Los Angeles herald., 1890-05-31
THEY SAY ONE THING AND DO ANOTHER.

The people of this city and section
have been little bit on the tiptoe of
expectation in regard to the building of
the Union Pacific railroad from Salt
Lake here. This, when accomplished,
is expected to be of great benefit to us
all. In view of these hopes, the failure
OF President Adams, of that road, to visit
this city, and the utterances of that gem
tleman, as well as his associate, Mr..
Sidney Dillon, to the effect that the road
will not build into this state, will no
doubt cast damper on some of our mer-
curial spirits. But this should not be so.
In the first place, while the compile
tion of the road into Southern California
would be of decidedly great benefit to
all interests here, yet our future does
not depend entirely, nor ever primarily
on that. In the second place, the
Messrs. Adams and Dillon do not mean
what they seem to say. They mean
what they say, but not what they seem
to say.
Our prosperity does not hinge directly
on the advent OF any new railroad
into this section. We have two
transcontinental companies here
already with five routes across the
continent open to us for the shipment of
produce, the obtaining OF merchandise
or the uses of travel There is no part
OF the country that we have not direct
and rapid connection with by the best
equipped roads in the union. That is
pretty well as it is. We are three times
better off than San Francisco or Port
land in this respect. What our i'm
mediate future does hinge on just now
is the introduction of new blood into
the section in the way of popu-
lation and capital. During the
next twelve months we ought
to have $4,000 new people with
more or less capital settle in this section.
They ought to come and enter into agri-
cultural pursuits of one sort or other to
develop the resources of the soil.
Dairying, fruit-growing and curing,
stock-raising, tanning the hides into
leather, and other enterprises at hand
need only labor and capital to fructify
them. These do not depend at all on new
railroad. We can get them for ourselves
if we try. The permanent exhibit at
Chicago would do much in this direction.
The spreading of information as to our
resources and the opportunities existing
here, the profitable employment of labor
and capital in any way, in every way,
is the duty of the hour. Do this and
our future must be prosperous, Union
Pacific or not
But while these railroad men
mean just what they say about not
intending to build beyond Milford just
now, they don't mean that their extern
sion will stop at Milford, nor that the
progress of their road south of that point
is to be stayed even for day. These
gentlemen remind one OF the young man
in the parable who said he would not do
thing, yet went out and did it. 1t is
not half year since Mr.. Adams said his
road had not decided to build to Mil
ford, yet within a few weeks after he
said SO, the graders were in the field.
The Union Pacific has spent 100000 in
completing surveys from Milford to the
passes into Los Angeles valley. For what
purpose was this expense incurred? To
build or not to build? To build now, or,
as Dillon says, in ten years? Men like
Dillon and Adams do not play their big
games with their cards face up on
the table. They mean what they
say. That is, the directors have not yet
ordered the road south of Milford con-
structed; but they do not mean, al
though they seem to say so, that they
will not so order before winter.