The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-26
PACIFIC COAST RAILWAYS.
The Obstacles Which Stanford, Hunt
ington & Co. Have Overcome.
Land Grants and Their Relations to Railway
and Business Development-Disinte
Patriotism of the Forty-Niners.

SAN Francisco, Jan. I9-Exciting questions
with Pacific coast people are not confined to
the action of the Chinese and the sand-lotters.
In fact those questions are secondary to many
Others which the people of the great world east
of the Rocky mountains overlook The silver
coinage row absorbed all attention for time,
and it was wonderful how the public took its
cue from the newspapers which are owned or
controlled by those owning large silver interests.
Every middle aged man can remember how, in
1s6l-62, when the civil war was raging. the peo-
pie of California passed their special-contract
law. under the provisions of which the green
back money and bonds of the United
States were rendered worthless because
no man could be compelled to
to accept them in payment of any debt, and how
these generous frontier miners kept it up. shaw
ing the greenbacks of visitors who came to the
coast, and then sending the greeubacks East to
pay debts They were all sngle-standard peo-
pie there, every mothers son Of them, except a
few men like Stanford who denounced the
speciaicontract system as the equal OF secession
in its principles of disloyalty. The people of
the coast had little care for 1.-The peoples money"
Ehen they were on top. and could legislate for
the "bondholders' money and they did it. /
am not trying to show that they are wrong now
in their advocacy of silver coinage They don't
use silver here now-have no use for it-except
rs small change, but they have bullion to sell,
and il the coinage stopped they
would be out of market. In 1861-65 they
traded on the Nations necessities, and they are
willing to do so now. Silver coinage made re-
sumption possible-it was public necessity.
The necessity may have passed with the SO, 000,-
100000 west of them insist that the Treasury
shall 60 right on buying their bullion, paying
for it in gold coin. mention this merely to
show that public camor on the coast-the voic
iDgs of interested parties-is no indication Of the
Justice of any demand which they may make.
The two classes which make the noise and
clamor on this coast are those who speculate on
the government and those who speculate
On the public ignorance to advance their
political interests. The honest toiler, who
develops the country, is not heard from. es-
,specially noticed this in the clamor made in some
quarters for the general abrogation of all the
railway land grants. One fragrant case Of nle-
kgal absorption of the public domain is made the
SAcUS6 lOr 00InaHuluS the IOrieftQr0 OF railway
Hand grants, without regard to the equities of the
case The Atlantic & Pacific does not come
within 400 miles-by any practical route-of the
Pacific ocean, yet some thirty million acres of
public lands on its line have been withdrawn
from the public Market and set apart for a rail-
road which will never be built, because it
would have no practical support or
value If built on the proposed line. It
would have commercial value. and would be
worthless as military measure, because other
and better lines have been pushed into the
field in more advantageous way. Because the
Southern Pacific, the great monopoly of the coast
occupied tho field in advance of IL is no reason
why this great empire Of good aud bad land
should be forever kept from public occupation.
The railroad, not having been built, cannot make
title to these lands, and the public cannot ac-
quirs them from the government If the rail
way owned the lands, they could be bought on
easier terms than they could from the govern
ment, as they would be sold on tune; but as they
are, they are useless to everybody except the
holders Of the watered securities Of the rail
way, who imagine that they lend some kind of
substantial base to the bonds.
The Southern Pacific railway is an illustration
OF the credit that can be obtained by a land
grant. The Stanford and Huntington syndicate
never contemplated a transcontinental line when
they began building that road. They started
south from Lathrop for the purpose of opening
up what was then the grazing lands of the San
Joaquin desert They saw that, with.irrigation,
that great valley, containing more than eighteen
million acres, could be made the most productive
spot on the earth, and they cor
rIectiy reasoned that a railway, along
miles would become vastly profitable in ten
years. They had to build $50 miles before they
could reach a section in which they would be
entitled to any land grant, but they had made
fabulous fortunes out OF the Central Pacific, and
could afford to carry their scheme to the extreme
south end Of the valley This they did, ending
it at Sumner at the foot of Tehatchipe pass in
the TETON range of mountains But they had
scarcely completed the work. when they were
alarmed by the progress threatened by Tom
Scott with his Texas Pacific. If he built bis
road to San Diego, the second bsst harbor on
the coast he could invade their terri
tory, either by building up the coast
or with line of steamers. They were all men
Pacific line could not stand still; it must be ag-
9ressive--or, rather, that its owners must be-
and they went to work to meet him. Over the
TETON range, through Tehatchipe pass they went,
building road which to-day is the most sur
prising piece of engineering on the earth. Tom
Scott. worn out with the toll incident to his
magnificent victories in rairoading, succumbed
to physical inhrmities, aud Jay Gould succeeded
AlIn. Dut Ine httle KING OF w All street not
the equal of the Stanford party in vim nor in
the strength of his financial backing Although
he was building across the dead-level prairies of
Texas, the California party beat him in mileage
on his own survey. and met his track 100 miles
east of I'll Paso.
But scarcely had the Southern Pacific beaten
Gould in Texas before new enemy sprung up
in the Atlantic Il Pacific, which, under the
regime of Pierce and Talmage. had secured
riehtrofway on the old Fremont line from ST
lICiai2 To San Rom adm and had also haau voted
land grant The construction of the Atchson,
Topeka d Santa Fe made 1t possible for the At
lantic 81 Pacific schemers to begin work at Al
buquerque, and push westward across the desert
The country would never Weld
enough local business to paw for
the grease used on the car wheels but a
gullible public stood ready to take bonds based