St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-04-22
SENATOR MORGAN WARMLY MS.
CUssED THE PACIFIC ROADS
FUNDING SCHEME.
Mr.. HUNTINGTON. SCORED
HIS TESTIMONY CALLED AN EVA.
SION FOR THE PURPOSE OF
POOLING CONGRESS.
THE PACIFIC BIG FOUR DISCUSSED.
They Were Charged With Takina
Trust Funds to Add to Their
Private Fortunes.

WASHINGTON. April 21-The views of Sen.
ator Morgan on the Pacific Railroad refund.
ing bill were submitted to the senate today
The senator takes a position decidedly an.
tagonistic to the bill reported to both houses,
and begins by sharply criticfsing the Joint
meetings Of the subcommittee of the two
houses for the formation Of the bill. He char
acter1zes this concerted action as a breach OF
duty and privileges. Such action is, he says,
calculated to bring the pressure of outside
influence Of a most serious character to bear
directly upon the action Of the senate and its
free Judgment upon the measure before It.
The added burden of the adjudication by
committee of the house is calculated to smoth-
er OUT the minority.
Taking up the bill, the senator says the
proceeding proposed is one of bargain and
sale, disposing Of the property and rights Of
the government, and Is novel because hitherto
congress has not engaged in that line Of bust-
ness. Senator Morgan says an examination
OF Mr.. Huntingtons testimony taken before
the senate committee on Pacific railroads, will
disclose most extraordinary condition Of
affairs relating to the Central and Southern
with them. Without attempting to array the
evidence of fraud and peculation which Huns
tington's testimony vainly attempts to con-
ceal," he adds, attention is drawn to the
fact that his eyasions Of the truth are his
main reliance for misleading congress in his
effort to capture the Central Pacific railroad
after 1t has made him and his three
or four associates enormously rich, on the
plea that his pride impels him to save the
road from bankruptcy, to which his fraudulent
dealing seems to have driven it,
Senator Morgan proposed as a substitute
bill adding power that is not now provided
by law. that will enable the government to
hquidate a debt that is falling due on the
subsidy bonds and the first mortgage bonds of
the companies, and to provide for the coIlec-
ton of the debt paid for interest upon the
subsidy bonds and to apply the income of the
corporations to such purposes.
Senator Morgan, in continuing his remarks
laid down as fundamental, the following pro-
positions
First, that no creditor of these companies,
other than the United States, has the abiI-
ity to handle the great mass Of indebtedness
resting upon these roads so as to preserve
the just rights of all concerned.
Second, that the charters were not granted,
nor was governmental aid given to these
roads with any intention, expressed or i'm
piled, that charters should ever expire or that
they could be destroyed by judicial decree or
that control of them as instrumentalities of
government should ever be taken out of the
hands of congress.
Third, that no court has power to sell, dis
solve or wind up either of these corporations
any more than court could dissolve and
wind up bureau in one Of the executive
departments Of the government.
He asserts that under fair and honest
management, the roads are able to pay their
debts, and saysi "It will be censure upon
the American name that will blacken It the
world over, If 1t can ever be said, with any
color Of probability, that the crimes of the
Credit Mobilier, which lowered about the
cradle Of the first and grandest of our trans
continental railroads, have followed 1t and
bounded It to its grave and presided at its
death and burial.
-Four men who owned the stock Of tho
Central Pacific railroad company, and few
who owned the Union Pacific railroad, built
them under contracts made with themselves,
through a contract and finance company,
and a Credit Mobilier company which they
also owned, and they have bazed up before
the country in glitter Of wealth that eclipses
the wealth of the greatest monarchs of the
earth. They swarm the corridors Of the
capitol with agents and lobbyists and COM
plain Of the ingratttude of the republic. while
extolling themselves as having become bur.
dened with riches. the fruit of their genius.
Refusing to account for the trust funds they
have received and carried into their colossal
fortunes, which would more than pay these
companies out Of debt and still leave them
rich. they demand that congress shall wait
century for the payment Of what they have
left to US as legacy Of crime and shall sur
render to them, under a new contract and
new conditions, this great national highway
for half It's value"