National Republican., 1884-01-15
TALKING FnR spoILS.
Mr.. Roger A. Pryor Argues for the Grcnt
Corporate Devil Fish.


Alta meeting of the house committee on
public lands yesterday the chairman, Mr..
Cobb, submitted report declaring forfeited
the land grants to the Gulf and Ship Island,
the Tuscaloosa and Mobile, the Mobile and
New Orleans, tho Eyton and Boards Bluff,
the Memphis and Charleston, the Savannah
and Albany the New orleans and state Line,
and the Iron Mountain iof Arkansas) rail-
road companies, that had not complied with
the terms of the grants by building the roads.
The report was adopted and ordered to bo
presented to the house. Mr. Van Eaton, of Mis-
sissippi, read a dissenting opinion in
the special case of the Gulf and
Ship Island Railroad company. He held that
the condition of the southern states for seven
years from 1871 was such that no railroad
enterprise could be carried on; that it was
not an era of railroad building and that
since the lapse of the grant tho state Of
Mississippi, to which the grant was made,
had, through its conventions and legislature,
applied frequently for renewal of the grant
by congress. The land involved amounted
TO about half u million acres; but without
that subsidy the road-which would bo ono
Of great Importance and utility--cOuld not be
built. In that case, therefore, there should
be no forfeiture"
Mr. Van Eaton's paper, he said, would be
considered as minority report.
The question of the forfeiture of tho Texas
Pacific territorial land grant was then taken
up.
Mr.. Roger A. Pryor, on behalf of the
Southern Pacific Railroad company, neide an
argument against the forfeiture. He con-
tended as a question of law, that congress
had no right to declare the proposed forfeit
ure that being judicial proceeding), and
argued, as question of fact, that IL would be
an act of injustice to do so. The original
grant to the Texas Pacific company did not
contain a provision of the right of forfeiture
but provided that if tho road were not com
pleted within the timo, and in the manner
prescribed in the act, congress should have
the power to adopt such means as it might
deem proper to secure the building OF the
TanBcontnental road from New Orleans tc
San Diego. The same act made provision fol
tho extension of the line of the Southern Pa
ci6c from San Francisco to the Colorado river
The Texas Pacific company, after constructing
its line as far as Ell Paso westward, ceased
further construction. The Southern Pacific
when 1t had reached the Colorado river
found gap of some 800 miles between thai
point and Ell Paso, SO that unless that gar
were filed the money spent in extending the
Southern Pacific 10 the Colorado would have
been thrown away and dead loss. Then il
was that an assignment was mado by thu
Texas Pacific to the Southern Pacific, and thu
latter company went to work and completed
the lii.e of railroad by the first of May, 1882
The object, therefore, which congress had il
view in making the land grant in express
terms ito the Texas and Pacific Railroad
company, its successors, and assigns" wa
thus attained and the conditions of the ac
fully complied with.
Mr.. Pryor argued that the Southern Pacif'
company, as the assign of the Texas Pacific
had fairly earned tho lands and was entitled
to them. 1t could certainly, he argued, max
no difference to the government whether tn
great object contemplated in the origina
grant was accomplished by the one compan.
or tho other. Even If there had been N
assignment at all, and if it were an origina
question, he argued, that in consonance wit
the policy of the government since 1854 con
grcss should mako this grant. He did not
however, put the claim of the Souther
Pacific company on any such ground, but o
its legal right as an assign aud on its faithful
performance Of the work for which the Ian
was granted.