They foresaw that vast tracts of desert lands, which were impossible of sale at $1.25 per acre, the Government minimum at that time, would readily sell at $2.50 per acre, the minimum since the railroad was built; so that, in fact, the Government could afford to give away one-half of the lands along the route, in order that the other half, which it retained, might be sold at double the price. They foresaw that, with the railroad built, no further fears need be entertained of the spread of polygamy in Utah, or of secession in California; that the trade of the Indies, of China, of Japan, of Australia, of the Sandwich Islands, of the coasts of Alaska, British North America, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, New Granada, Peru, Chili, and the islands of the Pacific, would be attracted toward our shores.

Besides these advantages, many others have been derived from the building of the railroad which were not foreseen at the time it was projected. We have found that the laying of connected lines of iron rails and of telegraph wires, protected by the railroad, is bringing about an equalization of climates between east and west, favorably affecting the distribution of moisture, and rendering the deserts less arid than before. We have discovered small oases, before unknown, scattered at long intervals on the desert, and susceptible, through the proximity of the railroad, of being turned to productive uses. We have been enabled, through the general increase of moisture and the discovery of these oases, to maintain vast herds of cattle upon plains that were previously unfitted for such a purpose. We have floated timber hundreds of miles in flumes to the railroad, and conveyed the timber by means of the road to points where it has proved of great advantage in colonizing and civilizing the country. We have discovered and utilized valuable mines of coal, iron, salt, borax, gold, silver, mercury, copper, lead, and many other minerals, few of which could have been utilized without the agency of the railroad. These have been opened and made to yield an enormous product.

road, nor of those occupied in the general superintendence and service of the road, a portion of whom were obtained from the same county, nor of the share of construction and repair-money expended in this county, nor of many other means of support which the county derived from the railroad.

In short, this railroad has thrown open a great portion of this continent to settlement, and tended to render it fit for the abode of men; it has invited immigration from abroad, and conferred value to the extent of thousands of millions of dollars upon lands which before were inaccessible and valueless; it has brought all these lands under the operation of our Federal and State tax laws, so that now they yield to one or the other many millions of dollars a year in taxes; and it has paid for taxes upon itself up to December 31, 1879, over $3,000,000.

The industrial development brought about by the construction of this road is, perhaps, indicated in no more striking manner than by the fact that at the present time several overland roads are reaching their arms across the continent to claim a share of the vast commerce which the first road has begun to organize upon the plains, and to attract from the opulent countries that bound the western shores of the Pacific Ocean.

To those who would venture to construct the highway, which we expected would confer upon us a portion of these national advantages, we held out these specific pecuniary inducements: Alternate sections of land, and a loan of the Government credit for an amount estimated to be sufficient to lay the road-bed, including such profits as might be realized from the sales of these lands or the construction of the road.

Whatever may be thought of these inducements now, there were few who deemed it worth while to entertain them then. A good many prominent men had "talked" Pacific Railroad before it was undertaken, but there was no eagerness to undertake it-there was no competition for the subsidies offered by Congress. The difficulties were too great; the obstacles to be overcome were too formidable; the project, from any reasonable, any business-like point of view, was impracticable.

Nevertheless, there were some men, more adventursome or sagacious than the rest, who were willing to make the attempt, to brave the

flinched, and to construct the great highway which promised so many advantages to the country. And not only did they succeed in this effort; they completed the road eight years before the time to which they were limited by Congress, and thus advanced by eight years'

time the development of the entire country west of the Missouri River.

The reward which the undertakers of this great work looked for, the reward that furnishes he natural and proper incentive to all undertakings of a commercial character, the only kind of reward which the country could offer, the reward which it did offer to them, and the one which they declared themselves willing to accept, was wealth; and, taking into considera tion the grandeur of the work they accomplished, the formidable character of the obstacles they had to encounter, and the public benefits which have resulted from the construction of the road, no fair-minded man can doubt that they fully and fairly earned 'all that they were offered, or that they received.

So far as the Federal Government is concerned, the reward due to the constructors of the Pacific Railroad has been paid, not, indeed, fully or unreservedly, nor with the grace that should accompany the performance of such an action, nor with the commendation that should follow the accomplishment of such an enterprise, or the fulfillment of such a trust as the undertakers of this road had fulfilled, but, after a fashion, coldly, grudgingly, and with reserve. This unhandsome policy of the Government was due to the following cause:

No sooner did the rapid progress made from time to time by the undertakers render it apparent that the road would be successfully constructed, than envy and detraction began to assail them. It was asserted that they had secured an over-favorable contract; that the amount to be loaned by the Government to help build the road was sufficient to both build it and equip it; that the dangers and obstacles to the undertakers had been magnified; that there was no fear of molestation from the Indians; that the Rocky Mountains were plains, and the Sierra easy of ascent; that wood and water could be procured almost anywhere along the route; that the lands were fertile, and the land grant had bargained away a domain as great and valuable as New England. In short, the men who first spanned this continent with a railroad were aspersed precisely like the man who first discovered it. When Columbus was ennobled and enriched for having discovered America, the envious and malignant proved that the discovery was valueless to the Spanish nation, and without merit to the discoverer. It was not the rich Indies, but a naked land, that he had found, and as for proving the rotundity of the earth, why, Thales had proved it twenty centuries before. Therefore, why reward Columbus? and, in the present instance, why reward Stanford and Crocker and Huntington, and the rest

It

of the Pacific Railroad builders? This feeling and these arguments not only caused the Government to pay with reluctance the reward that it should have paid with alacrity-it led to other and much more important consequences. created a prejudice against the railroad and all its operations. Although any man could have gone into the market, and can do so now, and buy its shares at or near par, it was characterized as an extortionate and odious monopoly, and treated as a public enemy.

