Arizona weekly citizen. [volume] (Tucson, Ariz) 1880-1901, 1891-03-07
NORTH & SOUTH ROAD.
Some Views Expressed by a Cores
pondent.

EDITOR CITIzEN:-If there is one thing
more than another that our territory
needs it is a north and south railroad
that will cut at right angles the South
ern Pacific and Atlantic & Pacific rail
roads, and evidently run across the
country as far as the North Pacific.
Such road would make possible the
working of thousands of mines, make
available millions of acres for the cult
walton of semitropical fruits where hun
dreds of thousands Of homes would be
established making our territory popu-
lous and wealthy.
The present two railroads have done
great good, but they are too wide apt
to produce competition, and consequent
people living along their routs suffer
from the extortion of freights and fares,
that dwarf their efforts and reduce
them to a condition Of vassalage, Our pro-
ducts having no other outlet but the
road passing near US, the company
makes all the profits, while we have the
labor for pains.
Alive to this state of things the peo
pie are ready and willing for every sacri-
nc, but 1t must be acknowledge that our
strength is too weak for the underti.k
ing, and the more so since the system
of country divides such strength in the
detached efforts which perish in their
incipiency.
To say that the territory as a !hole
rpr1lr1 of tho xynrly with cot Hmm
but the taxable property as OASIS, ap-
pears equally impracticable, letting
alone the complaints and jealousy of
those counties which are not in the
immediate vicinity of the road to be
built because the scanty population of
this territory and their scanty means
cannot bear the burden of such an en-
terprise. Again if it is true that the
present inhabitants of the land would
be greatly benefited, the proportion of
this land they occupy to that belonging |
to the United States government is as
one TO hundred. The roads would be |
beneficial, therefore. to the United |
States government, and people, hun |
dred fold more than to the present pop |
ulatlon.
1t is proper therefore that the URited |
States return to the policy that built |
the great transcontInental roads, and |
grant liberal subsidy to a north and
south line from Nogales to British Co.
lUmbia.
know that it is the fashion to cry /
out against subsidies. But if it is true
that subsidies did make com
panfes rich by about three hundred
millions, those roads have built up the
great west with seven states. Nth Sc
eral thousand millions OF wealth, auo
that the United States have realized in
the last twenty years, in selling lands
and in revenue collected, ten times three
hundred millions, and there are thou
sands of homes and millions IT citizens
of the United States made prosperous
and happy. Are three hundred millions
too much for such advantages?
There is as much need of a south and
north railroad for the depopulated and
isolated parts of Arizona, Utah and Ne
yada as there was in 1860 for an east ard
west connection. Therefore it is emf
nently proper that our legislatures who
are supposed TO represent the concen-
trated wisdom of this territory ask of
congress for a liberal subsidy for a road
that will begin at Nogales to connect
US with salt water at GuaymRs and
cross the territory, the railroad running
east and west as far as Ogden at least.
S. AINsA.