The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1926-12-24

rnmen property were to be hauled in an
Someone 'slipped one over on Uncle
Sam in wording the bill providing for the
land grants. In 1924 Ongre made a land
grant for the construction of a canal con
Meeting the Wabash river with Lake Erie
and the grant provision contained a pro-
position that said canal, when completed
shall be and remain forever a public high
way for the use Of the government of the
United States, free from any toll or any
charges whatsoever for any property of
the United States or persons in the service
on public business passing through the
san e" This clause was taken as the basis
for making the land grants to the railroads,
when Stephen A. Douglas persuaded con-
gress to substitute the aforementioned
lines, but someone changed the language
of the provisional clause from persons
in the service" to troops of the United
States. Future grants with one or two
exceptions, read this way. Thus il was,
tiODal emergencies, troops and government
equipment were transported over many of
the nations great trunk railway lines at
either free of charge or half the regular
tariff, thus saving to the federal govern
ment many MILLIONS Of dollars at a time
when the federal treasury was under great
est strain.
whitney, Father of the N. p.
If Whitney's plan had been adpOted by
congress land it came very near passing
that body in 1910, the line now known as
the Northern Pacific railroad would have
been the first transcOntinetal railroad to be
completed, and it would have traversed
Montana along a route almost exact to
that followed today by that great railway
system. Whitney Travelled the States"
from Maine to Louisiana, undaunted by
the many bullets he received from both
within and without government circles, in
the support Of his bill. In his efforts to
accomplish his purpose, he expended his
entire fortune and was forced to retire
from the scene, acknowledging for the time
being that his project was a failure. For
his propositions. and his advocacy of them,
Asa Whitney is entitled to be recognized
as the father Of the enterprise which has
now, for more than 40 years been an ac-
cOmplished fact under the title Of the
Northern Pacific railroad.
The skepticaI Eastern Statesmen
The little esteem in which the statesmen
Of Asa Whitney's day held the great inter
mountain region and that wonderful terri
tory traversed by the Northern Pacific, the
Great Northern and other northern trans
continental lines, as they pass through
Montana, is shown in a report of a select
committee Of the national house of repre-
sentatiVes on Pacific railroads and tele-
graph. After expressing grave doubt as
to whether a railroad COULD be built
mountain regions, whose aspiring sum
mits present - feet of defying snow to
the burning rays Of the July SUM-" the re-
port continues:
80 rapid is the fall of snow, and so re-
s~istless do the winds sweep over these al
most b%Oundless plains, it is quite impOs-
ible to, obtain a distant shelter. So, with
a train Of cars running up the plains from
lows or Missouri to the foot Of the Rocky
mountains, a distance Of some 500 miles,
how, in a storm. is a shelter, or wood, OF
water or food to be gained2 Arrested 500
miles from Iowa in November, how IS 9
train of cars to he relieved before May
By what means could it be visited. In such
a case, the shelteFing skill would be use.
less. To talk Of doing business In the win.
ter season on a road through such a re-
giOn, though every conductor was a XII
/ Carson, and every traveller a Fremont
would seem to be idle and prepOsterOus."
The Stevens Expeditton