The record-union., 1896-01-16
OUR MATERIAL INTERESTS.
Bound Up in the TranscontinentaI
Railroads.
To Tie Them Up Would be to Paralyze
Every Industry in the
State.

(F'rom the San Francisco News letter.
Almost every material interest in
this State is bound up, directly or in
directly, with the existence and sue
cessfuI operation of the great trans
continental railroad terminating in
this city. To tie it up with foreclosure
proceedings or any other form of liti-
cation, would be to paralyze every in
dustry in the State. 1t is not thinkable
that any wise or even thoughtful bus
mess men, not actuated by spiteful or
malicious motives, can desire any sus-
pension of or interference with the
business of that road. Tt therefore goes
without saying that no sane or fair
minded man can approve the extreme
courses urged by Mayor Sutro and his
committee of fifty According to them
the railroad, which is the helper and
handmade of almost every successful
enterprise known to our coast, is to be
ruthlessly treated as a public enemy,
and brought to a condition OF sus-
pended animation. Whilst foreclosure
proceedings are had and new owners
found ready and able to operate the
road as it is now being operated, the
iron horse must needs be tied up in the
roundhouse. For a time at least-1of
litigation cannot be ended in an hour
traffic must be impeded, If not alto
gether suspended, and doubt and uncer-
tainty attend every enterprise. And
all this for what? Because the railroad
is about to owe the Government debt
which it cannot for the moment pay.
No railroad in this country or any
other has earned and paid off its cap
ital value within the short space of a
quarter of a century. 1t would not inure
to the progress and development of the
country if so much were exacted. If
fares and freights that only yield
enough to pay interest on capital are
complained of as being too high, what
would be said if they were raised SO
as to yield the principal as we'll as
interest? The burden simply could not
be borne, and that being so, the coun-
try under such a system would have
been obliged to wait many long years
for its railroads, and its development
would probably have been put back a
hundred years or more.
The time to pay off the principal is
when the country, by the aid of the rail-
road has sufficiently filled UP to render
the payment possible. Posterity, that
will likely have even more use for the
railroads than we have, may well share
the cost of their having been provided.
This generation is, in all conscience,
doing enough. 1t is paying the cost OF
the civil war and a vast sum In PEN
sions Moreover, it is paying interest
on six billions $4,000, 0,0000 00O of bonded
indebtedness, incurred in giving the
United States as many miles of rail-
road as are to be found in all the rest of
the world put together. Without that
expenditure this country could not be
what it is to-day. Indeed, its unity
could not have been preserved if it's
different parts had not been brought
together in the manner they have. Who
will say that that vast railroad indeb-
tedness should be paid off at this time? :?
The idea is absurd because of its i'm
practicability No one would care TO
seriously argue such a proposition. Yet
it is on all fours with the proposal to
require the Central Pacific to pay off
the cost of its construction before it has
had time to earn the money. What it
is reasonable to require it to do might
with equal justice be demanded by the
creditors of all other roads. Why
should the builders of the Central Pa
cific be treated with exceptional harsh
ness? And why should the Pacific
Coast, which has benefited most by the
railroad be disinclined to grant an ex-
tension of time when nearly all the rest
of the country acquiesces in its being
granted? Besides, what better can be
done? 1t is said that the Government
can take the road and operate it. Who
except few cranks on this side of the
continent believes that? How, when.
and where has this Government, with
its uncertain civil service, spoils sys-
tenn, and change of administrations,
shown capacity to handle such multi
farious business interests as are in
volved in the management of this great
railroad? Before so new and serious n
departure as Government ownership is
taken, the Endorsement of the whole
country should be obtained Is it not
safer and better, under proper condi-
tionS, to grant an extension of time?