AND PACIFIC COAST GUIDE. 304

   
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
  
 
   
  

as follows: Union Pacific, 13,295,104; Central Pa-
cific, 9,440,000. .

By mutual agreement between the Union and
Central companies, made several years ago, Og-
den, in Utah, has been decided upon as the
‘junction’ of the two roads.

In addition to the grant of lands and right of
way, Government agreed to issue its thirty year six

er cent. bonds in aid of the work, graduated as

ollows: for the plains portion of the road, $16,-

000 per mile; forthe next most difficult portion,
$32,000 per mile; for the mountainous portion,
$48,000 per mile.

The Union Pacific Railroad Co. built 525 78-100
miles, for which they received $16,000 per mile;
863 602-1000 miles at $32,000 per mile; 150 miles at
$48,000 per mile, making a total of $25,236,512.
~' The Central Pacific Railroad Co. built 7 18-100
miles at $16,000 per mile; 580 32.100 miles at $32,-
000 per mile; 150 miles at $48,000 per mile, making
a total of $25,885,120.

The total subsidies for both roads amount to
$52,121,632. Government also guaranteed the in-
tereston the companies’ first mortgage bonds to
an equal amount.

Cost of construction, material, ete.—
In the construction of the whole line, there were
used about 800,000 tons of iron rails, 1,700,000 fish
pases, 6,800,000 bolts, 6,126,375 cross-ties, 23,505,500
spikes.

Spenilion this, there was used an incalculable
amount of sawed lumber boards for building, tim-
ber for trestles, bridges, etc. Estimating the cost
of the road with equipments complete by that of
other first-class roads ($105,000), per mile and we
have the sum of $186,498,900 as the approximate
cost of the work.

We have not had much to say heretofore in re-
gard to the

Importance of the Road—to the Ameri-
can people, the Government, or the world at large,
simply from the fact thatit seemed to us, anything
we might say would be entirely superjiuous, as
the incalculable advantages to a/Z could admit of
no possible doubt. Wecontented ourselves in an-
nually calling attention to the vast extentof rich
mineral, agricultural and grazing country opened
up—a vast country which had heretofore been con-
sidered worthless. We have pointed out, step by
step, the most important features, productions,
and advantages of each section traversed by the
road; stated that the East and West were now
connected by a short and guick route, over which
the vast trade of China, Japan, and the Orient
could flow in its transit eastward; and, finally,
that its importance to the miner, agriculturalist,
stock-raiser, the Government, and the world at
large, few, if any, could estimate. ,

To those who are continually grumbling about
the Pacific railroad, and forget the history of the
past, professing to think that these railroad com-
panies are great debtors to the Government, we
would most respectiully submit

Facts in Brief.—On the 18th day of March,
1862, before the charter for the Pacific railroad
was granted, while the country was in the midst of
a civil war, at a time, too, when foreign war was
most imminent—the Trent affair showed how im-
minent—and the country was straining every nerve
for national existence, and capital, wnusually
cautious, Mr. Campbell, of Penn., Chairman of the
House Committee on the ‘ Pacific Railroad ”
(See Congressional Globe, page 1712, session 2d,
87th Congress), said :

“The road is a necessity to the Government. It
ig the Government that is asking individual cap-
italists to build the road. Gentlemen are under

the impression that itisa very great benefit to
these stockholders to aid them to an extent of
about half the capitalrequired. I beg leave to call
the attention of gentlemen to the fact that it is the
Government which is under the necessity to con-
struct the road. If the capitalists of the country
are willing to come forward and advance half the
amount necessary forthis great enterprise, the
Government is doing little in aiding the Compan

to the extent of the other half by way of a loan.”

Again, (page 1,911)—“‘ It is not supposed that in
the first instance the Company willreimburse the
interest to the Government; it will reimburse it
in transportation.” Mr. White said: I under-
take to say that nota cent of these advances wil!
ever be repaid, nor dol think it desirable that
they should be, as this road is to be the highway
of the nation.”

In the Senate (see Congressional Globe, page
2,257, 3d _vol., 2d session, 37th Congress) Hon.
Henry Wilson, from Mass., said:

“T give no grudging vote in gi ing away either
money orland. I would sink $100,000,000 to build
the road, and do it most cheerfully, and think I
had done a great thing formy country. What are
$75,000,000 or $100,000,000 in opening a railroad
across the central regions of this Continent, that
shall connect the people of the Atlantic and Pa-
cific, and bind us together? Nothing. As to the
lands, I don’t grudge them.”’

Nine years later—after the road had been com-
pleted nearly two years—Senator Stewart, from the
Committee on the Pacific railroad, said in his re-
port to the U. 8. Senate:

‘“The cost of the overland service for the whole
period—from the acquisition of our Pacific coast
possessions down to the completion of the Pacific
railroad—was over $8,000,000 per annum, and this
cost was constantly increasing.

“The cost, since the completion of the road, is
the annual interest’’—[which includes all the
branches—EHd.]—$3.897,129—to which must be
added one-half the charges for services performed
by the company, about $1,163,138 per annum,
making a total expenditure of about $5,000,000,
and showing a saving of at least $3,000,000 per
annum. :

« This calculation is upon the basis that none
of the interest will ever be repaid tothe United
States, except what is paid by the services, and
that the excess of interest advanced over freights
is a total loss.

‘‘ Tn this statement no account is made of the
constant destruction of life and private property
by Indians; ofthe large amounts of money paid
by the Secretary of the Treasury as indemnity for
damages by Indians to property in the Govern-
ment service on the plains, under the act of March
8, 1849; of the increased mail facilities, of the pre-
vention of Indian wars, of the increased value of
public lands, of the development of the coal and
iron mines of wyyowine andthe gold and silver
mines of Nevada and Utah; of the value of the
road ina commercial point of view in utilizing
the interior of the continent, and in facilitatin
trade and commerce with the Pacific coast an
Asia; and, above all, in cementing the Union and
furnishing security in the event of foreign wars.”

Remember that the Government by charter ex-
acted that these companies should complete their
line by 1876 ; but, by almost superhuman exertion, it
was completed May 10, 1869—and the Government
has had the benefit of the road seven years before
the company were compelled by law to finish it.

Now, if we take no account of the millions the
Government saved during the buildingof the road
—and at heir own figures—the saving during the