The record-union., 1898-11-22
Condition Of the Roads Generally
Better Than Ever Before.
Lines Formerly In Receivers Hands Are
Now Paying Dividends.


a Double Track Railway From
Kansas City, Missouri, to San
Diego, California.
WASHINGTON, Nov. M.-General
James Longstreet, Commissioner OF
Railroads, in his annual report, made
public to-day, calls attention to the
general prosperity in railroad affairs,
and recommends the Government con-
struction of a first-class double track
railway from Kansas City, Mo-. to San
Diego, CAL, by an 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 stocks,
and piling up surpluses which in the
course of very short time, his report
says, will be distributed among the
common stockholders. Many roads
which in 1893 were forced to cut sal
aries 20 per cent, he says have volun-
tarily 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.
On June Both of this year there were
only 119 railroads in the hands Of re-
ceivers, and General Longstreet pre-
diets that under the present condition
Of prosperity within another year the
list of insolvent railroads will be as
small as in the years Immediately pre-
ceding 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 Pa
cific Slope this autumn, the Commis-
sioner says that substantial. improve
ments have been made on the roadbed
on the main lines. wooden bridges re-
placed by iron and steel ones, and the
ballasting is more extensive and much
improved.
He recommends a Government airline
transcontinental route in the following
language:
1.-The annexation of the Hawaiian ISL
ands-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 acquisitions,
with Cuba and Porto Rico, producing
tropical products, our annual demand
for which is to the extent of S225,-
100000, about one-third of our entire
imports, will in a few years be entirely
furnished from these new possessions,
and our own products taken in ex-
change, while now our exports to these
islands, 1 believe, do not exceed $15,-
100000 annually.
Heretofore, under former sway, ev-
cry effort has been made to discourage
business intercourse with Americans.
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 numbers and
is increased ten times in ability to pro-
duce and consume, which is not an un-
reasona BILE anticipation, what then will
our trade amount to? 1t is almost i'm
possible to imagine. Less than 3d.
100000 British colonists in Australasia
exchange products to the amount of
$3.50, 100000 annually. 1t is only rea-
sonable to suppose that in a few years
the trade with our new possessions will
fully equal, if not surpass this, and the
United States must control 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 other countries of
the Western Hemisphere via the At
lantic seaports will, in a very few
years, reach these same destinations
via Pacific seaports, and with this
changed condition will come vastly in
creased tonnage and revenues to all
the transcontinental lines.
"The diversion of this traffic on this
idea is now receiving the careful at
tention and consideration of the execu-
tive and managing officials of some of
the leading lines between Chicago. ST.
Paul and other middle western grain
centers and the Pacific Slope. and.
therefore, it seems to me the interest
the United States has in bond aided
railroads, and especially in the Cen
trail Pacific, should not be scaled but
that we have every reason to look for
repayment of dollar for dollar, princi-
pal and interest, loaned and advanced
by the Government originally to these
corporations.
1T may be timely just now to sug-
gest that the Government construct and
operate a first-class double track road
from Kansas City to San Diego by an
airline route. This will open the short
est line, measured by the map, from
Boston, New York and Philadelphia. to
the coast, and along the coal fields of
the East and West this side of the
Rocky Mountains, and making the most
direct line from our great commercial
centers to the Sandwich Islands and the
This with other lines now working
overland, may prove ample for the
wants Of commerce to the Pacific Coast
and the Orient, holding trade and travel
within our borders pending the expert
ment of a canal through the Isthmus.
AN overland route from Vera Cruz.
Mexico, to Acapulco, now approaching
completion, may be an important ad-
junct to our own overland routes as
commerce increases.
THE home advantages of an over
land line by the Government will be to
draw the people nearer together in in
terests and sympatflies, and win serve
them as a safeguard against the mo-
nopoly of corporations As trade in