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


vestments in we'll founded enterprises of
industry and trade ia country which,
emerged but fifteen years from a civil war
whose sacrifice OF able bodied producers
and of accumulated wealth had never been
equaied 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 mon which has sup
piled the means for this complete struc-
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.
cannot 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. l cannot discover that
there has ever been engrafted upon this
enterprise any construction company to
suck the prosperity that belongs to the
original growth. ] do not perceive that
excessive rates, either of interest for
money or of payment for labor or mater
ials for want Of money, have imposed up
On the enterprise burdens dispropor-
tionate 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. l 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 private proprietor, who
will not himself incur he 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 well as in
the reserved public lands, forever contrib
ute to the tax 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 a 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 a 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 upou the continuous track
that you have just established, but also,
upon the united and impregnable chain of
travel and traffic between the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts, that your company to-day
looks with with satisfaction and your
guests offer their congratulations.
Mr.. President and gentlemen, the mag
nitude and rapidity of the recent strides
of our couRtry's progress in material de-
velopment, dwarf and belittle the steps in
our advancement which we used to con-
slider with complaoency and admiration.
Less than forty years ago, as lately as the
year 1847, in the little state of New Hamp.
shire, the energy of its people, allied with
the wealth of Boston, had pushed their
northern railroad over the ridge of high
lands which divide the narrow bottom
lands Of the Merrimac from the wider
valley of the Connecticut. The opening
of this section Of the road, from Franklin
to Grafton. was an occasion of great
exultation, and distinguished COM
pany of the solid men of Boston had
come up from that city, in a fore
noon, to meet the gathered citizens of New
Hampshire in a grand celebration, The
road traversed the farm of Mr.. Webster,
and he took part IN the pride and pomp
of the occasion. Magnifying, as an orator
should, the greatness of this triumph over
the obstacles which nature had interposed,
and over time and space, and portraying
the advantages which were to flow from it,
without the least sense of hyperbole, he ex-
claims, Fellow citizens, can We without
wonder consider where we are and what
has brought us here?' How vast all the
dimensions and proportions of the COM
pleted enterprise We now applaud, seem by
the side of the achievement which the
great orator and statesman of our country
thus proudly commemorated, to these
sober-minded New Englanders, as
wonder! This last achievement of
the intelligence and energy of our people
climbs over the lofty range of mountains
which divides the waters of continent
between the two great oceans of the world.
It binds together by one more indissolu-
BILE bond the destiDies of great people
who look from the windows of their habi-
tation upon the horses of the sun as the
rise from the stormy waves of the Atlantic
and again when they qunch their fire in