Omaha daily bee., 1897-11-01

Oakes Ames contract was executed Oc-
tober 10. 1867 the first dividend of 12O per
csnt was made in Decemoer 1867, and the
sixth dividend of 200 per cent was made
in December, 1858. Under the Ames con-
tract alone and within one year dividends
We're paid amounting to 545 per cent on the
par value of the stock and to an aggregate
Of over 10000, 900. The last dividend of
200 per cent was made in December 1868.
In 1863 was made divisicn of about $13 coo, =
600 of stock, as profits under the Davis con-
tract for the last 125 miles. The payment
of these 13,0000 900 of stock appears to have
closed both dividend and construction ac-
counts.
1t was due to the efforts of II. S. Nc
Comb of Wilmington, Del, to obtain stock
in the Credit Mobiller that public attention
was called to this corporation and almost
the entire third session of the Forty-second
congress given uo to an official investi6a-
ton. Alarmed, at the demands for an in.
vestigatlon and fixed rates OF fare. the Credit
Moblier had intrusted Ames, then a mem.
ber of congress, with 343 shares of stocl
to be distributed among the members o!
both houses. 1t was to McComb that Ames
wrote that he had assigned four from Mas
sachusetts. one from New Haven, one from
Delaware, one from Tenn essee, one from
Ohio. two from Pennsylvania, one from In
diana and one from Maine"
The publication of the letter amidst the
controversy Of a presidential contest first
gave political bearing to the affairs of this
private company. There was an investiga.
tlon in both houses OF congress. The senate
committee recommended the expulsion OF
Senator James w. Patterson but no vote
was ever reached. The house committee
recommended the expulsion of Oakes Ames
and James Brooks. Had the vote on the
expulsion of Ames and Brooks been taken
the day the report was made the seats OF
both might have beer declared vacant but
the consideration of the report was put of
week. and the courage Of the house had
time to cool away.
The first eleven miles OF the Union Pacific
railroad were completed by September 25
1865, and forty miles were finished by the
end of the year On October g. 1866 the
mileage had increased to PAT miles BY Jan
uary l, 1867 the road was finished and oper.
ated to a point 305 miles west of Omaha In
1867 240 miles We're built The year 1868
produced i25 miles and the first four months
of 1869 added the 1875 miles necessary to
complete the road to its junction with the
General Pacific at Promontory Point Utah
The Union Pacific had built l O6S miles from
Omaha; the Central Pacific had built $50
miles from Sacramento.
The natural obstacles presented by the
mountains and desert land the absence OF
timber on the prairies of water in the noun
tars and of both in the alkali desert had
made the work exceptionally difficult. The
Central Pacific, though under the necessity
of getting its iron, finished supplies and ma
chinery by sea around Cape Horn or across
Panama, had the advantage of Chinese
cooie labor and the unified management of
its construction company. on the other
hand, the Union Pacific having no railway
connection until January, 1867, was sub.
jected to the hardship of getting its supplies
overland from Iowa or up the Missouri river
to this point by boats. 1t had to depend on
unreliable foreign labor and warning fac