The San Francisco call., 1897-03-30
No Reason Why Rights of the
People Should Give Way
to Private Demands.
DUTY OF CONGRESS TO CONTROL
PACIFIC ROADS.
The Unit States, Says the Snator,
Cannot Afford to Lose Control
of the Great Highway.

WASHINGTON, D. c., March 29.-
Morgan submitted the views of the mi
nority of the Committee on Pacific Rail-
roads in the Senate to-day on the bill to
amend the act for the construction of the
Pacific railroad bill reported by Gear,
March Is, 1897.
Legislation, says Morgan, "that sepa-
rates the Central Pacific and the Union
Pacific roads in two competitive parts de-
stroys the greatest value and denies to the
people the real advantages OF the great
transcontnental highways created for
their bene fit and putt with their money
under the laws that this bill seeks to
abolish.
GA leading purpose in building this
great system of railway was TO establish a
National highway across the continent
for Government purposes, every mile of
which should be perpetually connected
with and dependent upon every other
mile for commercial value, for its opera
tions and for it's control by the Govern
ment of the United States as an instru-
mentality in government in all its length
from the Missouri River to the Pacific
Ocean. These matters should not be cast
aside even to provide for the most honest
private demands
The pending bill, Morgan says. is in
tended to abandon the great duty of Con-
gress to control these roads and protect
the money of the people. The companies
do not hold their corporate rights by con-
tract with the Government. They are ex-
pressly affected with the duties and obli-
cations of a great public trust. to be ex-
ecuted and administered in conformity
with the law enacted for that purpose iii
the observance Of a declared public policy.
The pending bill, Morgan says, provides
for an agreement with the "owners" of
the Central Pacific interest, declaring who
owns it. and deals with it as if the United
States Government is not the owner. In
making this final disposition of the prop
erty the bill, he contends, destroys the
unity of this great highway and proposes
to separate the Central from the Union
| Pacific by an act that Congress alone can
sanction. No court could thus ignore or
defeat the public interests that unite
these roads in one continuous system
without violating the law of the land. An
act of Congress proposing to change the
law ought never. Morgan says, be passed.
This fatal act of separation between
d
is conclusive upon the Government; it
should be intercepted and placed by act of
Congress in the hands of the commission
provided In tnis bill if it becomes
law. The United States could no
! more AFFORD to have this great highway
pass beyond its reach as an instrumental
ity of Government than Great Britain
could afford to have the Canadian Pacific.
which. in military sense. is the spinal
column of the empire, pass into the hands
of the American Government.
Morgan says there should be no sale of
the Union Pacific until authority for such
transaction appears in the statutes, and
he deplores the lack of information vouch-
safed by the executive TO the legislative
branch of the Government on this subject.
If legal authority exists to make this sale,
such authority. he contends, should be
Withdrawn before the sale is concluded.