The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-11-21
UNION PACIFIC EXTENSION.

The authoritative announcement from
Boston that the ULiOn Pacific officials have
decided to extend the Utah Central to Cali
fornia, the contract for grading the line
from Milford to Phoebe having already been
awarded, will be hailed with delight by
everybody between Ogden and the City Of
Angels. But the peoples Joy should not be
as great as that of the Union Pacific stock
holders who have been so long without
dividends on their invested capital Work
will be commenced at once; indeed, dirt is
now being moved. Having decided to go
ahead the road will be constructed as rap
idly as possible by the wise and intelligent
expenditure of money will warrant. If the
winter shall be an open one, trains will run
to Phoebe next spring, and the expectation
is that the Pacific will be reached within
two years. 1t is learned from a Los An
geles paper that grading will proceed
from that end of the line, as well as from
this, the route having been definitely Sc
lected.
The Union Pacific has never taken
more important step than this, nor one
which promises better in results, both as
regards the company and the country
traversed. The road, for the past ten years
or more, has been handicapped, first by ex-
travagance and bad judgment on the part
of the management as illustrated in the
construction of the Oregon Short Line;
next, by the unreasonableuess of Congress
which refused to arrange just terms for the
settlement of the debt due to the govern
ment, and lastly by the excessive conserva.
tism which has characterized the manage
ment during the past few years-a con-
servatism which refused to take the least
risk, and which was content to let matters
run along in narrow groove, wien a
broad, progressive and aggressive policy
was necessary to the welfare o. the CON-
psny. The conservative course, wise as it
would have been in some instances, came
near reducing the Union Pacific to a second
airy position in the railroad affairs of the
west, whereas the road should be foremost
among all the transcontinental railways.
Things are not as they were twenty,
fifteen or eSen ten years ago.
Then the only railway across
the continent was independent. 1t
controlled all the traffic, people being
viduals were obliged to accept. Nor did it
have to seek business, for all there was
necessarily came to it. New lines and
lively competition have come into the field,
have divided the business and have forced
down rates until there must be ''rustling''
for trade or a retirement from the race
with a confession of defeat There must
be a going into new fields, an opening of
new country, development of resources
for the creation of business to take the
place of that which has been diverted. The
Union Pacific has finally been aroused to
the actual situation, and we may interpret
the determination to build to California as
evidence of a new departure in the policy
of the company, and i very wise one.
While a considerable portion of the coun-
try to be traversed is barren, being devoid
of natural resources of value which can be
developed and utilized much of the region
is rich in minerals and capable
of giving an immense amount of
traffic to a railway. Along the route are
numerous mining districts, which will at
once be densely populated and vigorously
worked, and when we think that on1 mine
on this very same road for years paid to
the railroad thousand dollars a day for
freight, we may imagine something of
what traffic will be developed by the eX-
tension. Then there is the through bust
ness, little or none of which the Union |
Pacific would get or could expect after this |
year, when the Central Pacific will have !
standard gauge connection through to Chi |
cage and New York. What that through |
traffic will be of course cannot now be told, !
but as it is now sufficient to tax the car
rying capacity of three roads, it is safe to |
say that the Union Pacific, with the |
shortest and most eligibly situated line |
will from the first demonstrate the wisdom !
of the extension.
Nothing need be said to convince all that |
the new road will mark a new era in the |
industrial development and progress of |
Utah. This line is what has been lacking |
to the best welfare of the territory in gen
eral and certain sections in particular. |
The vast resources Of Southern Utah will |
now be developed and utilized, adding to |
the general wealth, and prosperity and |
will attend a large section here
tofore lacking the means to make the most
of its riches.
DURING THE last three months Prince
LEON GALITzIN, "a judge at the Paris exhibi-
ton tasted 600 Var;e ties of wine