The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-02-15
SAN FRANCISCO AND OVERLAND
RAILROADS.

The Chronicle of the 18th, under the
head of Subsidies to Railroads." notes
the failure of the constitutional amend
ment authorizing million dollars sub
sidy to the San Francisco and Salt Lake
Railroad, and commenting thereon, de-
clares that the failure of the Senate to
pass the amendment by the necessary
majority must not be taken as an indica-
ton that the people of California have
not forgotten the era of railroad sub
sides.
The fact that a million dollars was
asked for proves that the San Francisco
and Salt Lake Railroad as an enterprise
has little vitality. That road would cost
$20i00O,O00. A million dollars subsidy
from the State would build one twentieth
of the road. To assume that this million
of dollars would have solved the problem
OF constructing railroad costing S20,-
100000, is logical resemblance to the
young man, who having found a ramrod,
said he would have gun built to it.
The Chronicle takes occasion to say that
If the San Francisco and Salt Lake Com
pany would lay aside some OF 1.-THE mys-
terry which has surrounded its operations,
and would say how much had been sub
scribed and by whom, and how much
money is needed to build the road, there
would be a much better chance for it to
succeed.
There is no mystery surrounding this
enterprise at all. There are people who
do know all about the success which the
projectors of the road have met with and
the encouragement they have received.
The people of San Francisco are not
friendly 10 overland roads. They under
stand that road built to Salt Lake would
simply be the Western terminus of some
other system; that its Eastern connections
would control it; that under the interstate
commerce law it would not be permitted
to carry a greater distance for less price,
and that is what San Francisco wants.
San Francisco's problem is to carry goods
through the Pacific States and Terri
tories to the ocean and distribute back
economically. The reason why mys-
terry has surrounded the matter and why
there has been no publication of the sue
cess that has been met with is the fact
that there has been no success. If a suf-
ficient amount of capital stock had been
subscribed and a necessary percentage
paid in to commence the work, it would
have been commenced by those who be-
ieved in it. The real mercantile element
of San Francisco looks to the sea and to
the Nicaragua Canal as the true source of
San Francisco's supremacy in the COM
mercial transactions of this coast. The
San Francisco and Salt Lake Railroad is
interesting to those who believe that its
construction would make them rich, and
who would be content to construct it and
then turn its operation over to some other
road. 1t is not the operation of railroads
as rule that attract railroad builders
1t is the profit growing out of their con-
struction.
If the State had given the one million
dollar subsidy asked for, the road would
have at least been started, and would
have been built through the level por-
tons of the Sacramento Valley. This
much is certain; but after the State had
given million of dollars, there would
have been nineteen million dollars still
remaining to be raised. The projectors
of the road would probably have been
able to carry the work forward to the
point of profit to it's projectors. But the
controlling factor of this whole question
is that San Francisco is not friendly to
overland communication with the East
ern States.