Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-31

had 81 10000 when they started They have
borrowed over 500 000.O COG in Europe upon their
! credit which was always good, and took it there
| and expended 1t there.
Senator Hiscock-Why do you say on their
credit7
Mr.. Hsymond-Because it was on sheir credit.
Senator Hiscock-They got the bonds of the
road
Mr.. Haymond-Yes; but you cannot borrow
money on bonds unless behind them there is a
directory that has character and standing 1t
was on their own credit, because they are per-
| sonally liable under the laws of California for
all the Southern PacIfc's bonded indebtedness
They are liable in proportion to the number of
| shares each one of them holds and they hold il
ALL 1t was their personal credit. This enter
prise was started in 1861 Very few roads in the
United States that were in existence or COM
menced to be built at that day escaped being
wrecked one way or another. This company
during all its existence, has performed every
obligation which it undertook to perform No
private individual has ever doubted or ques-
toned Its credit, and ii never would have been
doubted, either, and these questions never
would have been raised if it had not been fact
unfortunate to us, but not to the country that
the bonds and credit of the United states came
from 80 cents on the dollar up to 40 per cent
premium, and there was no way 10 invest this
sinking fund, but that was not our fault. We
had provided
AN AMPLE SINKING FUND,
Which would have cleared off this debt and I
have shown there will be in 1898 at least 3d.
900 900 in our own private sinking fund That
is a fact that the Commissioners never Thought
of, and never considered, when they said that
we would not be able to pay this debt The
Union Pacific had nothing OF the kind We have
SD 900 in gold to apply to our debt, besides
all of the Government sinking fund
Now the Congress of the United States has be-
fore it, as see by the papers land we may take
that for true), bill to fortify the Eastern and
Northern coasts. l am sorry Senator Butler is
not I, here. All the money that you can take out
of the Treasury of the United States and put on
your Eastern and Northern coasts will never
defend it ss these men have defended our
Western and your Southern coast. l say there
is not q gentleman at this table who, if the
proposition was made so as to completely defend
the United States East and North as it is de-
Tended West and South, would haggle if the
question of billions was involved in it, We
have constructed now-and 1 say eve" be-
cause we finished that Oregon road-a line of
road from Portland, Oregon, extending south
through the whole length of Oregon and Cali
fornia to una on the Colorado river. That
line runs behind a range of mountains its whole
length. There are only three places on the
coast, although it is as long / believe as from
the northern part of Maine to the southern part
of Georgia, at which an army could be landed
at all, which would be Portland, San Francisco
AMI Wilmington harbor From San Diego an
army could never march in. There is line of
road running parallel to the coast. distant forty
or fifty miles from it, that could never be
reached by hostile force. 1t is supported by
three or four lines of transcontinental roads.
An army stationed along these lines could be
concentrated at any point on the line within
thirly-slx hours. San Francisco is one of the
commercial cities of the world that is built upon
the ocean, and with guns that viii reach FIVE or
six miles Its defense must depend, in the main,
upon our naval fleet. The Notifications would
OF course, support that navy. San Francisco
might fail, or might be blockaded but as a
strategic point it would be of no account and
as blockade point it would amount to moth
ing. for to blockade the Pacific coast since these
days of railroads, one would have TO blockade
the whole Atlantic coast. There is
NO SUCH DEFENSIVE LINE ON EARTH
As that. England proposed once to build a line
around the island, but it could have been
reached from a thousand places and broken
This can only be reached from three places. No
army could ever be transported, with any means
of trans oortation now known, that would reach
that line The road then stretches along the
frontier OF Mexico until we get clear down to
the Rio Grsnde. and makes what General Sher-
man says is the southern picket-line of the
United States.
Now, if we have used this money it was our
own Nobody had any right to object TO divi-
dends when all our obligations were complied
with. We have spent millions in the construc-
ton of these lines which as military roads have
no equal on earth. On the road from Portland.
Oregon, to Koseville Junction, the Government
has contract with us for all time to come to
transport its armies, munitions of war and sup
plies free of charge. Now. think have gone
as far into this branch of the question as need
to CO. SO that when YOU come to investigate
these matters you will find everything has been
done that was possible for our Directors to do to
protect the Central Pacific, and thereby secure
the Government Of the United States. / know
you are reluctant to en.er upon the considera-
ton of these questions, but the Senator from
Massachusetts very properly said that in this
question of amicable adjustment of these mat
tiers the United States should deal with us as one
man should deal with another.