The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1888-01-26

known since its first discovery as treeless
desert, to penetrate two OF the greatest
mountain ranges of the earth, and without
one solitary dollars worth of local traffic
to make these roads profitable.
The prospect of this great railway becom-
ing paying investment was very small in
deed. For over 600 miles upon the line of
the road it passed but one solitary settle
ment of human beings; the remainder of the
route was traversed by wild Indians aud
butfaloes, passed through and over the
great treeless plain, then considered utterly
valueless, which extended from the valley
of the Mississippi to the mountains of the
Pacific coast; and besides, 1t had to cross
the great central mountain range and the
4 Coast range.
The bills under which these roads were
constructed were in the nature of acontract
between the sovereign which made the
grants and the parties which accepted them.
The time for the completion OF the roads
was 1876, aud yet, because the government
desired 1t. these roads were completed seven
years in advance of the contract. In 1869
the last spike was driven near Ogden and a
train of cars could start from the city Of
New York and land in the city Of San Fran
cisco, the most wonderful achievement in
railway building that the world had then or
has since seen It must be taken into con-
sideration that at the time of the building
of these roads wages and materials were
UNNECESSARILY higher than they are to-day
Much of the iron that was laid down when
these tracks were first made cost 500 per
ton, and none of it cost less than $50, the
average being $1O5. So that the cost Of the
roads. as reported by the companies, cannot
be considered extravagant.
That building these roads was necessity
for the country no one denies, and that
when Congress made the loans by which
they were built, and without which they
could not be built, there was no expecta-
ton of ever receiving one dollar for the
money back is easy provable from the pub
lie records of the country. During the de-
bate On the subject of granting charters
and giving the aid senators and repre-
eentatives in Congress expressed their views
as follows:
Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts. said:
| give NO grudging vote in giving away
either money or lands. I would sink one hum
dred millions of dollars to build the road, and
do 1t most cheerfully, and think had done a
great thing for my country if could bring it
about. What are seventy-ive or a hundred
millions in railroad across the central re-
gions of this continent, which will connect
the people of the Pacific and Atlantic and
bind them together? I vote for the bill with
the expectation that all we get out of the road
-snd think that is great deal-will be the
mail carrying and the carrying of munitions
of war and such things as the government
needs, and vote for it cheerfully with that
view.
Senator Clark, of New Hampshire, said {:
build it as political necessity to bind the
country together and hold it together, and
do not care whether it is to pay or not.
Senator Ten Eyck, OF New Jersey, said ::
The great object of the Pacific railway bill
Is to have national means of eommunica-
| ton across the continent. That is the induce
ment which the old states have In doing wha
they believe will be for the benefit Of the COM
mon country to the prejudice of the treasury, SO
to speak; yet the general returns will be bene-
| fetal in the long run.
Senator McDougal, of California. said:
| It was not intended that there should be q
payment of foreclosure and sale of this ROAD
on a failure to pay. We wish it to be dis.
| tinctly understood that the bill is not framed
with the intention to have foreclosure.
Ben Wade said:
| Sir, your money will not be lost In pc
cuniary point of view it will be gain to this
government to make these facilities for settling
this wilderness. It will strengthen US in
military point of view, 1t will strengthen the
Union, which is mere than all.
Mr.. Kelley said:
Can there be any question that our country
can bear such an augmentation of Its annual
expenditure, or will it harm if posterity, being
blessed by this work, should perchance have
to pay the principal of the credit invested?
Mr.. White, of Indiana, said
Now. sir, contend that although this bill
provides for the repayment of the money ad.
vanced by the government, 1t is not expected
that cent of the money will ever be repaid.
l undertake to say that not cent of these
advances will be ever repaid, nor do think it
desirable that they should be repaid. The road
| is to be the highway of the nation, and we
ought to take care that the rates provided
shall be moderate. l think, therefore, that
! this will turn out q mere bonus to the Pacific
railroad, as it ought to be.
The building of this road from the Mis-
souri, river to the Pacific ocean has created
| new country-almost as much creation
as when the hand of the Almighty made,
| from chaos, the earth we inhabit. From
Omaha and Kansas City, on the Missouri
river, to the Pacific coast there was, when
| the line was commenced, less than three
hundred thousand inhabitants. Bands of
wild Indians traversed the whole region from
the Rio Grande on the south to the Canadian
line ON the north. To travel across the
country without strong guard was to risk
not only life, but the tortures Of Indian
deviltrY; not ahomestead, not farm, not a
town or city-nothing, in fact, but the wild
Indians and the wilder buffalo were to be
found upon this great central plateau now
inhabited by over three million people, pro.
ducing immense wealth. Towns and cities
have sprung up as If the magic lantern OF
Aladdin was in the hands of the railway
builders.
The locomotive engine became the pre-
cursor of advancing civilization, taking the
place of the rife, axe, and saddle bags of
the old pioneer. To the entire taxable
wealth OF the United States the building Of
this line of railway has added at least
twenty per cent; to its productive wealth
it has added even more.
This one line. constructed by the aid of
the government, has proven the prolific