Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-10

| the hopeful interests of the future known
as the Billings" plan. This eminent gen.
tleman, who unites the unusual distinc-
ton of credit as lawyer among lawyers,
and financier among fnanciers, became
director in the company in 1870, and has
continued in its management ever since,
succeeding Mr.. Wright,o PenDsylvania,in
1879, and succeeded by Mr.. Willard in
1881, as president, after a temporary oc
cupancy of the place by Mr.. Barney. AS
Mr.. Billings dates his connection with the
company from before the deluge, he will
| be able to correct the impressions of any
who, in the glorious sunshine of to-day's
prosperity, may imagine it twas not much
| of a shower.
The restoration, however, of financial
confidence and strength, was by no means
Immediate or unchecked. The preferred
stock after the reorganization commanded
only twenty-five or thirty cents on the
dollar in Wall street, and at one time fell
to So share, and the common stock to
$3.50. Appeals to congress to aid its Sc
curities by guaranty of interest we're again
resorted to and again refused. But
in the meanwhile the good man
agement of the fragments of completed
road showed net earnings of some $780,
600 in 1876, and some 100000 in 1878.
This kept alive the organization and con-
irmed confidence. The merits of the route
and the value of the lands when the road
should be finished were courageously relied
upon by the experienced and able lnen who
put their own fortunes in the enterprise, to
attract the confidence of capital and give
credit to the bonds and value to the stock
of the road.
And, now, the flood of the tide of finan-
cial prosperity of the whole country foated
this enterprise which its ebb had left
stranded. The resumption of specie pay
ments by the government in 1879, the
rapid conversion of the public debt into
AZ, 4, 81 and 3 per cent. securities, the
rapid reduction of the debt itself, set at
liberty great amounts of capital
for participation in the active
employment of money. These
stupendous attractions of the treasury at
once compelled and attracted immense in
vestments in we'll founded enterprises of
industry and trade in country which,
emerged but fifteen years from civil war
whose sacrifice of able bodied producers
and of accumulated wealth had never been
equaled-appalled its creditors by paying
its debts, and impoverished its lenders by
the reduction of interest they submitted
to, to escape the payment of the principal.
Just and we'll tried confidence in the char
acter no less than the ability of the spon-
sors for the ultimate outcome of the outlay
I mean of the eminent men who have
conducted and are conducting the affairs of
this company-has formed the controlling,
the unfailing, the indispensable element
| in that faith among men which has sup
piled the means for this complete struo.
| ture. To you, Mr.. Willard, and to you,
| Governor Smith, to you, Mr.. Billings, and
| all the other presidents, present or absent;
to you and all others who have felt your
arms lean on them for support, this day
| crowns your labors, and we, your fellow
| citizens, and these foreign guests, applaud
your triumph.
Ioannot stay your train to unfold the
manifold qualities in the management Of
this enterprise, which deserves illustration,
but may insist for moment upon few
principal traits. I cannot discover that
there has ever been engrafted upon this
| enterprise any construction company to
suck the prosperity that belongs to the
| original growth. I do not perceive that
]
money or of payment for labor or mater
ials for want of money, have imposed up
| on the enterprise burdens dispropor-
Tomato to the values which its debentures
| or its stock fairly represent. I do not find
any just ground for complaint in political
or popular estimate that the United States
has burdened its revenues with subsidies
| which, for the public interest, were unnec-
| essary or excessive, for from the beginning
to the end the enterprise has not received
dollar from the public funds. find no
fair ground for cavil at the land grants of
the government along the route, as i'm
provident or showing no adequate return
of value either to the treasury or to ex-
pectant settlers on the public domain.
Even if we look at the government in the
| mere light of a private proprietor, who
will not himself incur the expense and the
risks of opening communication
between his unpeopled wilder
ness and the land-seeking popu-
| lation we find the government, without
dollar of outlay, made more than whole
for the lands it has parted with by the
enhanced selling value of its wild domain.
But when we consider that the future set
| tiers of the company's lands, as we'll as in
| the reserved public lands, forever contrib
ute to the ax-paying wealth of the people
and the strength and power of the nation,
| we see that there is no sensible analogy
between the interest of private person in
the ownership of land and that of the gov
eminent as an administrator, for the
general welfare of the public domain.
And finally, the settlers who will follow
your track, and at once find their frugal
means and their farm products at no dis
advantage from distance or isolation from
market, but on level with all the world,
will easily understand that but for the wise
liberality of the government in this matter
of railroad communication, either the
lands would have remained inaccessible to
agricultural settlers or would not have
been worth their acceptance as gift with
a bounty besides.
| The Northern Pacific railroad thus COM
pleted has, Mr.. President, through your
seasonable and successful connection of
its system with the we'll developed and
fully operating scheme of the Oregon
railway and navigation system, by the firm
ties of justice and interest, been secured
against vicissitudes and disasters to which
with less prudence and less good fortune,
it might have been exposed. 1t is not,
then, merely upon the continuous track
that you have just established, but also,
| upon tho upited and impreonabIa chain of