The Republican journal., 1916-12-28


Hon Cakes Ames, to whom, more than any
one else, is due the construction of the Union
Pacific.
IF. W. Angler in the San Jose (Calif.) Mer-
curry Herald
IA good step in the right direction
is the heading of a most striking piece
of publicity being published in eastern
newspapers by the Union Pacific system,
calling attention to the pleasure derived
in spending winter in California.
The Empire of the West" states that
it was in lS43 that Daniel Webster, who
was then considered one of the greatest
men of the day, when making an adj
dress to the senate of the United States
regarding this country, said: What do
you want of that vast and worthless
area, that region of savages and wild
beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and
whirling winds, of dust, of cactus and
prairie dogs? To what use could we ever
hope to put those great deserts and those
endless mountain ranges, lmpenetrable
and covered to their very base with
eternal snow? What can We ever do
with the western coast, coast of 3, 0O0
miles, rock bound, cherries and unin-
viting?
Morse in his universal Geography"
declared: GAN settlers who go beyond
the Mississippi river will be lost forever
to the United States"
AS late as 1858 the North American
Review declared: "The people of the
United States have reached their inland
western frontier and the banks of the
Missouri river are the shores at the term
ination of vast ocean desert, over 1000
miles in breadth which it is proposed to
travel, if at all, with caravans of camels.
and which interpose final barrier to the
establishment of large communities
agricultural, commercial, or even pas
toral"
In 1860 there were 2100 miles OF rail
way west of the Mississippi river and
only &c IL miles west of the Missouri.
The First Move West.
In spite of the warnings of Daniel
Webster, Prof. Morse or the North
American Review, the Union Pacific
railway was built, and in Senate Docu-
ment No. 447 we learn the real first
good step in the right direction was
taken at Omaha. Neb., on the first day
of December. 1868, when ground was
broken for the Union Pacific railway;
ard from that time the believers in the
great country west of the Missouri river
in the face of every kind of opposition,
the hardship of severe winters, in a
country inhabited only by Indians and
wild animals, where the protection of the
United States troops was required, where
all supplies and material had to be hauled
by team for miles, persevered In their
undertaking, and upon May 10, 1869,
completed their work and gave to this
country the COZ nection, the great high
way, which developed the Pacific coast
and was the making of the great State
of California. They had fulfilled the
prophecy made by Senator Charles Sum-
ner in 1853, when he said: 1.-The railroad
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, travers-
ing whole continent and binding to-
gether two oceans, this mighty thorough
fare when completed will mark an epoch
of human progress second only to that
of our Declaration of Independence.
May the day soon come
"What of the Future"
With the completion of the road the
one thought that was in all minds was
what of the ?"-what could
railroad earn that ran almost its entire
length from Nebraska to California state
line through country uninhabited, and
at that date with no developed local BUSH
ness upon its whole line? In 1869 Geuer-
al Grenville M. Dodge expressed the fol-
lowing view: ''lts future is fraught
with great good. 1t will develop waste,
will bind together the two extremes of
OF,
course and trade, and bring harmony,
prosperity and wealth to the two coasts.
A proper policy Systematically and per-
sistently followed will bring to the road
the trade of the two oceans and will give
it all the business it can accommodate;
while the local trade will increase grad
ually until the mining, grazing and agri-
cultural regions through which it passes
will build up and create business that
will be lasting and permanent support
to the company.
What contrast from what Daniel
Webster thought IN 1843, and how easy
it was after the Union Pacific had opened
up and started the development and de-
monstrated to the east what wonderful
country was located west of the Missouri
river to finance and put through other
transcontnental lines.
The Transcontinental Tourist.
The second great step in the right
direction was that of publicity, with
the opening of the road in May, 1869. A
systematic course of publicity has been
pursued which has brought about a rapid
development of the entire coast country
"a development that has created de-
mand for all means of TRANSFORMATION
Reducing the time of four to six months
which was consumed in journey from
San Francisco to New York around the
Horn to one of from four to six days,
which is now performed by the overland
Pacific limited trains, has brought the
two coasts together and created tourist
travel that is building up this entire
country, and nothing whatever is now
thought of trip across the continent.
There is SO much of interest and ma
tional Importance relative to the building
of this road and it's Importance to the
welfare of the Pacific to be found in the
Al