Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1870 — The Northern Pacific Railroad, Congress, and the Public Lands. [ARTICLE]

The Northern Pacific Railroad, Congress, and the Public Lands.

[From the Advance (Chicago).]

Among the great commercial movements that characterize and render notable the present times, probably the most important, both in amount of capital involved and in the character and extent of anticipated result?, is the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad, with its branches, feeders and connection. The Sue* Canal, constructed under the auspices of the French Government, cost about sixty million dollars. The Union Pacific Railroad, extending from Omaha to Ogden; a distance of 1,032 miles, involved a necessary outlay of perhaps forty million dollars, and the Central Pacific, completing the line from Ogden to Sacramento, 743 miles further, did not cost more than an equal amount. The Northern Pacific Railroad, controlled by a single corporation, will span the continent from deep-water navigation on Lake Superior to tide-water -on the Columbia River and Puget Sound—a distance of about 1,750 miles; and the branches already projected will increase the total length of road-bed to nearly two thousand five hundred miles. The cost of construction and rolling-slot* will not fall far short of one hundred million dollars. It is the comprehensive design of the projectors of the Northern Pacific, not simply to build a railroad from lake to ocean, and then wait for results, but to render results certain by (1,) securing favorable connections with the railroad systems of the Pacific coast and the Atlantic States, and with the commerce of the Pacific Ocean; (2,) by constructing a series of lateral branch roads to the South and North of its main line, which will drain the entire Northwest between latitude 42 and Central British Colombia; (3,) and by organizing such a thorough, wise and humane system of emigration from Northern Europe and the thickly peopled portions of our own country as will settle and render speedily productive the vast belt of fertile lands tributary to the road and extending across the continent During the years occupied in its construction the road will give employment to thousands of men, and create a large demand for everything that our people manufacture or produce.

It is impossible that such an enterprise, managed by the sort of men that control this one, should not benefit the whole country, while specially and vastly benefiting the region known as the Great West This greatest of commercial projects, viewed ss a matter of national impart is entitled to the same hearty sympathy and confidence that greeted the first Pacific Bailroad, and the recent attempts,

