to the alleged land
grant had been as complete as they really
are invalid. But even if the Southern
Pacific were a trespasser, that circumstance
would give the lawful owners of the land
no claim upon the property of the in
truding corporation. The fact is, however
that the Texas and Pacific has no standing
in equity. Whatever the Courts may
hold, it is clear that that corpora
ton forfeited the land grant by neg
Letting to fulfill the conditions on
which it was made. For it now
TO assert that it will neither build the road
itself nor permit any other company to
build it, is alike irrational and indie
feasible. Jay Gould evidently seeks to
bar the path of the Southern Pacific to
the Gulf. He has entered the field with
the distinct purpose of obtaining the
control of the routes to the Pa
cifc. There can be no doubt that
scruples viii not deter him, and that he
will use all the influence his great capital
gives him to crush out opposition. But in
the present case he has pitted himself
against men who are not less resolute and
sagacious than himself, and who are too
wealthy to be overpowered by his purse.
He will find that there is nothing to be
won in this contest by coaps de main, and
that the worse cause cannot be made to
appear the better one by specious plead.
ings or recourse to more sinister methods.
The Texas and Pacific has no justification
for its present position, and it is highly
improbable that Court can be found will.
ing to grant an injunction upon the show
ing made by that corporation, when it is
considered that millions of dollars are at
stake, and that the equities are all with
the defendant.