REPORT.

To His Excellency, FREDERICK F. Low,
Governor of California:

Though not a requirement of law that the Pacific Railroad Company should make a report to you of the progress of their work, yet in view of the importance to the State of its early completion, and the interest taken in it by the people of the State, there seems to be a manifest propriety that you should be possessed of the main features of its progress and future prospects, that you may, in your discretion, notice in your annual message what shall appear to be needful, and of consequence to be given to the public.

The importance of the Pacific Railroad to the people of this State, coast, and nation, has never been overestimated, and probably never will be fully appreciated until its construction, and time shall have developed the magnificent and beneficent results that await its completion. Our country is to be the great channel of the commerce between Europe and Asia. The west bound to the east, not alone by fraternal ties, but by those of interest, the most enduring and reliable in the affairs of nations. Not more important to our nationality was the southern territory lately in rebellion than will be the Pacific States. For their development the railroad is a necessity. With it they spring at once into populous and prosperous States, yielding to the nation overflowing wealth from their vast and rich mineral deposits, their commercial and agricultural advantages and products.

With a due appreciation of all this, the Central Pacific Railroad Company—the one intrusted by Congress with the construction of the western division of the Pacific Railroad—have been, and are prosecuting their work with the utmost vigor.

On the eight of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, the formal breaking of ground for the work was made. The real labor of construction did not commence until the spring of that year.

Far removed by space and time from the source of their supplies—compelled to rely upon the means derived directly from the stockholders of the company, and its credit—there was on the second day of last January constructed and in operation thirty-one miles of road to Newcastle, with iron and rolling stock on hand for twenty miles more. On that day

O. M. CLAYES................STATE PRINTER.

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the Supreme Court rendered a decision declaring constitutional and binding the law of the State providing for the payment of the interest for twenty years on the bonds of the company for one million five hundred thousand dollars. Before this decision, the aid of the State had not been available to the company, in consequence of the questions of constitutionality raised in reference to it. The favorable decision of the Supreme Court made the aid of the State immediately available. On the day of its rendition orders were given to employ all the force that could be procured for construction; and from that time to this, those orders have never been countermanded, and all the labor that could be procured has been employed, until the force now actually engaged in construction is about five thousand.

In May of this year the United States Government aid was received for the first time. With this assistance, from the time the State aid was made available, the company has not wanted for funds. The result is, that in the space of ten months the company has constructed and put in operation twenty-three miles of road, from Newcastle to Colfax, and have substantially graded that portion between the latter place and Dutch Flat, a distance of fourteen miles, with a large force engaged beyond, including work upon a tunnel at the summit. The work done is of a heavy character, but is done in a substantial manner, not inferior to that of any railroad in the United States. On this, Mr. George E. Gray, late Chief Engineer of the New York Central Railroad, after a careful examination of the work then completed, reports as follows: "That portion from the City of Sacramento to Clipper Gap, forty-three miles, will compare most favorably in every respect with any railroad in the United States." It is the intention of the company to maintain the character of the road in all that they may construct.

It is confidently believed that we shall be able to retain the greater portion of our present force through the approaching winter, and largely increase it in the Spring following, until it shall have attained a number of ten thousand or more.

The laborers employed are mostly Chinese, there being less than one thousand white laborers—all that could be obtained. The Chinese are found to be good laborers, very reliable, and at the price at which they can be had, the cheapest.

Possessed of sufficient means, every sense of duty and interest impel the railroad company to prosecute the work with the greatest possible rapidity.

We are arranging for and confidently believe we will be able to run the locomotive over the summit the next season, and have the track progressing eastwardly as fast as the materials can be obtained and placed. The work to be encountered is of a formidable character, but the rapidity and success with which the obstacles already encountered have been overcome, is a guarantee that we are not estimating our future progress with an overweening confidence. Already the grading is substantially completed to an altitude of three thousand five hundred feet, and equal to one half the altitude to be overcome.

I confidently believe, should no untoward event intervene, that the road will be constructed to Salt Lake in three years from next spring. To do this will require great energy and a careful provision of the means, but the railroad company feel assured that they forsee what is necessary, and that all can be provided. Of the magnitude of the proposition an idea can be formed when it is known that it will require to be manufactured and shipped from the East not much less than one hundred

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thousand tons of material. Necessary labor can undoubtedly be obtained on this coast. After the Sierra Nevadas are passed, ten thousand men on either end of the Pacific Railroad can unquestionably construct the road as fast as the track can be laid. In this respect very erroneous ideas seem to prevail. The number of men named can unquestionably, the Sierra Nevadas being overcome, construct the road as rapidly as a greater number. This will be better appreciated when it is considered that the materials must pass from the eastern and western ends, as constructed. There certainly seems to be good reasons for believing that the Pacific Railroad will be completed and in the transport of passengers and frieght in five years at most.

Appreciating, as I know your excellency does, the importance of this great work to the nation and the State, whose position of Chief Executive you so honorably fill, I feel that I can congratulate you, and through you the people of California, upon the glowing prospects that dawn upon them in the near future, through the Pacific Railroad.

Respectfully, etc.,

LELAND STANFORD,
President Central Pacific Railroad Company.