Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1878 — GREAT RAILWAY PROJECTS. [ARTICLE]

GREAT RAILWAY PROJECTS.

Propositions in Congress to Cheapen Transportation. The House Committee on Railways and Canals has adopted the report of the sub-committee on Representative Schleicher’s bill to provide for cheap transportation of freight between the Atlantio coast and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and agreed to report the bill to the House with a favorable recommendation. The bill provides for the appointment of a commission of twelve persons by the Governors of the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, lowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska and Missouri, each State being entitled to one Commissioner. It is proposed that the board to be created shall constitute a body politic and corporate, under the name of “The United States Railroad Corporation;” and the same shall be recognized as a corporation authorised to obtain necessary franchises, and right of way and title thereto, in the manner prescribed by the laws of the States, for the purpose of locating, building and operating a railway, principally for freight, from New York to Council Bluffs, lowa, such as shall offer the best connection with the system of railroads west of the Missouri river. The compensation of the Commissioners shall be paid by the corporation at the rate of $3,000 per annum each.

The House Committee on Railroads also voted unanimously to report favorably on the bill gaanting a charter to the Washington, Cincinnati and St. Louis Narrow-Gauge Railroad Company. This company already begun building its road, and has about fifty miles of it already graded in Virginia. It is asserted that a road of three-feet gauge can be built and operated for less than one-half the expense of the standardgauge roads, and that the result will be an immense reduction in the charges for railroad transportation between the large cities of the West and the Atlantic seaboard. This company proposes to run a line of freight steamers from Washington to New York to connect with its road. It also proposes to establish branches to Chicago, and gradually to extend a narrow-gauge system to all important points in the East and West. One of the great advantages claimed for this road is that it will open up the West Virginia coal-fields, the splint and cannel coal, which is a eaid to be 40 per cent, higher as fuel for gas-making than any coal produced in Pennsylvania.