The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-01-13
SUBSIDIES AND PROGRESS
From the Philadelphia Inquirer.

At S.45 on Thursday night of last week
train arrived at San Francisco ninety
five hours out from New York. If any
thing can be said to be remarkable in
these days of modern railroading, this
feat may be classcd under that category.
The continent was spanned in one hour
less than four days, breaking all previous
records by thirteen hours. Not so long
ago a mile a minute for comparatively
snort distances was considered wonder
ful speed, and yet in this flight across
the country three hundred and fifty con-
sccutive miles were covered in as many
minutes, ninety miles were done in sixty
minutes, and for stretches the speed
reached a mile in thirty-five seconds
the train was the pioneer of the fast
mail WHICH is to duplicate the feat every
day in the year under favorable circum-
stances.
When California, in the course of our
policy of imperialism" and expansion"
was annexed to the United States the
city OF San Francisco was covered with
the sand dune and sage brush. a long
tramp over the dunes from the water
front brought the pedestrian TO the little
mission of San Dolores, consisting Of
the Mission church, n little graveyard
and cluster of adobe huts. That was
the civilization of San Francisco as it
and graveyard still remain, but the adobe
huts have fallen before the steady ad-
Nancement Of progress, and cable cars
now carry their passengers far beyond
the old Mission through solidly bult-up
streets. The gold-seekers of 1S49 were
obliged to tramp across the continent,
| fighting Indians and starvation by The
way, or else take the long trip in sail
ing-vessels around Cane Horn. Later
| the Pacific Mail Steamship company sent
| its passengers down the Atlantic coast
| to Aspinwall, thence across the Isthmus
| of Panama by rail, and up the Pacific
| by connecting steamships.
California grew, but there was still
upon the maps the great American desert
| populated only by rowing Indians and the
bones of dead men. 1t was not until sew
eral years after the War of the Rebel
| lion that the great pioneer railroad sy5-
| tenn which was to connect the two
| oceans and open up this vast tract was
completed. There were wise mer in con-
gres5 in those days. In spite of the out
cry against subsidies-that terrible word
| which gives every strict-construction
| Democrat nervous prostration-subsdies
| were granted, and the railroad was made
possible Subsidy in its broad scope simply
means government aid. Without this
government aid many a year must have
passed before private capital could be in
| duced to take up a proposition which
| had in it so many elements Of failure. 1t
| Is true that there have been many scan
| dals growing out of the Pacific railroads
| and it has required many disputes to ar
| rive at a settlement but even If the gov
| eminent had not received a single cent
| in return, who win say that the country
| has not been benefited a thousandfold?
| The pioneer read was a developer; as it
progressed business increased, the waste
| places were built up and today the great
| continent is traversed by several conti-
mental lines. The feat of the mail train
| In running from New York to San Fran
| cisco in less than four days is made pos
| sible only because of the subsidies grant
ed twenty years ago.
Just as subsidies We're fought then,
| they are fought now, when the great
| Nicaraguan canal scheme is projected
| and when it is proposed to build up an
| American merchant marine. The money
| of the country has gone into internal inn
provements. Capitalists have invested in
| mills and factories, in railroads and roll
| ing stock, in electric light, gas and water
plants and have sent their money to
open up the great farming lands of the
| west. Because of the vast railroad sys-
TEN, We have grown until we are now the
greatest exporting nation on the face of
| the earth; but while we have improved
and developed internally, we have lost
our hold upon the ocean carrying trade
Ii is not to our credit that nearly all OF
this great exporting business is carried
in foreign vessels
| o
There is splendid opportunity here for
investment of capital but when the capit'
alists take up the subject they find great
lines of steamships running under for
eign flags and which have the benefit OF
subsidies. They understand that If we
are to compete with the foreigners we
must meet them on their own ground
We, too, must extend government aid
The time has come to do 1t, but the cry
of subsidy is raised in the land. 1t is
the same cry that was heard against the
Pacific railroad the same cry that is
being used against the Nicaragua canal
1t is the same spirit that fought thC
Louisiana purchase, the acquisition oi
Florida, and the annexation of the grea'
Mexican territory OF the southwest. "lm
perialism' and Subsidy" are the tive
great cries of the opposition TO prog
ress and enterprise. They are the walls
of those who cannot look ahead to the
future, and they are walls that congress
must not heed if we are to maintain ou
supremacy over other nations.