Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-02-13


whether so few people as live in Canads
can support an extensive railroad system
like that. The railroad may get along bu
the Government which carries so muct
railroad system as the Canadians may
break under the burden. The Northern
Pacific Railroad" said the Governor, il
another part Of the conversation, " has ;
very good land grant. and is not so far t,
the north but it will become productiv,
country
Said L: Was it useful thing to hav,
built the Southern Pacific Railroad aftel
you had the Central Pacific fnished?'
" Yes, it was; that is the shortest hau
within the United States between the two
oceans. We never were able to compel,
with the steamship route in the way o
freight, on account of the difficulty of get
ting through the city of Chicago At til,
present time, we have but one haul by
steamship from New York to New Orleans
and there We tranship and there is no more
change until we get to California Conse
quently, we send freight reliably by the
present route, and deliver it within speci
fed time. On account of the large numbel
of railroads running into Chicago, freigh
between the two oceans often stuck there
and was extremely uncertain in its move
menrs. The rail time ought to be but four
teen days between New York and San
Francisco; it is often thirty days instead o.
fourteen. When trains come in from the
Pacific ocean they are broken up at Chicago
and your shipments may be scattered ovel
different lines or have to wait till con
venient train is made up. You can some
times count on delay of week or more
at Chicago"
APPROPRIATIONS.
In another portion of the conversation
Senator Stanford referred to the natural
way people grudged appropriations. Said
he: When President Hayes was in Cali.
fornia he remarked that the Government
had to pay an extrayagant sum to Captain
Eads for what he had done in the Missis-
sippi river ietties. | told the President
that the Central Pacific Railroad had tc
spend almost that amount of money tc
keep its route open, and it had only one
State, or, at most. two or three States tc
drain, while the Mississippi river drained
large portion of all the American States
and, in view of the result achieved. the
sum was not large. BY Eads' work the
Mississippi river now has twenty eight
feet of water, whereas it got to be so bad
before he began his work that sometimes
you could not get vessel drawing eight OF
Ten feet up to the wharves.
Said / How does il cost you SC
nuch to keep the Central Pacific Railroad
open?"
SNOW AND FIRE.
We have to contend against both snow
and fire. There are forty miles of snow
sheds on the Central Pacific. The road is
built upon the narrow divide upon the
waters of the Colorado and the Missouri
1t is, therefore exposed to snow, and we
have to shed to keep the road from being
showed up; and then, in the summer, these
sheds take fire. so we have to keep three
engines and about hundred men to guard
against that contingency alone We have
signal system, by which the fire brigade
on locomotives and trains is moved quickly
to and fro otherwise, we would have our
sheds gone, and that would close us up in
the winter. We probably stand an expense
of 100000 to 100000 on this account
alone"
Said 1: Governor, was the Central
Pacific Railroad engineered as well as il
ought to have been ?"
THE ENGINEERING PROBLEMS.
Yes, as well as it could have been un-
der the restrictions the law imposed upon
us. We were not allowed to grade over 116
feet TO the mile. 1t would have been eco
nomical to have evaded that in some cases
by short tangents at higher grades that
reached situations at less expenditure of
time and distance. The tendency now is
to avoid curves as. much as possible, and
substitute tangent lines. We were up there
on very narrow diyide-so narrow that it
has been said that in some places a drop of
water might split in two, and one half flow
south and the other flow north. One rea-
W 10 1-fa N ,31 TO h,
avoided is that the wheel and axle being
stiff, the inner wheel has To slide back
somewhat in order to let the other 20 for
ward, and it puts a great strain upon it.
Take it all in ALL the Central Pacific Rail-
road was 3s well built as the conditions
would permit. We have changed the line
somewhat, but not very much. We MAIN
tain uniform rate of speed of about twen-
ty miles per hour, and run one through
train at that rate, and il is the common
observation of persons who go from New
York to the Missouri river that they are
more tired in that part of the ride than in
passing over the plains and mountains. II
you were to run twenty seven miles an
hour you would have to stop just as often,
and there ensues swaying motion on the
train which soon wears one out That we
avoid by keeping up a uniform moderate
rate of speed.
REMARKABLE RESULTS.
Governor has not the Pacific Railroad
worked out as great results as could have
been expected ?"
Yes. sir; more remarkable results than
any single undertaking in the history o.
man. 1t has added to the United States Q
greater empire than Cesar ever con-
quered. Before the railroad was made thS
great interior of The country, that which is
coming more visibly into life and popula.
ton every day, was untenable. In the five
hundred miles from the Truckee rivel
there was single hut and settler. Nothing
existed to speak of along the whole line
but the Mormon settlement in Utah. Wher
we began the railroads were not finished
across the State of Iowa to the Missouri
river. The building of our railroad at once
stimulated the marvellous railroad activity
you see west of the Mississippi river, which
has transformed that country and brough
new States to the threshold of the Union
All the competing lines to the Pacific
are the fruit of our experiment. We hat
commenced before the civil war, and hac
ouf surveys nearly finished The help W,
received from the Government was neces
sary to us, but if we had not been com
pelied to rely upon il we should have been
in some respects, in q better condition
The Government alone claims to have
right to break its own contracts. Befor.
the Thurman bill was passed, compellin!
us to pay over certain portion to the Gov
ernment every year in order TO reimburs,
it, we had a sinking fund.- and were gettin,
ready for our settlement. Since that tim
| the sinking fund has not grown at all
The Government takes 81 80 to reclaim
one of our bonds, and then only allows u
81 for it. The bonds having appreciated
they have to be bought in the open markei
and We get 81 for what passes for 81 80. A
| a lawyer, perceive that this Governmen
has passed further and further away frou
the spirit of its contracts, until there is lei
HARDLY ANY BASIS OF PRINCIPAL.
The Constitution says that Congress shal
have the power to prevent the violation o
their contracts by the States. But Mr. Ed
munds made the Interpretation that Con
gress itself could not be forbidden to var
its contracts. So there is a moral powe
which imposes virtue on the States, takin
advantage of an opportunity to repudiat
its own contracts. When the Government
\ a,,I I, ~.