Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-01


obstacles held by the majority to be insur-
mountable. Nevertheless, though state
of war prevailed, and materials were of
excessive cost, the public credit strained,
and all the conditions discouraging, the
road was completed seven years in advance
of the time specified, and was accepted by
the Government as post and military
road. Its effect has been the settling
the country, the development of its re-
sources, vastly economical Government
expenditure, and augmented price of
Government lands. 1t has brought within
| the field of civilizing influences regions
| Heretofore inaccessible, and but little ex-
plored; has made the union of the contin-
entail shores inseparable and contributed
more than any other agency to the devel-
opment of the empire of the Pacific 1t
has paid vast sums into the treasures of
the Nation, States, counties, cities and
towns by way of taxation; it has success-
| fully withstood the assaults of the dema-
gogue and the impracticable, and above
all has experienced the monstrous wrong Of
having to meet rivals for trade-parallel
| railroad lines-that have been more liber-
| ally aided by the Government than it, and
that came into the competitive field to
divide its earning capacity solely by the
countenance, comfort and direct subsidies
of the Government, that at the same time
demanded of this original line that it dis
charge obligations in full, despite the
action of the Government in Gripping its
earning capacity.
Now this same transcontinental line is
confronted by a competitor nnder the
patronage of the British Government that
possesses these remarkable advantages
Its subsidies in the aggregate exceed the
sum of all the subsidies granted to all
American roads; its first subsidy or bonus
was SIS, 100000; the land allotted to it in
fee simple was 100000 acres; it was
given free entry for all its materials for
construction it was given the right of
way, and all its station and dock area and
water frontage; the Canadian Govern
ment constructed for it absolutely free ia
miles of its road under It's charter it is
tax free forever, and its lands are nom
taxable for the period of twenty years; it
enjoys the guarantee of the British and
Canadian Governments that there shall
not for twenty years be constructed any
parallel lines Of road to compete with it
| in this respect the Canadian road learned
wisdom from the misfortune of the Amer
lean line, that was paralleled by rivals at
the instigation of its chief creditor.
This alien rival of the American roads,
by purchase secures an outlet on the At
lantic on American SOIL it possesses an
outlet on the Pacific upon British soil it
enjoys the advantage of Asiatic connec-
tions by steamers subsidized by the Eng
llsh Government in the enormous sum of
S2,500,000, and the ships are to be, and
those accepted are of such construction
that they can be speedily converted into
armored cruisers. This competitor finds at
the East coadjutor in New England, which
selfishly demands that the road shall be
given the further advantage of the privi-
lege of taking traffic originating in our
own country, and transporting it through
the foreign territory for delivery at an
other point in American territory, free
from the levy of customs duties This
rival to the American roads has already
largely diverted from them the Asiatic
traffic, and has made inroads upon the
freight output of the far East that consti-
tute serious menaces. 1t has direct con-
nections with several roads leading out of
the United States into the Northwest
region, and is able to touch and affect the
most important American interior COM
mercial points, and even to relate itself to
the southern as well as the eastern and
western seaboards of the nation. 1t is no
wonder that such road can operate under
the lowest rate of fixed charges known TO
any railroad system, or that it can bid for
freight and passenger carriage at rates
that are impossible to the taxed, interest
paying and rigidly regulated roads of the
American system.
We have by no means recited all the
advantages enjoyed by the British rival to
the American transcontinental lines. nor
oatalogued the reasons that to many minds
are sufficiently strong to justify interior
ence on the part of our own Government,
directed to the protection of the American
roads. 1t may well be doubted if, with
the restraint of that mistake, the Inter
state Commerce law, the American roads,
even with tariff protection through export
and import dHties, and the denial to the
Canadian road of the bonding privilege.
will then be sufficiently equipped with
protective armor to do hattie with a rival
that has behind it the British Government
itself, and the ambition of that Govern
ment to make commercial conquests in all
lands. There are those who hold to the
radical doctrine that the British Govern
ment has not in view of international OBJ
legations, the right to SO project itself into
commercial enterprise as to subject the
trade Of other nations with which it is at
peace to the domination of its schemes.
But all such considerations, il not vain
and far-fetched, can well be put aside for
the present, in the face of the grave con-
Germ hat the competition of the
Canadian with the American railways JUS
ti6es, and concerning which in protection
Of our own, the United States must fix
upon positive, strong and altogether pro-
tcctive policy.
NOTE AND COMMENT.
The Board OF Education has let the con-
tract for building the new school-house at
twenty first and l. streets to L A. Bower