Omaha daily bee., 1890-02-03
II PACIFIC ROADS.
This Man Thinks the Government IL
Hard on Them.

'N'NN " AahN ~ Il "oN sui vi Z ~
read the following editorial paragraph
In u recent issue OF THE BEE:
The total amount of money paid out by the
government TO the Pacific railroads, In round
numbers, amounts To sli7,0 00,0 0 In the
twenty years since the debts were incurred
the companies have repaid to the govern
ment in transportation services, cash pay
ments under the Thurman act and in bonds
and cash deposited, s34, 900, 900, leav-
ing a balance of Sll3,0 00, 900. The interest
paid by the United States exceeds the prin
cipal by Sis $780, 900. The payments hereto
fore made have averaged about one half the
annual interest rate. AT that rate 1t would
take the companies siSty-one and one-half
years 10 refund the interest now paid, and
sixty years TO repay principal ana interest
with annual payments of IS, 800, 900. This
enormous debt, If extended by the govern
ment, will be a drain on the productive In
dustIy OF the west for at least fifty years.
Not only is the debt itself an unjust burden
on the country contiguous 10 the aided lines,
but as long rs IL exists the Pacific lines will
and combine with competing lines to take all
the traffic will bear.
l was surprised, because so far as l
have noticed here the Salt Lake
Tribune is the only paper in all the re-
gion that has ever taken this stand.
The wonder to nj is that every such
paper did not take this stand. | sap
pose the Central Pacific had nerve
enough to stand out for justice to itself
and It's patrons in the matter, but Mr..
Huntington is again in Washington
Offering TO pay tribute for peace, offer
ing to pay principle and interest on the
subsidy bonds ii the debt can be
stretched out over one hundred and
twenty-five years. Greed Raymond put
1T right before a committee OF the last
congress when he substantially denied
that the road owed the government u
dollar and challenged Il trial of the fact
in the courts. The debt is only tech
nichal. The companies have not re-
celved the interest paid by the govern
ment, and it is not, in reality, a ques-
ton between them and the government,
but between the people who are de-
pendent on these roads and the govern
ment. The latter doesn't need the
money, and the farmers of Nebraska,
obliged to raise Norm and potatoes at 10
or Is cents u buShel, do need it.
The debates in congress upon the Pa
cific railroad legislation show that the
services of the roads to the government
were expected to Offset the interest on
the bonds-the services and the saving
in the cost OF those services. That eX-
p~ectation has been more than met.
According to reports of the secretary
VI war Nv BoNcEullCnU WuS paying
from 1862 to 1868 inclusive, on account
of its military peace establishment in
the region under consideration, about
seven millions a year, while in war,
which was chronic on the plains for a
great part OF that period, its yearly ex-
penditures were five times seven mill
ion dollars. Sibley's campaign in Min
nesota cost $43, 200 900. At one time,
after the close of the civil war, there
were 10000 troops in service in the
Union Pacific railroad country.
Today, with the immense growth of
this region in twenty-five years, the
same services in peace are less than
81 900 900 a year, and since 1868 there
have been no Indian wars on the proper
line of these subsidized roads. This
part of the country now pays, and from
its topography and arid climate must
pay, twice as much for railroad service
as that part OF the country eastward of
the Missouri river. Why should this
immense and eternal burden of interest
on the subsidy bonds be added to the
already existing burden, when the i'm
piled if not expressed contract was that
the interest should be paid in services,
as is proved by the debates in
and also by the fact that no other pro-
vision was made for it's payment, and
when, If this were not so, it has
been paid? That is to say, the
So, 900 600 annually paid by the govern
ment On the bonds with one hand it has
received with the other hand in the
form of service and expenditures saved.
This interest ought not to be exacted
of the country tributary to these roads,
and 1T is to be regretted that neither
company seems inclined to maintain the
right in the matter.
Ilt,f fhnr n NJ h. all -, IL l..
the people most interested say and do
nothing in protest. Public opinion, So
far us expressed, demands the collection
of this interest and unless the people
interested protest against the monstrous
eXtortion doubtless congress will feel
compelled to eXact it. For the roads to
demand its release and remission would
but e~xasperate public opinion. And it
is nothing directly to the roads. They
have only to exact about 81, 200, 900 u
year extra, in rate, for the next fifty
years in order to meet it. Unless. in
deed, the competition of new roads drives
them into bankruptcy. In that case it
would prove to be of some interest to
the the stockholders, for whom Messrs.
Huntington and Adams are supposed
to be acting.
The interest on these bonds ought to
be RENTED by act of congress, so far as
these roads are concerned, the redemp-
ton of the bonds themselves left to be
considered when they fall due and the
hand of the congressional lobbyist and
stock iobber taken at once and forever
from the throats OF the companies. To
redeem these bonds when due the com
panies can issue their own bonds if they
must, Nothing but injury to the inter-
ests OF all parties concerned has ever
resulted from the government prosecu-
ton of the roads. 1t would have been
far better for them il they had never
gone into partnership with the govern
ment. 1t has not been an advantage,
but "A dctriment, and promises to be for
a hundred years to come. | should like
to see justice, at least, if not the SEM
blaEce of craftsmanship. exhibited in
this long chapter of imbecility and
d~emagogary.
When the Union Pacific railroad
reached what is now the site of Chey-
enne, the New York Tribune told the
story in the caption OF an editorial,
namely, Five Hundred Miles of Civil
lization." When the two roads Joined
their tracks on the ~PromontoIy, the
story was 1.-TWO Thousand Miles of Civ
ilization." BY means of the road white
x.,. l..,o 49,.