Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-22
IMPOSSIBLE TO COMPLETE THE ROAD
FOR YEARS WITHOUT TIE GRANT.
1.-THE San Diego Union. ]

| As heretofore noted, the House Commit
tee on Public Lands has reported favorably
the bill to forfeit the Texas Pacific land
grant. Other bills FORGETTING other grants
are pending in this Congress.
While there can be no doubt that Con-
gress in many cases has failed to accom-.
pany its lane grant legislation with proper
safeguards, it is equally true that the land
grant policy of the Government, as whole,
has been wise and statesmanlike, and has
resulted in enormous benefit to the country.
1t is a policy that has opened the way to
cheap homes for millions of the people has
added thousands of millions of dollars to
the national wealth, and has advanced the
civilization of the nation by a full century.
There is prodigious amount of humbug
in the outcTy against land grants to rail-
roads. 1t supplies fine, mouth. filling, de-
mandatory oratory for the demagogues who
make trade of politics. Certain newspa-
pers make speciality of it. And a vague
popular idea has grown up that, somehow,
about all the national territory has been
Withdrawn and locked up out of reach by
the railroads. In point of fact, if the
people would only stop long enough to
think, it would be seen that the lands
granted to the railroads have been brought
into market just as fast as possible and
sold to the people long years in advance of
| the period of their settlement had they re-
manned in the hands of the Government.
| Why, the railroad land. grant policy has
created the great West. Imagine the Pa
ci6c railroads unbuilt and the land grants
unvoted, and then take the map of the
United States of 1850 and look at the
western slope of the continent. The illus.
tration needs no elaboration.
Just now the two political parties seem
TO- be trying to outbid each other in the
matter of repeating railroad land grants /;
and in this situation equities, vested rights,
the interests and wishes of the people
themselves, are lost sight of-the point
with the politicians being only to make
the biggest record" In this inGiscriminate
war on the land grants the prosperity Of an
| important section OF California is seriously
| threatened. We do not propose here to
| discuss the Texas Pacific question we may
let it be assumed that the bill relating to
that grant will pass. California has little
interest in the matter, for the lands in
question are in the Territories of Arizona
aud New Mexico.
! There is, however, an unearned grant
which is being earned as rapidly as the
Government could reasonably expect, and
which has an important bearing upon the
interests of this State, and especially Of
San Francisco. We refer to the Califor-
MIA and Oregon Railroad grant. 1t is
doubtful whether it will be possible to
complete the Oregon road within the next
six or seven years, unless the grant made
| to it is maintained. The menace to the
| k,a al h. L.
of the northern part OF the State, and the
press Of that section is calling attention to
che danger that threatens its prosperity.
We should naturally look for an equal
degree of alarm in the commercial circles
of San Francisco and Sacramento, for the
construction of the Oregon road is OF the
greatest Importance to the trade interests
of California. If the Northern Pacific
builds down toward Redding it will turn
all the trade of northern California to
Portland, and make the upper part of our
State commercially tributary to the Oregon
city. Under these circumstances, it GER
tainly seems reasonable that an exception
should be made in faver OF the California
and Oregon. The perpetuation of this
grant will give to the Government sections
within the granted limits, as we learn from
| the press of that section, more than three
times the value they would otherwise have;
therefore, in giving the railroad company
the alternate sections, the Government not
only loses nothing, but gains fifty per cent.
upon the intrinsic value OF all the land
lying within the granted limits.
There never was any good reason for
building the road in California until the
| Oregon section would build down to the
State line; road without through connec-
ton could not have earned any money; it
would have possessed no commercial value,
and would have bankrupted the strongest
financial company. Even now, with
through connection, the road will not pay,
except as operated in connection with the
Central Pacific, and as considered in the
| light of defense against taking CONNER.
cial territory from California and San Fran.
cisco The Northern Pacific is now build.
ing toward the State line, and will meet
the California and Oregon at that point.
In anticipation of the construction of the
road great many enterprises have been
| projected, such as the building OF saw
mills, the establishment of stock and grain
farms, the purchase of lands at greatly ad.
vanced prices, and other under akings nat
urally anticipating the development which
| the construction OF the road would bring
to the country. The people along the line
of the California and Oregon understand
the situation well, and are entitled to be
heard. They know that the Government
will lose nothing, but gain much, by giving
the land already granted to the road i; they
also know that the grant is directly and in
proper sense a gift to the people of the
State Of California. With the grant, the
California and Oregon will be enabled to
secure the capital to cmplete the line.
Without it, the road will not be con.
structed in many years, and possibly never
by California company, which would
manage it in the interest of the commerce
OF our own State.