Bismarck tribune., 1883-09-14
THE BISMARCK WEEKLY TRIBUNE.

or unchecked. The preferred stock after the
commanded only twenty-five or
thirty cents on the dollar in Wall street, and at
one time fell to 90 share, and the common
stock to $1.50. 81 .
APPEALS TO CONGRESS TO AID
its securities by guaranty of interest were again
resorted to and again refused. But in the mean
while the good management of the fragments of
completed road showed net earnings of some
$500, 600 in 1876, and some $500,000 in 1878.
This kept alive the organization and confirmed
confidence. The merits of the route and the
value of the lands when the road should be fin
ished were courageously relied upon by the ex-
perienced and able men who put their 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 food If the tide of financial
prosperity of the whole country foated this en-
terprise which its ebb had left stranded. The
of specie payments by the govern
ment in 1879, he rapid conversion of the public
debt into ~, 4. 81 and per cent. securities,
the rapid reduction of the debt itself, set at
liberty great amounts of capital for participa-
tion in the active employment of money. These
tupendous transactions of the treasury at once
compelled aud attracted immense investments
in we'll founded enterprises of industry and
trade in a country which, emerged but fifteen
years from civil war-whose sacrifices of able
bodied producers and of accumulated wealth had
never been equaled-appalled its creditors by
paying it's debts, and impoverished its lenders
by the reduction of interest they submitted to,
to escape the payment of the principal. just
than in the ability Of the sponsors for the ulti-
mate outcome of the outlay-I mean of the emf
nent men who have conducted and are conduct
ing the affairsJof this company-has formed the
controlling, the unfailing, the indispensable
element in that faith among men which has sup
piled the meaus for
THIS COMPLETED STRUCTURE.
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.
cannot stay your train to unfold the mani
fold qualities in the management of this enter
PRISE which deserve illustration. but I may
insist for moment upon few principal traits.
cannot discover that there has ever been en-
grated upon this enterprise any construction
company to suck the prosperity that belongs to
the original growth. l do not perceive that
excessive rates, either of interest for money of
payment for labor or materials for want of
money have imposed upon the enterprise bur
dens disproportionate to the values which its
debentures or its stocks fairly represent. do
not find any just estimate that the United
States has burdened it's revenues with subsidies
which, for the public interest, were unnecessary
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 improvident or showing no adquate
return of value either to the treasury or to the
expectant settlers on the public domain. Even
if we look at the government in the mere light
of private proprietor, who will not himself
incur the expense and the risk of opening
communication between his
UNPEoPLED WILDERNESS
and the land-seeking population, 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 it's wide domain. But, when we consider
that the future settlers of the company's lands,
as we'll as in the reserved public lands, forever
contribute to the tax paying wealth of the peo-
pie, and the strength aud power of the nation,
we see that there is no sensible analogy between
the interest Of private person in the owner
ship of land and that of the government 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
disadvantage from distance or isolation from
market, but on level with all the world, will
easily understand that, but for the wise lberalty
of the government in this matter of railroad
communication, either the lands would have re-
mained inaccessible to agricultural settlers ,cr
would not have been worth their acceptance, as
gift, with bounty besides.
The North Pacific railroad thus completed has,
Mr.. President, through your seasonable and suc-
cessfulsconnection of its system with the we'll
developed and fully operating scheme of the
Oregon railway and Navig alton system, by the
firm ties of justice aud interest, been secured
against vicissitudes and disasters to which, with
less prudence and less good fortune, it might
have been exposed. It is not, then, merely
upon the continuous track that you have just
established, but also upon the united and i'm
pregnable chain Of travel and traffic between
the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts, that your
company today looks with satisfaction and
your guests offer their congratulations.
THE PAST AND PRESENT.
Mr.. President and gentlemen, the magnitude
and rapidity of the recent strides of our
country's progress in material development.
dwarf and belittle the steps in our advancement
which we used to consider with complacency
4nd admiration. Less than forty years ago, as
late a. the year l847, in the little State of New
Hampehire, the energy OF its people, allied with
the wealth If Boston, had pushed their Northern
Railroad ever the ridge of highlands which
divide the narrow bottom lands of the Merrimac
from tha wider valley of the Connecticut. The