Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-12-05
THE TRUE VIEW.

The financial obligation of the trans
continental railroads to the Government is
popularity treated as debt. But in fact ii
is not a debt in the true sense of the word
The Government of the United States
gave no money aid to the Central Pacific
Railroad, for instance. Its land grants
were bounties, but they were in truer
sense wise investments by the Govern
ment ; for every acre so granted the Gov
ernt has, in the settlement of the country
and the augmented price of its other lands,
more than received value ten-fold So far
as the loan of the credit of the Govern
ment is concerned, that too has Injured
more greatly to the benefit of the Govern
ment than to the assisted railroads. If
the credit loaned be considered from a
loftier plane than that of cold finances, it
Will be clear to any mind that the people
of the United States have been re-
cipients of benefits so manifold as to
render the consideration of the actual
outlay by the Government mat
ter of comparative small importance.
The matter of the transportation of
troops and munitions of war; and aug
mented carriage of mail matter; the
speed and the lessened cost of the service;
the vast reduction in transportation rates
generally from the high figures of the
ante railroad period; the linking of the
country east and west in an indissoluble
bond the ease with which the distant and
outlying military posts of the Government
have been reached; the impetus given to
immigration and the settlement of the
land; the development of mining and
agricultural interests and regions; the
vastly augmented property values, and the
these are things with which the public is
familiar 1t is not needed at this day to
dwell upon them to recall to the intelli-
gent mind the inestimable benefit to the
whole country that has resulted from the
construction of the Pacific railways Nor
will the people of the country, in the con-
siderations likely to come before the APP
preaching session of Congress upon the
official reports already submitted relative
to the financial relations between the
roads and the Government, forget them
They will now, in the calm of accomplish
ment and the light of the advancement of
the country, be considered, not merely as
question between debtor and creditor, but
upon the loftier plane of craftsmanship.
As the New York Star SAYS in treating the
,, subject of the aids given the roads
These were not mere money-lending opera
tions, like banking, and the community does
gain immensely by the outlay One of the best
uses o. capital, or credit, ever made by the
United States though not a dollar in cash be
returned to the treasury beyond what is earned
by services, was when the experiment of an
iron road TO the Pacific was first authorized by
Congress.
This very statement of this proposition
covers the whole ground. No one wants
the railroads to be relieved of single OBJ
legation that it is right and proper they
should discharge; no one asks that there
shall be anything else than justice done In
treating with them-exeept it be the few
intolerant men who deem any and all
! schemes to cripple transportation interests
justifable. on the ground that railway
corporations are public enemies. The Star,