Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-09
AN EEGLIsg VIEW OF OUR RAILROAD
SYSTEM.

No people have ever excelled the people
of the United States in the energy with
which it masters and acts upon new ideas.
Other nations might have comprehended
"a shrewdly as the American the advantage
OF railway construction to their countries.
None could have displayed such resolution
and faith in applying the discovery. Rail.
ways for the American people are as much
labor saving machines as the spinning
jenny and steam plough. The American
people has inherited huge domain, with
few laborers TO develop it. The 10, 900
miles of railroad computed to be in process
of addition to the United States system in
this year will enable the farmers Of thou
sands of miles of fertile land to do the
work of double their number. To the
American nation its stupendous acreage ia
less possibility of future homes than
stock in trade. American soil and it's ca
liabilities for producing marketable goods
are what Americans count upon for
the maintenance and advancement of their
position in the world For their object
it is not sufficient that they should after a
weary pilgrimage, like the disciples Of Brig
ham Young, discover spot which they can
occupy, and which may yield them food
easier than the road thither. By meohan-
ical arrangements space must be practically
obliterated, or nine. tenths of American
farmers would take to another vocation
and to more accessible quarters. As pop
ulation grows and becomes more self.suf-
fioing, American railways will somewhat
change their function. They will more es.
pecially serve the purpose, as in older
,&r-oc afa al .x,r,f l,.,
sources to circulate among themselves. For
the present they belong more to popula-
tions thousands of miles away than to the
villagers and townsmen along their course.
They are the means by which distant DOB.
ulations realize the riches which nature has
bestowed upon them in the far West aad
Northwest.
The hundreds of millions which have
been raised In European and American
stock exchanges for the building of Ameri-
can railways are recognition of the truth
that the planters whom and whose produce
the roads convey are doing the work of the
world as well 80 their own. These lines
are collectors dispatched to recover the
worlds dues from willing nature. Their
construction is a speculation into which
distant capitalists enter with their ewes
able as that for last year foreign investors
are not likely to hold aloof. They and the
sgriculturists North and South and West
whose partners they constitute themselves,
having been doing an excellent business.
Great as are the working expenses, which
in the aggregate are sixty-two per cent. of
the gross receipts, a tolerable surplus re-
mains for the present. Hope not uniusti.
fisbly fastens liberal mortgage ON the
future. Were the net profit much less
encouraging, foreign capitalists might
still consent to promote American railway
construction, as it would undoubtedly be
for the benefit of the localities to accept
the aid. If an American line be able in
the present to pay its way, its supporters
are entitled to calculate upon ample
sources of profit hereafter. Every step
toward the filling up OF American waste
places and the opening of fresh employ.
ment for American industry cannot but act
as feeder of the general American rail-
way treasury. Provided American rail-
way boards be fairly honest and competent
and prudent, they need not fear that their
overtures for financial assistance will be
met suspiciously or coldly in native or for.
eign money markets. The qualification
may appear considerable. American rail.
way managers are, however, aware that in.
vestors are NOT excessively critical or cen,
serious in scrutinizing to what extent il
has been complied WITH London Times.