The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-05

The appointment of a new president
for the Northern Pacific Railway COM
pany and the successful completion
of the reorganization project furnishes
a fitting occasion for rehearsal OF
the checkered history Of this great cor
poration, says e. V. Smalley in the
Chicago Times Herald. The story has
many interesting features and derives
added interest from the fact that the
original underlying motive which gov
erned the creation of this company for
the building of a northern line to the
Pacific coast was a patriotic impulse
toward national development and TOR
bringing into close and permanent re-
lations the then far distant communl-
ties on the Pacific coast with the great
body of the country lying in the Mis-
sissippi valley and on the Atlantic
coast The first newspaper writer on
this theme was DR.. Samuel Bancroft
Barlow, a practising physician, living
in Granville, Mass, and father OF b
L. NJ. Barlow, an eminent New YORK
lawyer, who died recently. AS early
as 1884 DR.. Barlow began to write artl-
cles for the papers in favor of the gen.
eral government undertaking the con-
struction of a railroad from New York
city to the mouth of the Conmbla
river. These articles appeared in the
local newspapers in Western Massa-
chusetts and one of them, published
in the Westfield Intelligencer about
1884 was preserved by his son. About
the same time Samuel Parker a mis-
sionary to the Indians, living in the
inc 6p6
his testimony in print to the claim that
the mountain range would be no bar
rier to railroad construction between
the eastern and western slopes of the
continent To both Of these writers
the valley route by the Missouri and
Columbia rivers seemed to be the one
evidently marked out by nature.
ASA WHITNEY'S PROJECT.
1t is probable that Asa Whitney, who
Is usually regarded as the father Of tbs
idea Of railway to the Pacific coast,
and who began ten years later an agi-
tation in congress for legislation for
the construction Of the proposed line,
had never heard Of the writings of DR..
Barlow and Rev. Samuel Parker, be-
cause he had long been in China as
q merchant and did not return to the
United States until 1874. In 1S45, in
company with a party Of young men
from different states, Mr.. Whitney
assembled the Missouri river 1900 miles.
Returning he appeared in Washington
in December of that year with a mag
pificent scheme for a railroad from
Lake Michigan to the Pacific coast, to
be built by him with the proceeds Of
q grant Of land for thirty miles on
each side of the track. Whitney got
little for his pains at first but ridicule,
but he was a courageous man, who
thoroughly believed in his project and
was not to be put down by sneers and
laughter.
In 1S4S Mr.. Whitney made another
effort in Washington, and obtained Sc
Iect committees in both houses for the
consideration of his bill. This bill did
not provide for any corporate COM
pany. 1t authorized Asa Whitney, his
heirs or assigns ito construct rail-
road from any point on Lake Michi-
gan to the Mississippi river he may
designate in a line as nearly straight
as the face of the country will permit,
and where the streams may besbridged,
to some point on the Pacific coast,
where a suitable harbor may be
found It set apart all the government
lands within thirty miles of the line
for the raising of money by their sale
for the construction of the railroad.
Whitney was to pay the nominal price
of 10 cents per acre for the ground as
fast as sales were made, and was to
receive a fiYe-mile strip of land, sixty
miles wide, from the grant for every
section Of ten miles of road he COM
pleted. Whitney was to be the sole
owner Of the road. The government
was to establish rates on the road and
regulate it's operation and pay him a.
salary of $4,000 for It's management.
The senate committee actually report
ed this bill favorably, but Thomas H
Benton attacked it with such vigor
that it was tabled by the close vote
of 27 to 81. Whitney made final eff
fort in 1S49 and published in that year
q book entitled Project Of a Railroad
to the Pacific" He estimated the
length of his road at 1920 miles, and
the cost Of it's construction at 40600,-
600, which was scarcely one-half the
amount the Northern Pacific subse-
Quently cot.
ROUTE FIRST PROPOSED.
The route indicated on the map which
he submitted to congress was shown
by line drawn from st. Joseph, Mich,
to Prairie du Chen, Wis, then straight
across the country to Lewis and Clarke
pass in the Rocky mountains, then
down the Clear Water and Snake riv-
ers to Walla Walla and the Columbia,
finally crossing the Cascade mountains
to Puget sound This was, in the
main, the route subsequently followed
by the Northern Pacific engineers.
Whitney spent his efforts and his for
tune in educating public sentiment, and
passed his last years IN keeping a
dairy and selling milk in Washington.
The next prominent advocate of a
railway to the Pacific was an eminent
engineer named Edwin T. Johnson,
who probably knew more than any
other man living in his time about the
part of the country between the great
lakes and the Mississippi on the east
and the Pacific shores on the west.
Nothing, however, could be done IN
congress for the reason that the South
ern leaders had already begun their
efforts for the extension of slavery, and
they were determined no railway
should be built to the Pacific north of
the thirty-ffth parallel. a pamphlet
by Mr. Johnson in favor of the north
ern route spurred Jefferson Davis, then
secretary Of war, to immediate action
and caused him to secure the passa ge
of a bill authorizing government sur
veys OF ell the proposed routes. When
the surveying parties were sent it was
aIi8ced nnrhaps uniustly that politi-