Omaha daily bee., 1897-06-27
TRYING ITO DELAY FORECLOSURE

The senate committee on Pacific rail
roads has agreed to report faVorably II
resolution directing the president to sus-
pend proceedings for the fore
closure sale of the Union Pa
| ciic railroad. The ~ostensible OBJ
ject is the acquisition by the gov
| eminent of the Union and Central Ia
| ciic railroads. The real object is to
keep the Union Pacific in the hands OF
receivers by delaying the forced sale
of the road under the hammer
In order to carry out this scheme the
government would have to assume the
first mortgage debt of these roads, which
| exceeds SGO.OOO,OO0, and reissue the sec
| ond mortgage bonds, which aggregate at
least another $50, 100000, exclusive of
! the defaulted interest payments. amount
ing to $50, 100000 more. 1t is safe to
predict that no bill involving such a vast
| increase of our bonded debt and launch
ing the government upon the hazardous
experiment of operating a rail
| either the present congress OF the
next congress. In the very nature of
| things the government would by taking
this step make itself Il competitor with
all the other Pacific railroads unless the
acquisition of the Union and Central
Pacific is to be simply the f~orerunner OF
the purchase of all the Pacific railroads
and all their branches and feeders.
Does it stand to reason that the roads
interested in the prosposed purchase of
the Pacific railroads would look on with
Indifference at any such attempt to rev.
olutionize the railway business? Does
it stand to reason that the Pacific rail
road committee. which is VIGOROUSLY
under the influence of these roads, would
agree upon a policy adverse to their in
t~erests? The day of miracles is past.
| The senate of>the United States is not
likely TO become Il sudden convert to
the most radical socialist program that
has ever been mapped out. Government
ownership of the Pacific railroads means
government ownership of all the rail
roads in the United States.
Instead of seeing in the favorable re-
port VI tle lliIIlS RESOLUTION an aNuhtu-
ing on the part of the senate committee
to the demands of the public for speedy
! withdrawal of the bankrupt Union Pa
cific from management by receivers, The
Bee regards it as nothing but an in
genious plot to keep the road crippled for
an indefinite time by %postponing fore
closure, which must precede reorgan-
ization on a sound basis. So long as
the Union Pacific remains a helpless
wreck, unable to make needed improve
ments, build necessary extensions or
enter working contracts with connect
to fear from it.
The assertion hat the government will
lose many millions by the proposed fore
closure is groundless. The consensus
OF opinion of those cOnyersant with the
condition of the Union Pacific is that
the agreement to pay back forty odd
millions on the governments second
mortgage debt exceeds all expectations.
Two years ago nobody in or out of con-
gress thought it possible for the govern
ment to recover n dollar of the principal
by foreclosure and that was the strong
est argument in favor of hi debt-eX-
tension scheme, which would have sad
died the patrons Of the Pacific roads
with excessive tolls to pay interest and
sinking fund charges into the middle of
the twentieth century. For the people
of this section and the whole country
any successful attempt to delay or
will act as an obstacle to the early re-
| vival of prosperity.