The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-02-24
THE RAILROAD EST.
Secretary HOLSTER Presents
a Few Stern Facts.
THE ROAD MUST BE BUILT.
tits q Load That Salt Lakers Are En-
tirely Able to Carry-Its
Importance.

WO1h vi SObblnE a ldll1OdO
and wish to say a few words about
the scheme which has for nearly two
years been before this town. The sub
scription has dragged thus far, pr
haps, because of the miscarriage of 1887.
The subscription necessary to incorpo-
rate was fled at that time, and then the
whole thing was turned over to Messrs.
Houghton, Badlam and Trumbo, and
so far as appears nothing has since
been done. Why was it turned over to
them? Probably because of an i'm
preston that the money, even if paid
up in full, woali not secure railroad,
But the course of the gentlemen to
whom the scheme was turned
over, in one respect at least,
shows that they knew nothing
about the business. They never
acquired right of way, and to
this day have got nothing to borrow
money on. To acquire right of way
across public land line must be sur
veyed and located and connected with
the public land surveys. Maps of the
located line thus definitely fixed must
be filed i'll the Department of the In
terror and approved by the Secretary.
This would have cost (for line 800
miles long, inclusive of detailed report
of business capabilities of the country
traversed, $50 mile, equal to $4,000;
to State line, 165 miles, SIS $50. Had
they done this they would have owned
the right of way 200 feet wide; they
70
maps and proiles, intelligent estimates
of cost of construction and of prob
able business, and would have been pre-
pared to meet the requirements of
the market where IN any case the bulk
of the money must be drawn to con-
strGct the road. Neglecting this, they
have nothing upon which to borrow
money, and any one endeavoring to do
SO is simply wasting his time. Money
can't be borrowed on nothing even if it
be labeled
"sALT LAKE & LOS ANGELES RAILROAD"
Well, neither the fears which led to
our former surrender of the project to
Houghton ct al, in September, 1887,
nor their failure to carry it out, should
deter US from completing the present
undertaking. We can secure the rail-
road ourselves with a subscription of
$250,000 and neither lose nor misapply
one dollar Right of way can be got
for about So 600, and $40, 900 will bridge
the Jordan River, the only stream of
consequence on the line. There are
left $3.50, 600 for construction, and this
will make a sufficient showing to as
sure the disposal of the bon and the
construction of the road with the pro
Ceeds.
1t is true that railroads are not built
by sales of stock, or by subscriptions to
stock, nor have they been these thirty
years But this $3.50 600 is only about
10 per cent. of the full stock of the road,
and while $4,000 or SIS, GOO would be
sufi Gent far the preliminary work Ito
state line), the expenditure of so re-
latively large an amount in construc-
ton will make the negotiation of loan
on bonds so much the easier and surer.
It is good scheme, one of the best
have ever seen. / know a man who
with $4,000 for q starter built LOO
miles of railroads in the Sierra Madre
mountains. The builders of the Central
Pacific, the gross earnings of whose
lines last year were $45, 900, 900, invested
but $4,000 of their own money; now
they are rated as worth SIS .00e, 900 each.
know another man who [ might al
most say without Ia dollar
SET IN MOTION THE MACHINERY
necessary to secure a line between
Sioux City and Salt Lake. What he
couldn't do he got done, and with the
opening of spring the construction of
that line will assuredly commence, I'M
der favorable auspices for its early COM
pletion.
was vaguely connected with this
last enterprise, and learned enough by
lieve, in assuring the Salt Lake people
that there will be a railroad to Deep
Greek in operation almost as soon as
such length of road can be built, as
certainly as they shall Fill up the pend
ing subscription of $3.50 900. Managed
right, it is a dead sure thing. The
trouble with the Utah & Nevada and
with the Utah q Northern was that the
managers did not know how to do it,
did not proceed Alright, and so ran into
the ground.
In the case l speak of above, when a
contracting company has been organ
lied, construction pool subscribed. con-
tracts made, sale or bonds provided for,
etc., every dollar that had been eX-
pended in the preliminary work was re-
funded upon surrender of the stock out.
Then, in order, for obvious reasons, to
have friends at the termini and along
the line, men of influence and monev
were invited to become conscribe to
the construction pool, and thus sharers
in the profits of construction.
A construction company can be or
ganized here as well as anywhere, if it
should be found desirable, aud thus,
through we'll known and almost uni
yersally adopted process. the stock of
the road, and subsequently the owner
ship, be retained in the hands of Salt
Lake people.
In any event the building of
THE ROAD IS CERTAINLY ASSURED
the moment the subscription is filled
And the advantage to the town will
begin to accrue at once, and will be,
I believe, many dollars in amount,
direct and indirect, for everyone called
for on the subscription. The road
itself Ito state line) is but part of a
system certain to come into existence
in the near future, extending from this
city through the heart of Nevada and
California to San Francisco, and
IL.