Evening star., 1941-03-23
End Of Railroad
Lund-Grunt Ero
By Frederic J. HdSkin.


with the provisions of the 1910 Trans
portation Act.
After 80 years of operation, the pay
off on the bargain struck in the last
centurys era of expansion shows roughly
that the Government gave away an en-
pire of land in exchange for transport
tation system that won the West and
helped to settle the country from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. Since the policy
of encouraging railroad building by land
grants was embarked upon in 1850 the
Government has given away 158000,000
| acres of land and got 81 500 miles Of
railroad trackage built.
Under the Transportation Act of 1910
| thousands of these acres, which have
| never been patented or sold by the rail-
! roads, are being restored to Government
| title as the roads seek to qualify to
emerge from the old laws. In so doing
| they may free themselves from most OF
! the obligations to transport Government
property and Government personnel at
reduced rates
In the books being closed is written
the epic Of how America rode West on
! steel when the iron horse outdistanced
! the network Of canals. Old records re-
cite how the putting wood burners and
rattling cars that were the forerunners
of today's streamliners once were in the
van of progress and OUTRAGED the slow
wagon trains, but had a tough time out
speeding the pony express.
| Upon the completion of the accounts
balancing operations approximately IS
original railroad land-grant transactions,
embracing at the outset l58,0O0,0OO acres
of the public domain, are expected to
be registered as closed. However the
ALLEGATION of more than ll6,5000O0 acres
was terminated many years ago with
the patenting Of the tracts 10 the roads,
and only a portion of railroad grants
involved in original negotiations from
1850 TO 1871 were in process of ADJUST
ment when the 1910 Transportation Act
became law. Since lands patented to
the railroads, with title now either in
the carriers or transferred by them 10
/ purchasers in former years, are not af-
fected by the current operation, there
will be only slight disturbance Of land
tenure
The fact that under the new act for
nal releases must be filed. even though
the land grants involved were adjusted
and closed years ago, has brought to
light many forgotten details of early
| railroading in the United States In
many sections roads receiving the orig
lnal land grants long since have passed
out OF existence and their names as we'll
as ancient locomotives have been swept
out of local recollection by the onrush Of
modern railroad equipment bearing the
| insignia of roads which acquired the
earlier franchises. As result the list
ing by the present railroad systems OF
their predecessors has afforded an in
teresting historical roster of early rail-
| road construction.
Probably the most colorful climax in
the passing chapter of the Nations rail-
road history was at Promontory Point,
Utah, when the driving Of gold and sIl.
yer spikes, accompanied by a national
celebration. signahzed the completion Of
the first transcontinental line on May
! 10. 1869.
The stirring period Of extensive rail-
road expansion in the United States
constituted the third phase of transport
tation development policies launched by
Congress 118 years ago. Congress rec
ognized the primary need of development
of transportation facilities across the
httle-knoWn, broad eXpanSe of territory.
There seemed then no end to resources
and the national need appeared to be
to open up the country by giving away
| these resources, the opposite of today's
policy with exhaustion of resources in
sight and their conservation an estab-
lished national policy.
Wagon roads were the first outlets for
transportation established under the old
policy when Congress, in 1923, enacted
law awarding land to the State
of Ohio for the construction of
wagon road from "the lower rapids OF
the Miami of Lake Erie to the western
boundary of the Connecticut Western
Reserve" and granting areas for | mile
on each side to aid the State in defraying
the cost of construction. In all, II such
grants were authorized.
Four years after the first wagon road
land grant was made, proposals for the
construction OF canals through the use
of the public domain received the APP
proval of Congress when. on March 2,
1927. it authorized grants to Indiana
and Ohio for the construction of
canal on the Wabash River to Lake
Erie, and subsequently made nine other
grants for canal construction purposes.
The railroad construction era was
ushered in by Congress in 1850. with
the ALLEGATION of 2595,0 900 acres of the
public domain for the construction of the
Illinois Central Railroad. Inaugurated
as a simple procedure under which rail-
road companies were granted right OF
way for construction acreage a few
miles on each side to be developed and
sold to meet the cost of building, the
system later ran into complications. In
some instances, ii was found that the
land embraced in the construction grants
already had been disposed of to settlers,
or contained minerals which prevented
| its transfer from Government owner
ship. To meet this situation, indemnity
grants were authorized to be made in
areas farther removed from the original
grant locations.
Rapid developments of the territory
in many instances also led to an ex-
haustion of the available supply of even
! these indemnity grant lands before the