The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-01-03
THE PACIFIC RAILWAYS.
Senator Stanford Criticises the Reports Made
by the Commission of Inquiry.

NEW YORK Jan. 2-In the course of an inter-
riew raIsrdiag the reports OF the Pacific Rail.
road Commission, last evening, Senator Stan
ford said that the statement that over $100. .000,-
600 was made out of that $27 600, 900 of govern
ment bonds was the sheerest nonsense That
we have realized 500, 900, 900 out of the road"
he added, sis nobodys business but our own, so
long as we have faithfully fulfilled our contract
with the government. But we could not very
well make $lO0,OOO,0O0 out of $27,00O,000. We
constructed the road at more than double the
cost of the bonds received from the government,
but, whether four or four thousand men owned
the road, it made no difference to the govern
ment so far as its security was concerned"
'sBut you will admit that little cash was actu-
ally paid in by the stockholders, and that an
immense quantity of stock was wateredl'
''What difference does it make whether ], 900
or 100, 900 shares are represented That would
not prevent the road from increasing in value,
would itl 1t is true that not a great deal of
capital was paid in by way of subscription, but
the road was built stock and bonds. It was
of little moment whether or not any money was
paid in by subscriptions. SO long as the company
observed all obligations. II we had had the
lamp with which the road could have been
rubbed into existence it would have been of no
consequence to the government"
How about the charge that you and Messrs.
Crocker. Huntington and Hopkins directed that
certain books belonging to your company should
be destroyed in order that the committee might
not scrutinize them2"
'sTEat is absolutely false do not remem-
Der to have those books. I certainlys gave
no directions for destroying them. The COM
mitSee was afforded every opportunity for gain
ing information as to the affairs of the Central
Pacific company. l refused to answer but one
question, and that was with reference to giving
the names of confidential agents acted under
the advice of counsel, who insisted that / was
under no more obligation to reveal these names
than l would have been had some outsider been
determined to prosecute an 1nqu1sltorial investi-
CATION. We never denied the committee the
privilege of examining our books. There was
not bit of testimony during the investigation
which in any way indicated that any books had
been destroyed. 1t is most violent assump-
tion on the part of the committee to make such
an assertion"
what services to the government in your
opinion, has the Central Pacific not yet full
filed"
''Not one, in fact. We are supposed to do
what the government asks of us until our con-
tract expires. When a scientific expedition is
sent abroad via the Canadian Pacific and Van
couver, and when goods sent through Cana
da from the United States to reach San Fran
cisco in violation of the interstate-commerce
law, say, when the government permits this,
it cannot be very anxious for our railroad serv
ice, and yet such is the We have carried
a few troops. but the construction of our road
through the Indian Territory has done much to
make warlike preparations unnecessary We
stand ready to fulfill any obligation to the gov
ernment called Tor In our contract. If 1t con-
tinues to see fit not to ask anything of US, why,
our service is fulfilled just the same, is it not !"
What will Congress do with the committees
reports ."
That's more than know Pattison insists
that our charter shall be annulled. The other
two commissioners think bond and mortgage
scheme would suit them better. Well, l guess
the job to annu1 our charter viii be big
L would like to have court appointed sto con-
slider the equities between the government and
the Central Pacific, provided by an act of
Congress in March last. which declared that in
curry should be made as to how much less time
1T took US to build the road than required by the
contract. AS matter of fact, we finished the
road in 1869; the contract required us to COM
plete 1T before 1876. 1t was built during war
times, and at twice the amount it would have
cost us had we waited until 1876 before COM
pleting it. We therefore saved the government
81 600 000 annually, $40. .000 900 in the aggre-
gate l may be mistaken. but hardly think
Congress will coincide with all the committees
recommendations. do not apprehend that we
hall suffer very materially from the investiga-
Sion"