The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-15

claim and lien OF the united SIdleS,
the secretary of the treasury, upon
such payment, to execute an lnstlu-
ment of assignment of tho ,lien ard
claim, reserving the sinking fund.
f. Authority to the purchasers to or
ganize a new company empowered to
acquire and operate the lines and prop
erty Of the railway company with such
corporate powers as are necessarily in
volved
3. The repeal of provisions prior to
the acts which would be inapphcable
to the reorganized company under the
new conditions and reserving the gov
ernment's preferred right for the
transportation of mails, troops, NUM-
lions of war, etc.
6. Authority and direction to the at
torney general in default of the pay
ment of the amount fixed by the COM
mission. to foreclose the lien of the gov
eminent, and upon sale to bid the
amount of indebtedness to the United
States
I. The reservation of remedies to the
United States and power to alter,
amend or repeal.
The hearing by the committee on
the Pacific railroads question was
continued today with Mr. Coombs. an
attorney for the credit communication
to the sale of the Sioux City & Pacific
railroad except on condition that an
other road would be built by the gov
eminent. He said the Sioux City road
was the only outlet from Fremont, the
terminus of the Elkhorn, which was
the only competing line of the Union
Pacific running east and suggested
this as the reason for the desire to
secure the sale of the Sioux City. The
Vanderbilt family would thus come
into the control Of about one-tenth
of the railroad mileage of the United
States and about l per cent of the
assessed property valuation of the
world, so that they would be able to
fortunate circumstances and say to
the remainder OF the population: I'VE
own the earth; you get Off
Hon. David Littler, speaking for the
Chicago & Northwestern replied brief
ly to Mr.. Coombs. saying there was
nothing in Mr. Coombs plea. except
that he wanted the United States gov
eminent to step in and help a lot of
bankers who made a bad investment
at Sioux City out of their dilemma.
Mr. Litter also asserted that the Chi
cago & Northwestern proposition to
buy the Sioux City line had been
made entirely independent of the pro-
positions made in behalf of the Union
Pacific and Central Pacific. He had
no consultation with the representa-
tives of the other lines.
Mr.. G. p. Huntington took the stand
next. He began by saying that when
the Pacific roads were built SO much
was not heard of their being built for
war purposes as had been since. They
were built for the policing of the
country and to permit easy commune
cation between the east and west.
The promoters of the line were re-
garded as crazy When the road was
completed the assets were not suffi-
cient to meet the obligations of the
road, by several million. The road
benefited many and injured none.
Among other things it had vastly en-
HANGED the value of the lands through
which it passed. 1t had also had the
effect of causing a discontinuance of
Indian hostilities. Mr.. Huntington
dwelt upon the fact that the road had
been kept in fine condition; it was, he
asserted, now in condition to do twice
the business done by all the transcon-
tinental lines. The cutting of rates
and reduction of time had been re-
sponsible for the fact that the COM
pany was not able to meet it's obliga-
tionS.
Replying to the charge that the Cen
trail Pacific had not shown a disposi-
ton to cooperate with the Union Pa
cific as to form a continuous line. he
said that the charge was without
foundation.
OF the through freight passage over
the Central Pacific and the Northern
Pacific for the ten years ending in
1892, the Central Pacific had carried
"a per cent against all competing
lines, while it had for the same time
done IS per cent of the passenger bust
ness. The records show that the
Southern Pacific and its ocean connec-
ton to New York had gotten the greater
part of their increased business by
driving off the ships that had been Car
rying freight around Cape Horn and
had taken very little business that
would have gone via the Union Paci-
fc. Senator Morgan questioned Mr.
Huntington concerning the contract
of his road with the Pacific Mail com
pany for the control of the tonnage of
this line via the Panama railroad with
a view to showing that the purpose
was to force business over the South
ern Pacific, but Mr.. Huntington con-
| tended that he had no interest in the
Pacific Mail and that the object of the
arrangement was to afford a fair re-
enumeration to the capital invested.
Continuing, he denied with emphasis
the assertion that compulsion was used
to get the California business for the
Southern Pacific and said that COM
pany obtained its business by going
into the competitive field for it. He
asserted that the Union Pacific itself
initiated the competition on the Oregon
Short Line. which was owned by the
Union Pacific, and by charging exor-
bitant rates on business done for the
Central Pacific. while the Central Pa
cific had stood by the Union Pacific ON
all through business where it could
do so without injuring the public well
fare
Mr.. Huntington expressed the opin-
ion that a consolidation of the Union
Pacific and Central Pacific as contem-
plated by Senator Thurston's bill
would be injurious to the interests of
the owners of both lines He thought
such a combination would result in the
extension of other lines west from Og-
den and believed it advisable in the in
terest of all that an equitable arrange
ment should be made whereby the
Union Pacific should remain an indie
pendent line. The same remark would
apply to the Central Pacific, and the
question before the committee as he
r1ed