Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1884 — HUNTINGTON’S DEFEAT. [ARTICLE]

HUNTINGTON’S DEFEAT.

The Situation df the Tacihe Ballroad V Bing. I The report of the Committee on Public Lands condemning Huntington’s preposter, ous claim to the Texas Pacific land-grant and the resolution of the House of Representatives declaring the forfeiture of all unearned land-grants may be accepted as a new departure whereby Congress serves notice on the railroad treasury-raiders that they must go out of business. This is the real significance of the position taken by Congress, and it is to be hoped that nothing will be done to neutralize it. As to Mr. Huntington, the Payson report, following close upon the heels of the expos- ' ure which grew out of his resurrected letters to Colton, is simply fatal Ic required unparalleled presumption on his part to come forward as a claimant for the Texas Pacific landgrant, but even his assurance will probably fail him in the face of this rebuff; but if it doesn't it wHI not avail him. The situation of the Pacific railroad ring is admirably described in the concluding portion of the Payson report, which is summarized as follows: The report.says that the Southern Pacific was built with the money’ of the Central Pacific outside of the securities based upon it, and operated and controlled by that company; that so far as Congress is concerned the Southern Pacific never had any rights east of Yuma upon which it conld base a claim against the Government, either legal or equitable; that it built its roaa expressly without the intention, expectation, or hope of receiving a dollar of aid or an acre of land therefor from the Government; that by its action it aided in defeating the building of the road contemplated by Congress, and the facte presented —in —the report show that transcontinental transportation now stands in this condition: The next route north of this, the Atlantic and Pacific, is controlled by the Central Pacific west of the Colorado and by Gould east of it. The Central Pacific and Union Pacific with Gould’s connections easj of Omaha control the middle route. By subsidizing the Pacific Mail the Central Pacific keeps the water route under control. The Northern Pacific is not only in the ‘‘pool” with the Central, but an agreement has been made between them whereby the territory of the great Northwest is divided between them as to transportation, as though the ownership of the country followed the building of railroads into It, subject to which practical assertion of ownership the transportation of freight for the entire Pacific coast is under the control of a few men who adopt qs a rule for charge ’’all the traffic will bear." It is scarcely within the range of possibility that the present Congress, or any future Congress, will listen for one moment to Huntington’s outrageous demand after the scathing indictment which Messrs. Payson and Cobb and their associates on the Public Lands committee have brought against him, On the contrary, they seem to have'prepared the way for the adoption of such legislation as will compel the ring which controlstthe transcontinental railways to meet all their obligations to the Government and adopt fair rates for the public. The charters of these railroads confer upon Congress the right to protect the people against extortion and oppression, and the time is ripe for enforcing the conditions under which they were created.