The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-22
OUT OF RECEIVERS HANDS
THE LIST OF INSOLVENT ROADS
GROWING VERY SMALL.
Union Pacific and Central Pacific
Effect of the Annexation of Ea-
wall and the Probable Control of
the acknowledgements Air
Line Route Recommended.


lie today, calls attention to the general
prosperity in railroad affairs, and re-
commends the government construction
and operation of a, f1rst-class double
track railway from Kansas City, Mo-,
TO San Diego, Cal, by air line route.
He says the physical condition of our
railroads generally is better than ever
before. He points to the spectacle Of
roads which only two or three years
ago We're in receivers hands now pay
ing dividends on their preferred stock
and piling up SURPRISES which in the
course Of a. very short time, his report
says, will be distributed among the
common stockholders. Many roads
which in 1898 were forced to cut salaries
20 per cent, he says, have voluntarily
restored the old basis of wages. In
April 1894, receivers controlled in this
country 210 roads, embracing about 20
per cent of the total mileage of the
United States On June 80 of this
year there were only 119 roads in the
hands Of receivers, and General Long
street predicts that under the present
condition of prosperity within another
<year the list of insoivent roads will be
Jas small as in the years Immediately
preceding 1892.
Reporting on his inspection of the
properties of the Union Pacific and
Central Pacific and several of the land
grant lines in the west and on the
Pacific slope, this autumn, the COM
missioner says, substantial improve
ments have been made in the roadbed
on the main lines, wooden bridges re-
placed by iron and steel, and the bal
lasting is more extensive and much inn
proved.
He recommends a government air
line transcontinental route in the fol-
lowing language:
THE annexation of the Hawaiian
Islands-the possible. probable control
of the Philippine and Ladrone islands
must open up new trade relations Of
such growing proportions with them as
to so materially increase the business
of all the bond-aided roads as to be
well within the scope Of reason to an
ticipate their ability at an early date
TO pay principal and interest of their
debt to the United States.
These new eastern possessions with
Cuba. and Puerto Rico, producing trop-
ical products, our annual demand for
which is to the extent of $225, 00G, G00
about one-third CT our entire imports
will, in a few years be entirely fur
nished from these new possessions and
our own products taken in exchange,
while now our exports to these islands,
I believe, do not exceed $15,000,00 an
nually
Heretofore, under former sway,
every effort has been made to discour-
age business intercourse with Amer
leans. Under the new order of things
in these islands every effort will be
made to encourage trade with us, and
when the population is doubled in num-
beers and is increased ten times in abil-
ity to produce and consume, which is
I NJ, fi1ir r4rl1o or
{, then will our trade amount to- 1t is
almost impossible to imagine. Less
than 100000 British colonists in Aus
tralaSia exchange products to the
amount of $3.50, 600 900 annually. 1t is
only reasonable to suppose that in a
few years the trade with our new pos
sessions will fully equal, if not surpass,
this, and the United States must con-
troll the bulk. Furthermore, the vast
volume of wheat and other cereals
which now find their way from the
middle western grain prairies to Asia
and ether countries of the western
hemisphere via the Atlantic seaports,
viii, in a very few years, reach these
same destinations via Pacific seaports,
and with this changed condition will
come vastly Increased tonnage and rev.
enues to all the transcontinental lines
The diversion Of this very traffic on
this idea is now receiving the careful
attention and consideration of the
executive and managing officials Of
some of the leading lines between Chi
caEo, St. Paul and other middle west
ern grain centers and the Pacific slope
and therefore it seems to me the inter-
est the United States has in bond-aided
railroads and especially in the Central
Pacific. should not be sealed" but
that we have every reason to look for
repayment OF dollar for dollar prin-
cipal and interest, loaned and adj
vanced by the government originally
to these corporations.
1T may be timely Just now to Sug-
gesJ shat the government construct
and operate-a first-class double track
from Kansas City to San Diego by air
line route This viii open the shortest
line measured by the map, from Bos-
ton, New York and Philadelphia to the
j coast and along the coal fields of the
east and west this side of the Rocky
= Mountains and making the most di-
rect line 10 the Sandwich islands and
the Philippines.
This with other lines, now working
overland, may prove amply for the
wants of commerce to the Pacific coast
and the orient, holding trade and
travel within our borders pending the
experiment Of a canal through the
isthmUs.
AN overland route from Vera Cruz
1IeX., TO Acapulco, now approaching
completion may be an important adj
junct TO our own overland routes as
commerce increased.
THE home advantages of an over
land line by the government will be to
draw the people nearer together in
interests and sympathy and will serve
them as a safeguard against the
monopoly OF corporations.
AS trade increases it may develop
The Importance OF a direct similar line
to Seattle. Wash.
st. Louis is a little south of the
direct line between New York to San
Diego, but the Typographical features
of the country indicate that possibly
a better route may be found from that
point and the bridge over the Missis-
sippi river at that point may prove an
important consideration. A survey,
therefore, by direct line should be
made from each of these points"
The report says of the United States
subsidy bonds under the acts of 1862
and 1864 to AID the Pacific railroads
construction there have matured $780,
1882, of which $50,4S9,952 have been
redeemed and paid out of the treas
ury leaving still due and unpaid S129,-
000 The remaining bonds of this is
sue fall due as follows: Union Pa
cific. Jan. l, 1899. So Isl 600: Central
Pacific. Jan /, 1899. S9,f9T 900; Western
Pacific, Jan. l, 1899, 81, $50 500.
Co.
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