Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-20
TERMS BUILDING
S. P. HUGE STEAL
WRITER SAYS RAILROAD PRO-
MOTERS ROBBED NATION
Claims Government Was Looted of Inn
mense Sums of Money by Means
of Clever Lobbying and
False Reports

NEW YORK, March 19.-In the light
of the governments prosecution
against the merger of the Union Pa
cific and the Southern Pacific Railway
companies an article by Charles Ed
ward Russell in the forthcoming Aprll
number of Hampton's Magazine en-
titled "The Great Millionaire MIL,
purporting to be the first real history
of the Pacific system OF railroads ana
the great fortunes built out of them,
is timely. Mr.. Russell characterizes
the building of the Central Paciflc,
now the Southern Pacific. as the great
est steal ever perpetrated on the Unit
ed states government.
He charges that the four projectors
Of the road Coils p. Huntington, Le-
land Stanford, Mark Hopkins and
Charles Crocker divided among them
selves in stock. land grants from the
government government bonds and
bonds which the government guaran-
teed, and donations from California
counties the sum of $149, 600, Tor
which they did not pay one cent. The
total of the government subsidy which
Huntington by clever lobbying got
from congress Mr.. Russell declares
was $50 100000.
How the figures were juggled TO turn
most of this immense subsidy into the
pockets of the four promoters is eX-
plained by NIr Russell as follows
The bill provided that the government
should issue to the road $1,000 per
cent bonds; for every mile in valley
or level land. $4,000 i'm bonds; for
every mile in the foothills, $4,000 in
bonds. and for every mile in the
mountains $4S 900 in bonds. Mr.. Rus
sell alleges that the company charged
the government at the mountain rate,
S4S, 900 a mile, on thirty miles of level
or nearly level. ground near Sacra-
mento. and at the foothill rate. $32 2,OVO
a mile, for many miles Of level build
ing in the valley east of ting, Slerras;
"This" says Mr.. Russell, lis the
origin of the familiar saying in Cali
fornia that the Central Pacific was
the strongest corporation in the world
because it had moved the Sierra Ne
vada mountains thirty miles 1t not
only made these charges, but collected
for them, although Mr.. Judah, the en-
gineer. refused to assent to the trans
action
"Abating nothing of admiration
saws Mr.. Russell, speaking of the com
pletion of the road for the physical
performance, it is time now to reflect
that it was also a monstrous triumph
of greed fraud and corruption; that
it might have been had at fraction
of its cost to the public; and that 1t
might very easily have been a blessing
instead of a blight to that rich coun-
try of which it was ecstatically called
the gateway.
For the gate was quickly closed,
and before it appeared the grim figure
of Coils p. Huntington, one hand
holding the key and the other
stretched out taking toll. The phys
ical figure of Huntington is no longer
tt.- closed
and before it are his successors, still
busily taking toll.
"HoW much do you think?
"FrOm the day the gate was erected
and closed. down to tho present year,
first Mr Huntington and his associates
and then their successors have taken
and divided more than $600000 200 in
unjust tolls all from the people of
the United States, who so kindly
erected the gate across their own high
way"
In the course of his article Mr.. Rus
sell describes Vividly the race for
junction between the Central Pacific
and tho Union Pacific, the roads now
attempting to merge.
"The act of 1854" he says. had
authorized the Central Pacific to build
eastward to junction with the Union
Pacific wherever that might be. At
first the four partners had assumed
this junction would be far to the east
ward allowing them good milaFe and
MANY fat bonds, but the swift ad-
vance of the Union Pacific began to
annoy them, and by 1867 they were
thoroughly alarmed. The Union Pa
Ciflc was approaching the mountains.
If if should thread them first, the
Central Pacific would lose the fattest
mart of its contract with the govern
ment. also the best of the joint haul
when the roads should be united.
"There ensued the maddest chapter
in all railroad history. The two roads
entered into a race, tearing into the
work before them regardless of any
question of cost. working day and
night with relay gangs.
ut was the wild romance Of railroad
building. Winter came on, the terrible /
sierra winter with its phenomenal
snow falls. but to the worlds amaze |
mcnt the work never stopped. In the
dead OF winter rails, machinery, cars, |
even locomotives in pieces, were
dragged hundreds Of miles on wagons, |
traversing roads heavy and badly
made, threatened with imminent dis |
aster from the snow slides and the /
storms"
Talk about the present high cost of |
to this:
Food for men and fodder for the