Year: 1873

The question whether it is advisabl
for Governments to lend aid to the con
struction of railways has risen up aneV
before the people, and will be discussed
everywhere with growing interest. Will
us the practice, at least, is already settled
by long usage. But for the aid of ou
State or national governments we shoulC
have been left almost wholly without any
means of internal communication. The
Erie Canal was built at the cost of the
State ofNew York and afforded for many
years the only outlet for the transporta
ton of the products of the West to the
sea. And the great prosperity that soor
attended all the States and Territories
along the borders of the lakes was due
In no small degree to the prudent fore
sight of its projectors. OF the various
railways that have since helped to swell
the tide of emigration to the more dis
tant settlements there are few that have
not aided in their early embarrassments
by the resources of the whole communi
ty The Erie Railway has received large
sums from the State. The Illinois Cen
trail was enriched by a liberal gift of the
public lands. The Pacific Railway could
never have been built without the sup
port of the national government. The
rapid progress of the Northern Pacific is
sustained by liberal endowment from
the national domain. Almost every
State has given aid to its own railways
and canals, and Massachusetts alone has
recently expended $l2,000,000 in provid
ing a shorter route for its Western lines
and opening an easy access to the grow
ing commerce of the interior.


Nor, do we believe, would any one con-
tend that these outlays have been injudi-
ri or hot Of
tenfold in the rising prosperity of the
country. Badly managed as have been
most of our railway lines built upon
credit at an enormous cost, and thrown
upon the stock-market to become the
prey of spectators and the sport of idle
rumors or just suspicious; covered with
corruption as they have so often been
they have yet proved of infinite benefit
to the whole community, have given its
enormous progress to the wide North
west, and laid the foundations of the
gradual improvement of the South. The
most prosperous cities of the West are
little more than railway depots, and even
in Georgia it is stated that the lines be-
gun by the most speculative "carpet-bag-
gers" have already paid for themselves
in the rapid rise in value of the adjacent
lands.


1t remains only to be discussed, there.
fore, whether this system of Government
aid should be continued or extended
whether new series of railways should
not be at once provided to connect the
Mississippi Valley with the Atlantic.
or to penetrate the rich cotton districts
of the South. 1t is not necessary that
the government should take any actual
control of the railways, that they should
become in anv sense political or be man
aged by government officials. It might
be quite sufficient if the government or
the State should guarantee certain fix
ed interest on the cost, and provide that
it should never be increased or dimin-
ished. This provision would take the
stock out of the realm of speculation, and
make it always secure investment. But
whatever be the plan suggested or the
method of relief proposed, it is certain
that the national highways are too few
for the wants of the people, and that it
is the duty of the nation to employ all
its energy and its intelligence in de-
Gliding upon the readiest and most effect
ual mode of binding the country together
by liberal system of internal improve
ment.