Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-02-25
THE GREAT OCTOPUS
Continued from First Page.)

trail Pacific Railroad Company paid to the
Contract and Finance Company for con-
structior $12O,S72,OOO: that the cost of con-
struction was SIS, 302, 600. leaving a surplus
of over So, 600 to be divided among the
directors of the Central Pacific Railroad
Company, whose duty to the government of
the United States and to the stockholders
OF that company Vas to save to the COM
pany the amount which they divided as
profit. OF these payments the commission
says: All of this consideration was paid to
Stanford. Huntington, Hopkins and Crock
er, and was voted to themselves by their
own votes On pages 70 and SO Of the
report there is statement in concrete
form of the frauds committed under one
of these contracts. That contract was for
the construction Of branch road from the
town CT Delta, in California, to the Oregon
state line. These men as directors Of the
Central Pacific Railroad Company let
contract to themselves as the Contract
and Finance Company for the building of
that section Of road for the sum of S.
$4,000. The total cost of building the road
was only $500, 900, leaving a profit to them
of five million dollars on that $S,300,OOU
contract.
Burnt Books Tell No Tales.
But that was not all. They afterward
mortgaged the entire California and Ore
gon road from Rosevillc Junction to the
Oregon line for 1,S0n,OU, and gave no
account of the money secured on this mort
gage to the Central Pacific Railroad Com
pany, out of the assets of which the road
was built. When the Credit Moblier in
Vestgauon was commenced here and was
arouSfng popular indignation throughout
the entire Union, the Contract and Finance
Company was disincorporated in California
and its books were burned in order to de-
stroy SO much of the evidence Of the frauds
committed against the Central Pacific Rail-
road Company. A new construction COM
Lany was then organized called the West
ern Development Company, through which
the same directors of the Central Pacific
Company carried on the same nefarious
methods of divertng the earnings Of the
Central Pacific railroad by which the
original assets of that company had been
diverted. The Central Pacific Railroad
Company, or rather the four copartners
controlling that company, although they
started with but few thousand dollars,
possibly With enough to build ten miles of
railroad, came out OF the construction
OF the road mult-millionaires. They i'm
mediately set about to get control of all
available railroad passes through the noun
tains to California, and in California, and
OF all possible competing railroad projects
since 1870 they have absolutely domina ted
all of the railroad traffic, and by fraudulent
subsidies even the ocean steamship traffic
OF CaElo,nIa, and of a large part Of the re-
mainder of the Pacific coast
They have been merciless and exacting
TO the last degree measuring their trans
portation charges, as tersely stated by one
of their own leading representatives at
tHe tTd1l1c can bear, the meaning
OF that phrase being that rates Of transpor-
tation should not be gagged at all by the
Vane % the service rendered in transport
ing freight. but by the advantage which the
owner OF The freight would secure by hav-
ing 1T transported In other words, those
monopoliSts attempted to force themselves
into partnership with all producers who
were Obliged to use their roaos for trans
portatlon, and they succeeded in establish
ing that partner ship and getting the lion s
share. They levied tribute upon the towns
and cities of California through which the
roads We're built, and they dscriminate,i
between Individual merchants and pro-
ducers building up those whom they desir-
cd to favor by a system of special con-
tracts, and breaking down those to whom
they felt opposed for any reason. They
maintained their monopoly privileges by the
most fla grant corruption. The Pacific rail-
way commission DOT Governor Pattison,
who they say was prejudiced and unfair.
but Anderson and Litter the majority OF
the commission) says in its report, on page
81, that the commission finds from the evil
dence expenditures amounting to S4,S1S.SW
accounted for Only as having been used in
Influencing elections and for other improper
purposes
ITO what extent was money used in In
f1uencing legislation"
"Mr. Huntington's letters to his partner.
Cotton, about one hundred of which were
produced in evidence in the trial of the
case OF Colton'S widow against Stanford
Huntington and others in California, show
that money was constantly used corruptly
for the purpose of securing or preventing
legislation for or against the supposed in
terests of the partners. The bitter feeling
prevailing against these consplrators en-
the Pacific coast is not to be wondered at.
The wonder is that people so long op-
pressed and SO injurious!y treated by such
a powerful monopoly should be so con-
sentative as the people of California are.
Unable to Pay just Debts.
1.-The time has now come for the settle
ment of the Pacific railroad debts to the
government, and the companies are unable
to pay the debt. solely by reason of the
fraudulent diversion of their assets through
their directors, who have thus been made
and are now. multi-millionaires; that is, the
Survivors, of them and the SUCCESSORS of
those who are dead. The people have suf-
fered under this CALLING dynasty for nearly
thirty years. and they want to be rid of it,
Or course, If the companies or anybody for
them shall pay their debts, they may law
FULLY continue their monopoly, but IL they
will not or cannot pay their debts, then we do
rot want Congress to continue the monopoly
as against us by extending favors to those
who, Instead of being entitled to favors
from the government, ought to be suffering
the penalties for their frauds which are
meted out to less guilty offenders. We do
not want Congress to go into any private
arrangement with these people by which
their felonieS Will be compounded and their
domination over us extended. We want the
ordinary method of foreclosure pursued as
against these defaulting debtors, and the
roads either taken by the government and
held as a continuous public highway from
San Francisco to Omaha, as We think they
should be- or sold at auction to the highest
bidder, the deficiency after such sale ascer-
tained judicially, and such steps taken to
recover the diverted assets as would be
taken in the case of private debtor who
has defrauded the assets upon which his
creditor had a lien.
Powerful Monopoly.
'"The people who built the Central Pacific
railroad and who diverted these assets to
themselves, as 1 have stated, built another
road upon which there Is no government
mortgage running across the continent
from San Francisco to New Orleans, and
connected by steamship line with New
York city. They thus control all avenues
of railroad transportation between Califor-
MIA and New York. The sale of the Union
and Central Pacific roads to any other COM
pany would give railroad competition
across the continent. None of the other
transcontinental lires run into California
proper at ell. The Santa Fe road is a COM
peting line to Los Angeles and San Diego,
but its construction northward was stopped
in the Mohave desert by an ARRANGEMENT
with the Southern Pacific Company. In
addition to controlling all railroads run
ming in and out of California, ocean trans
portation to the east has been controlled by
contracts with the Pacific oil hi,