Before proceeding any further in this recital, I desire to put an end to any false impressions that the ignorant or unworthy may put upon my motives. I am not interested in this road, nor in its promoters or stock-holders, past or present, nor do I know, nor have I ever known, any one of them. I have no business with the road. I have not been retained to make an argument in its behalf. I say these things voluntarily, because I believe them to be right, and because other public men have not had the courage to say them. I believe these road-builders to have been treated shabbily and unjustly, and I feel ashamed of my countrymen for having so treated them. Furthermore, I believe that in taking their cue from the cold attitude of the Federal Government in this matter, the people of this State of my adopted State-have overreached the mark of prudence, and done themselves a great injury, which they cannot too soon hasten to repair.

Deriving strength from the influence which they had exercised with such success upon the Federal Government, and support from the popular passions which they perceived were being aroused on the subject, the enviers and detractors of the Pacific Railroad men now assaulted them through the press and on the rostrum, and, carrying the unthinking multitude with them, gained the Legislature and the Constitutional Convention, and grasped the power and the opportunities for which they had sought. These were to coerce, to bully, to blackmail, to bleed the railroad, and, failing in these, to legislate it into ruin.

Let us here review our own action-that of the people in this matter. A great national road was constructed, and paid for, and, although we were proud of this road, and were always glad to come upon it, for we knew that it meant relief from privation_and_danger, and never hesitated to prefer it above any other means of conveyance, we envied the glory of its constructors, and coveted the wealth they had gained.

This wealth they had invested in a new pro ject-one that reflects almost as much credit upon them as the other. With an enterprise

that seems peculiar to them, they have quietly and rapidly constructed a railroad through the San Joaquin Valley, from Lathrop entirely through the State, to Arizona, and into the midst of that great mining region. Their design-their vast and bold design-is to connect together the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico years before De Lesseps shall have pierced the Isthmus at Panama, or Commodore Ammen at Nicaragua. The new road is already beyond the Dragoon Mountains, and making two miles a day toward the waters of the Rio Grande. In the midst of this glorious work, when we, as a people, should be engaged in cheering them on toward its accomplishment, we have looked coldly on while they were being obstructed by legislative enactments and plundered by legislative highwaymen. Is this fair? Is it generous?

Let us view the matter from still another point of view-the point of view of the State, regarded as a single body politic-the State which has neither passions, feelings, nor sentiments, the State which has only interests.

Certain men, with wealth for their incentive, undertake a vast public work, which promises great benefits to the country at large and to this State in particular. They successfully accomplish the work, which proves to be of even greater benefit than had been anticipated, and succeed, though not without much trouble, in obtaining the wealth for which they had bargained. This wealth, together with other capital attracted toward them by their success, they invest in another public work, equally vast and promising still greater advantages to the country at large, and particularly to California, than the other. This work is little more than half accomplished when the State of California, in effect, says to them, "Stop! Free-trade is ended. Coercion begins. Facilities are unnecessary. Obstruction is desirable. Skill is worthless. Inexperience should rule. You shall hereafter charge only such and such rates; all others are hereby made illegal. You may not do this, nor that, nor t'other. The arrangements necessary to carry these provisions into effect will be made by an official who knows nothing about the matter." Is this just? Is it politic? Is it wise?

Its injustice and impolicy are too obvious to need argument; its unwisdom is evident the moment we examine the circumstances of the country and the operation of the laws which the State has recently enacted.

Take, for example, the circumstances of the great valley of the San Joaquin. The new road passes through this region, touches the coast at Santa Monica near Los Angeles, and thence

plunges into the Mojave Desert, which it spans in order to reach the Colorado. There are six million acres of land within twenty miles of the railroad, as it traverses the San Joaquin Valley. Before the road was built, these lands could have been bought, for the most part, at one dollar an acre. To avoid dispute, let us say that they were all worth five dollars an acre, which is far above the mark. They are now worth from thirty to one hundred and fifty dollars an acre; let us say on the average forty dollars. Here, then, are over two hundred million dollars added to the wealth of the State and to its taxable resources.

These lands were practically unproductive before the railroad was built; they are now actually productive. This means that it pays a profit to cultivate them, and that this profit has been realized in spite of a railroad tariff which was declared by detractors and demagogues to be excessive and extortionate. Instead of regarding this increase of productiveness as the true criterion by which to estimate the influence of the road upon the prosperity of the country, the State listened to ignorant declamation, and passed a maximum law of freights and fares. This law provides that a road shall not charge a greater rate of fare for a shorter than for a longer distance in the same direction. For example, that if one dollar per ton freight is charged from Los Angeles, near which place there is schooner competition by sea, only one dollar can be charged from any intermediate station, although with the latter no such competition exists. The principle of this law is unjust, inequitable, and absurd. The railroad, in the pursuit of its welfare, will naturally limit itself to a rate of profits on the whole administration that will restrain competition from other roads; but in the subdivision of this general rate of profits it will and must charge more from one point than another, though the two may be equally distant. There are portions of a long line of railroad—many portions of this road-that will not pay any profit, indeed must be worked at a loss; for example, its long deserts and the mountain sections. The losses incurred on these portions must necessarily be made good from somewhat higher rates on others, and the latter will naturally be those points where ship or wagon competition is lacking. Again, a railroad can afford to carry cheaper for one man, who has large and regular quantities of freight to offer, than for another who has only small and irregular quantities.

This principle is ably sustained in Governor Stanford's letter to the Legislature of California, dated February 24, 1876. Says that experienced railroad authority, it has become a nec