Year: 1868

The Pacific Railroads In Congress. ~


The proceedings In Congress on Thursday on
the proposition to regulate the freight and pas
senger tariff on the Pacific railroads show the
hold these enormous monopolies have got on
members. What could be more just and
proper than for Congress to fix maximum Of
charges for freight and passengers, so that the
people may not be heeced numerically by the
Pacific Railroad companies? Considering that
it is the government which furnishes all the
means to construct these railroads, we are
astonished that any member Of Congress should
venture to oppose such just and necessary
measure. Yet it was voted down-that is, it
was referred to the Committee on the Pacific
Railroad, which is the same thing-by vote
of eighty-three to forty-nine. Washburne Of
Illinois and Washburn Of Wisconsin were the
members of the House who took leading
part in urging the resolution to regulate
the freight and passenger tariff and
in denouncing the monopoly. The latter said
the various Pacific railroad schemes would cost
the government and people two hundred or two
hundred and fifty millions Of dollars, and we
believe he said the truth. Enormous grants
of the best lands-enough to make large
States-have been made to the companies.
Besides these the government gives its bonds
for all the money necessary to construct the
roads. It is said, we are aware, that bonds
are issued for only half the estimated cost of
construction but the amount is fixed at six
teen thousand dollars mile across the Plains,
forty-eight thousand dollars mile across the
Rocky Mountains, thirty-two thousand dollars
a mile for nine hundred miles across the great
basin west of the Rocky Mountains, and forty
eight thousand dollars across the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, with the privilege Of using all the
timber, coal, iron and other materials on
the public lands. There is no doubt that
this amount furnished by the government will
be sufficient to build the roads without the COM
panies being called upon for dollar. Then,
in addition to this, there is an absolute gift of
twenty-five thousand six hundred acres of land
the bonds of the government are issued as
loan, but who expects the companies will ever
redeem them? The government is bound for
the interest, and the companies will probably
always have influence enough to keep the debt
saddled upon the nation and the people through
some hocus-pocus arrangement or other.


We should like to know how many members
of Congress are stockholders or are otherwise
interested in this stupendous mine Of wealth.
The large vote against regulating the tariff of
freight and fare is significant The greater
part or all, perhaps, were voting in their own
interests, though there is rule forbidding
members to vote on matters in which they have
a personal interest. This rule was read at the
request of Mr.. Holman, but no action was
taken upon it. Members must have smiled at
reading of the rule would have any effect when
an overwhelming majority, probably, were per-
sonally interested. For many years past these
enormous railroad jobs and land grants have
been growing frightfully, beginning with the
Illinois Central and other roads and eliminating
in this most monstrous Pacific railroad mono
poly. Those members who got theft share in the
former-and here we do not mean to intimate
that the Washburnes had any--can afford now
to ventilate the enormities of the latter The
truth is, Congress has become as corrupt as
the New York Legislature, and that is saying
great deal. There is a pecuniary or political
job in every act of legislation, and the interests
of the people are seldom thought of. This
refusal to protect the public from the cupidity
of a vast monopoly, and that, too, when the
government builds the road with the peoples
money, is the most impudent and outrageous
thing ever done by a representative body.
Railroad companies are compelled sometimes
to keep the rates of fare and freight within
limits on account Of rival or COM
peting lines, but the Pacific Railroad compa-
MES will have no rivals and can charge what
they please. The conduct of Congress in re-
fusing to regulate the tariff Of charges is dis
graceful in the extreme.


IL tI. f1rss