The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1886-06-26

COkeli He mods assent. Stock
represents money paid into the
treasury of the corporation. Then
at the end of $50 miles, with all
these magnificent land grants,
they had slOO.OOO.OOO stock and
according to the estimation of the
Commissioner of Railroads only
s75,O0O,O00 was necessary TO com.
plete the entire road for 1000
miles.
| think that even these poor
men who happened to be so I'M
fortunate as to get all these mag.
nifcent grants from Congress
ought to have been satisfied with
the gains they had then made.
But suppose we go on and give
them all they ask, still lot us see
how they will come out. Their
grant, as estimated by the Com.
missioner of Railroads, amounts
to 100000 acres of land, or 65,.
620 square miles-a little more
than twice the size of the State of
Indiana, about as large as the
State of Indiana and the State of
Ohio combined. An empire the
size of these two great States is
the game for which the Northern
Pacific is playing now in the Amer.
ican Congress and before the
American people.
The Railroad COMMISSIONS es.
Inmates these lands in 1881 as fol.
lows: They had sold, up to the
3Oth of June, 1880, 100000 acres
of this land for s9,0OO,OOO, about
"A an acre. The rest of this land,
estimated at $3.50 per acre'by the
Railroad Commissioner, amounts
to 500, 100000; total, Sl0S, $50, 900 ;
and then the watered stock OF
sl0O, 900, 600; when the whole cost
of the road did not exceed S75,.
100000.
| Now, Mr.. President, | want to
put before the Senate and the
country something about the char
acter Of this railroad. Gentlemen
talk about it's being built over
mountains and through a vast
desert plain, and all that sort ol
thing, and tell us that the immense
cost justiies these enormous
drafts. ! will read from the repor,
of the Commissioner of the Gener
al Land Office in 1869:
"The Northern Pacific presents
as one of its strong claims to pub
lie attention its comparatively low
summit levels. II proposes tt
cross the Cascade Mountains ii
Washington Territory by The
Snoqualmie Pass, 5000 feet abov,
sea level, and the highest range o
the Rocky Mountains by Cadotte'l
Pass, whose elevation of 6, l67 fee
may be reduced to 5,337 feet by |
tunnel 2 Is miles long. Blodgepl
charts show that the respectiv,
points whore the Northern Pacifl,
and the Union Pacific pass tn,
. main range Of the Rocky Noun
tains are on nearly the same win
! ter isothermal parallel of 20S Fab
renheit, with about the same win
ter temperature on the adjacen
! plains and foot hills, and with
, summit level at Oadotte's Pass
J that is on the Northern Pacific
"three thousand feet lower tha
/ that at Evans's Passo-which |
, on the Unien Pacific Railroad
The Commissioner continues
} "The Northern Pacific offers
pretty safe guarantee against thes
D formidable distractions from sno,
which the more southern rout
!. has already experienced. TIL
r Northern Pacific route claims T.
} be the shortest and most centra
from the tributary waters of th
! Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
0 Then speaking of the company
| he says:
"The undeveloped resources 0
this company are attracting tn
a attention of capitalists. It's lande
subsidy is double that of the Ur
{ ion Pacific road. Comparativel
. a very small proportion of its lin
4 runs through an elevated regioI
4 Governor Stevens was of tn
+ opinion that not more than one
!. fifth of the land from Red Rive
t to Pugets Sound is inarabe"-
p not fit for cultivation-"and tina
0 this is largely made up or mour
;. tains covered with valuable tin
ber.n
Says the Commissioner: ut
evident that an immense agricu
U tural area is here awaiting deve
opment. The great wheat .grov
n ing regions, on the left bank {
= the Upper Missouri, promis
speedy settlement upon the opel
; ing of an avenue for the tranpol
G tation of their products to mari
a ETY.
a That is the kind of countr,
\ four.fifths of it arabic, a gres
/, wheat producing country. {
l. course now all this land is wortI
: lessl The Senator from Orego
t, IMr. DolphI said the other da
.hnA Aho lon1 m Tho Nnnnnd