iaOongTßM nnd bra portion of the press, to represent the Northern Pacific Company as an insatiable devourer of the public lands, were aa unfair as they were unfounded. A bit of Pacific Railroad history may be in place t The Illinois Central was, we believe, the first railroad to receive a grant of lands directly from the government. Of the wisdom and good results of that initial grant probably no one now entertains a doubt. When the Union and Central Pacific roads were chartered in 1862, two other charters were also granted—one for a Northern, and another for a Southern Pacific railroad. Upon tho Union and Central Pacific Companies, which proposed to build tyieir road* at onoe, a subsidy of lands and bonds was conferred, more Uiaa enough in actual value to build the road*—the bonds, however, being in the character of a loan. The Northern Pacific, which it was correctly believed, would be the second line built, received only a land grant, equal in amount, but far superior in quality, to that of the Union and Central. The question of a money subsidy or loan to the Northern line was left in abeyance until the time when its construction should be near at hand; and the Southern Pacific was left with a bare charter, the state of the country then seeming to indicate that many years would elapse before the actual construction of a Southern road could be thought ot In this way the government made provision for three main ljnes of railroad across the continent,-and fully committed Itself, with the hearty approval of both political parties, to the policy of aiding the construction of these three national highways. The motives which lead to this action were obvious enough. (1) The Government considered itself under some obligation to assist in opening communication between the older and the newer sections of the continent, thus benefiting both and begetting a closer sympathy and a better understanding between distant communities and the General Government which taxed them and claimed their allegiance. (2) It was known that in time or peace the bulk of our standing army is employed on the Western plain* acting as a police between the Indians and the white settlers, and that a largo pact of the great expense of maintaining troops at frontier stations consists oi the excessive cost of transporting men and supplies where there are no railroads. The saving of several millions a year in army transportation, and the redoubled efficiency of troops when they can be rapidly conveyed from point to point, were legitimate reasons for extendiag Government encouragement to railroads built beyond the settlements. (3 ) The third and weightiest of the reasons which influenced Congress to adopt the land grant policy was one which appeals even more directly than the former two to the common sense of plain people, and is enough of itself to justify the system, as applied to the three eomlinental line* of road. Five years ago tho United Stales Government was proprietor of eleven hundred million acres of wild lands, lying between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast, not including the Slate public lands of Texas. Such a domain is too vast for comprehension, and only an approximate notion of its magnitude can be obtained by considering that it is equal to thirty-four State* the size of New York, or to two hundred and four States as large as Massachusetts. Of these lands, the government, during the last flvo years, has been able to sell, and 'give away under the homestead act, less than four million acres per year. At this rate tho present generation would reap next to no benefit from the public lands, and 276 years would elapse before they all would be taken up, much less tilled. The reason why these lands cannot be given away to actual settlers is that they are Inaccessible and hence worthless. No farmer will agree to live on them for them, and for the excellent reason that no farmer can afford to. A farm without a market is without value, and a market without a railroad is usually impossible. Under these circumstances the government, through its system .of grants, says to responsible corporations, “ Build a railroad through these waste lands of mine, rendering them accessible and valuable, and I will give you ten per cent, of the lands affected. I regard this offer not as a charity or gratuity, lor you have no claim to either, but Icon rider it a business transaction, in which I shall receive back in the enhanced value of my own lands and the increased area and constituency for taxation, very much more than this grant is worth to me or to you." So a farmer, owning a submerged marsh, which is absolutely worthless except for rearing frogs, ana, not caring to venture his own money in the doubtful enterprise of reclaiming it, would gladly give a portion of the wet land itself to any one who would ditch, underdrain and render productive the whole. The feet that the Government retains the alternate sections along these Pacific roads, and offers them for sale at $3.50 per aero is sufficient guaranty that the raii- . road companies will not hold their lands at an exorbitant figure; and the feet that the business and success of the roads will depend very largely upon tho rapidity with which the adjacent lands are Settled, is ample warrant that the railroads will not long hold their lands out of the market Self-interest and tho public good will here harmonize. The Northern Pacific Company, in coming before Congress and asking for the recent legislation, which has occasioned se much discussion and misunderstanding, requested four things: (1.) That the original land grant, voluntarily conferred by Congress six years ago, be made good by permitting the company to appropriate other public lands to compensate for those belonging to- the grant, which had been taken up by settlers and speculators; (2.) That the short branch road to be constructed from Portland, Oregon, to Pnget Bound be entitled to the same land subsidy as the main line ; (3.) that the company be permitted to make the junction of its two western branches at a point further east than the original charter specified—this in order to avoid engineering difficulties in the mountain region; anjl (4) that specific authority be given the company to make a single mortgage covering all its property and rights of property. This last request was made in order to avoid the necessity of making a fresh mortgage every time a new instalment of land came into “the hands of the company by the completion of each twcnty-five-mye section of road. Under tho legislation recently enacted, the lands of the North Pacific grant wfll pass under the general mortgage to the bondholders just as fost as by the completion of successive portions of the road, they pass into the control and ownership of thq company—and no fester. The current assertion that the bill authorizes the company to mortgage its lands in advance of the construction of the road, is w i thout -foundation and” absurd. The charter provides when and on what conditions the lands of the grant shall become the property of the company, and the recent legislation does not change the charter in this regard, nor authorize the company to mortgage that which is not its property.

f‘.Ty** m • The fact that the application of the Northern Pacific Company for the additional legislation named above was preceded and followed by the introduction in Congress of a swarm of petty land grant schemes for local and imaginary roads—schemes having no merits and no claims to consideration—shook! pot be allowed to prejudice a great and genuine enterprise, which the people are really

desirous to aid, because it will aid them in return. Undoubtedly the country wishes Congress to limit the application of the land subsidy policy to the three trunk lines of Pacific railroad. Uere the line of distinction should bo drawn, and here the nation should put down Its foot. Let the continent be traversed by a Northern, a Central and a Southern Pacific Railroad, opening up the western wilderness, in three broad belts, to settlement and culture, travel and trade; then let local roads be built by private enterprises as fast as population and business demand them. The land-grant system, as applied to these three main routes, is common sense and sound economy. Carried to the extreme, and applied to the numberless local corporations that are clamoring for aid at the doors of Congress, it is indefensible waste.