, 1884-01-19
Public Lands Investigation.


Washington, January 18. "A a meet
ing Of the house committee ON public
lands @. P. Huntington appeared on
behalf Of the California & Oregon COM
pany. The first intimation the MEM
bers Of the committee had OF his pres
ence was when he was introduced by
Chairman Cobb.
He came, he said, as a representative
of a corporation that always performed
a contract in the time required. 1t had
never asked additional aid nor lenience.
For this reason he thought congress
ought not to interfere in this one in
stance. The general outline of the
work of the California & Oregon road
was given. He said work was sus-
pended because the line could only be
built to the Oregon state line. where it
vas to connect with the Oregon 81 Cal
ifornia. Work IN the latter, however,
had been suspended, making the build
Ing of the road he represented inexpe-
dent. He should not endeavor to
touch upon the legal question, but had
something almost personal to say about
his associates and himself.
Said he: "We have always built as
the law required, and this is the first
consideration we have asked in the way
of an extension Of time. We think we
are entitled to more from the govern
ment than any other class Of people,
for there has been no conservator Of
public peace and prosperity in the lsrg-
est sense like railroads. We ourselves
were the first people to commence the
Central Pacific. When that bill passed
1t was considered a great thing to do,
and we did 1t, Notwithstanding the fact
that people would break us. When we
commenced to build rails were $35 a
ton; they went to $125 before we were
through building, but we asked no
more from the government on that &C
count. Before the war six, seven,
eight or ten dollars was about the min
imum rate of ship tonnage around Cape
Horn. We paid $35 during the war.
Instead of the two and one-half per
cent. insurance around the cape at the
time the bill passed, we paid as high as
seventeen per cent. We did not AJAX
the government for additional aid. We
paid $780, SO for locomotives in war
times that could have been bought pre-
viously for 5000. We crossed the Sierra
Nevada mountains against the predic-
tons and advice Of all our friends, be-
cause we stood by the work honestly
and manfully and cared for every inter-
est we had in charge. We Endorsed the
paper of the Central Pacific when it
had no credit and we personally finished
this work in the time required by law.
81 mention these things to show that
we have worked hard and honestly,
asking no favors, but accomplishing
what depended on ourselves and in the
present case we were stopped from car
rying out our purposes through no fault
or misfortune of our own. We built
1872 miles Of road from the Central Pa
ci6c line northward at a tremendous
cost and effort. We were on our way
through to the boundary and proposed
to go right up there, but when the Other
link failed Of completion we knew
there was no local interest to compen.
safe us and the road to the state line as
the terminus would yield no return
stopped and waited. When the sister
company was able to go to work again
We got every man we could raise ant
put him on our line. The 1000 mile
we built from Reading to Mount Shastl
was the most difficult worl
that we ever did, embracin,
heavy cuts, fills and tunnels. We dit
the best we could, and there are nj
grounds, equitable, moral or financial
ON which this land can be taken W
/; from us. Some political reasons ma,
exist. If 30, they are reasons / hay
M iutaraat In ar IL A,,a,.o