The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-09-10
SATURDAYS Jubilee.


Saturdays Jubilee.
Few enterprises undertaken and accom-.
plished py men better deserve celebration by
ceremony and oratory than the completion
OF the Nor hern Pacific Railroad across The
continent. 1t is work of such skill and
magnitude, and so significant with reference
to the past and the future of great CONNER
cial interests affecting our own country and
the whole world, that no eloquence is likely
TO exaggerate the glory and hopefulness of
the event. The proceedings at Goldspike on
Saturday, OF which we present an i terest-
Ing report do something toward commemor-
ating adequately the occasion. Neither the
glowing eulogies of the men whose forecast
attempted this great project and the men
whose courage and resources carried it
through, nor the bright anticipations of its
usefulness to the world, in which the orators
OF the occasion INDUCED, are out of place
or out of proportion to the facts. The oc-
casion is an epoch in American history. one
OF the victories of peace that are as grand
and helpful to progress as the victories of
war.
There are now, wholly within the United
States, three great railway lines crossing the
continent connecting the shores of the At
lantic with the shores of the Pacific. 1t is
impossible to estimate the strength of these
bonds of union. 1t is equally impossible to
exaggerate the seryiceableness of these roads
In developing the wealth and prosperity of
the people. While 1t is true that the govern
nent has given them liberal endowments of
land, the gift is more than recompensed by
the enhanced value of the lands nor given.
Every acre of land in the nation, every city
lot, every business enterprise depending on
the ihcre Sc of national prosperity is more
valuable because of these roads, and what
has been given would have been almost val
ueless wi hoat them. For the government
TO give a land bounty sufficient to secure the
building of these lines was not only right.
but IL was measure of the highest wisdom
and economy. Already the nation has been
repaid many fold. and these roads cannot be
managed SO badly that, regarding the matter
in large way with reference to the advan-
tage of the whole people, the land grants will
not be held TO have been prudent and eco
nomcal measure, politically and financially
PROFESSIONALLY they are vast in size, and
unqaestionably these corporations are made
rich. Possibly they may abu in some de-
gree their control 0, these tracts, but the
abuse is a small matter in comparison with
the advantages that have accrued, and it eau
he dealt with whenever necessary. Those who
complain the loudest and who suffer most on
account of ABUSES by the older corporations
know very well /, at the evils they cry out
against are Insignificant in compariso with
the evil OF having DO railroad. They are
incidental, and in time they may require Wig
orous measures for correction; but nothing
50 radical and destructive of the public wei
fare as The discontinuance of the roads would
be-. Ii the abuses were a hundred fold
greater than they are, we should not think
of doing without the railroads. The
grants we're no, larger han was necessary to
induce capitalists to construct the roads. aud
thai is a sufficient answe 10 every attack
upor them. Without such Inducements the
roads would hardly have been built in this
generation, and the man who thinks it would
have been wiser TO postpone these enter
pfises and leave unappropriated the immense
resources of wealth they develop is only to
be pitied. He is constitutional grumbler
and of the class of persons who are never
reconciIed to the worlds progress.
1t is always easy TO achieve cheap noto-
riety by attacking success, and decrying
those who have achieved it and who are
enjoying the rewards of enterprise and
sound judgment. The unsuccessful are
always disposed to believe that the success
full do not deserve more than themselves
There always will be party of the unsatis-
fed who wish to pull down and destroy
wha. other men have built up. Those who
have failed to accumulate fortune are apt
to think those who have accumulated one
have in some way wronged them and can
only make amends by dividing with them
A good many of those who scold at the rail-
road cor porations do 80 chiefly because they
are angry with themselves for not taking
the risks which others took and made a
profit by taking. That there are real griev-
ances and abuses and wrongs on the part If
great corporations is not 10 be denied, but it
is not every man who makes speeches against
monopolies who could be trusted to decline
chance to get rich if he had the wit to see
1t; nor could he be trusted to be more
scrupulous about the means than his neigh
bors at whom he rails.