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2 THE ARGONAUT. MARCH 24, 1888.

[left column]
all these reports as false creations, or gross exaggerations,
for political effect. If this coming Frederick the Great hates
the English and the Jews, he should not hate his mother.

The Eastern railroad strikes have raised a new question,
and one that concerns both the government and people. The
mail carriage is entirely arrested on certain roads, the companies
are unable to transmit the mails except by running
special trains for their carriage, and that they are unable to do,
except at ruinous expense, and the department has no authority
to allow extra compensation. Postmaster Dickinson has
suggested as a compromise that both sides should, from motives
of good citizenship and patriotism, permit the roads to perform
this service. The engineers consent, but the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fé Company refuses to assent, because it says,
and truthfully, that it can not afford it. Mr. Postmaster
Dickinson urges the contract of the road to carry mails, and
talks about the sovereign prerogative of eminent domain being
handed over to the roads, the vast public aid given them,
and the enforcement of the law against railroad companies,
to compel them to the performance of their contract.
He also compliments the engineers and firemen of the
roads for their willingness to comply with his request. All
this is the empty talk of a cross-road village politician. If a
strike is to be permitted to arrest the transportation business
of a transcontinental line, like Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fé road, permit freight to lie upon side-tracks, perishable freight
to be destroyed, passengers to be inconvenienced, and the entire
business of the line to be interrupted, the entire profits to
be destroyed, resulting in financial embarrasment to the company,
repudiation of its bonded interest, and suspension of its
dividends on stock, carrying loss and distress to thousands of
innocent persons, and confusion to the entire business of the
country, why not allow the mail to be involved in the catastrophe?
If passengers and merchandise must seek other lines for
accommodation, why not letters? Labor strikes can never be
restrained, or arrested, if in the manner suggested by Postmaster
Dickinson the government is to be exempted from
their operation. Mr. Dickinson knows, if he knows anything,
that a railroad can not afford to run one or two cars a day
each way over its road to carry the United States mail without
great cost; the whole organization of the company must be
kept at very nearly its maximum expense in order to transmit
mail matter, which in this instance finds the opportunity of
transmission over parallel roads that are not interrupted. When
cabinet officers shall cease from pandering to labor strikers,
when statesmen shall have the courage to legislate, and the
executive officers of general, State, and municipal governments
shall have the courage to enforce the law [illegible due to crease
in page] kinds of
labor conspiracies that step beyond the boundary lines of law,
there will be an end of these arbitrary and disastrous proceedings,
and not till then. Nothing can be plainer than the right
of any person for any cause to abandon a labor which he
has not entered into a contract to perform; but it is equally
plain that when he conspires to induce others to unite with
him in deserting an employment to which they are bound,
when he resorts to threats or violence to prevent his place being
filled by another, when he kills engines or destroys property,
he commits a crime for which he should be punished.
Let the law be executed, and the evil will be reformed. Labor
and capital, employer and employed have a mutuality of interest
that soon regulates itself, if the law is enforced. There
is nothing more sacred in a contract for carrying the United
States mail than in any transaction that involves an obligation
to transport merchandise or passengers. Better have a letter
miscarry than a train of fruit to perish, better letters lost than
to imprison men and women at some desert side-track on a
transcontinental railway.

When sober history shall record the details of the contest
now being waged by the political authorities at Washington
against the builders of the first transcontinental railroad, the
reader will wonder and rub his eyes, that so great injustice
should have been done to men deserving of so much. When
Messrs. Stanford, Huntington, Edward and Charles Crocker,
and Mark Hopkins called into consultation with them Theodore
P. Judah, as engineer, to consider the proposition of connecting
the coast of the Pacific with the valley of the Mississippi,
the scheme was regarded by prudent minds as the wild and
impracticable venture of crazed enthusiasts. Between the higher
slopes of the eastern Sierras, and the borders of the great
valley that divided the continent, there was a broad expanse
of uninhabited and seemingly valueless domain. Over this
grand and measureless expanse the Indian and the buffalo
roamed; it was the skirmish-ground of the adventurous fur
trader; across its great sea of grassy plains the earlier immigrant
to California had found his way in prairie schooners—
armed and provisioned for a four-months' journey he braved
savages, confronted dangers, and endured hardships, and when,
after long years of residence, he would visit his Eastern home,
it was by perilous voyage through two oceans and across other
lands, for there was no road across the continent. There were

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no great cities in the valley of the Platte; Nevada had not disclosed
its silver wealth; Colorado had but a sparse population;
Kansas and Nebraska were but beginning to feel the inspiration
of settlement; the overland wagon-route was a dreary
drag through deserts and over mountains; the pony express
carried only letters, written on thinnest paper, to spare the
weight; California was further from New York then than now
from Moscow, Madrid, or Constantinople. To build a railroad
that should o'erleap the Sierras and the Rocky Mountains,
and span the great American desert, was an inspired thought.
What dreamer first dreamed it, it is not important to consider.
To the persons named is due the honor of its accomplishment.
The Government of the United States, threatened with civil war
and in danger of division, loaned its credit. It was an effort
at self-defense; it was an appeal to the patriotism of private
citizens, who had formed a private enterprise, to come to the
rescue of the imperiled Union. The company responded to
this call of patriotism, entered into a contract with the Government
of the United States—represented by its Congress—
completed the road years before it agreed to—years before it
was supposed possible of accomplishment—giving millions of
increased wealth to the country, exploring and developing a
new empire "broader than Cæsar conquered for Rome,"
saved more millions to the government in the transportation
of mails and war material than the whole amount of credit
loaned, and that without costing the government one dollar,
without dodging one item of the many and important obligations
assumed, for to-day the company has not an obligation
or a debt matured which it has not paid, and it is nearly ten
years before it will be in default of any liability to the government.
This road has been of incalculable benefit to the
nation and the State of California. It has been one of the
great instruments to preserve the Union; and the men who
built it have done more to put down the rebellion, and bind
the nation in the indissoluble bonds of peace, than any equal
number of military men or statesmen who were charged
with the responsibility of suppressing the civil war and
reconstructing the union of States. The building of this
road has done everything for California; it has brought
us into the Republic, and made of a distant, isolated
colonial possession an integral and attractive part of the
great national family; it has added millions in value to our
landed possessions; it discovered and developed Nevada.
The same company has been the main-spring of almost every
legitimate and honorable enterprise in our State. It has given
our people cheap and comfortable ferries, lines of street-cars
carrying passengers to and from their homes to their places of
business—fifteen miles by steam and cable for three dollars
per month; it has developed the great interior valleys of the
State, disclosing and opening up to the world Piedmonts,
Lombardys, Switzer valleys, and fruitful mountain slopes for
the homes of more millions of people than composed the
population of the United States of America at the time the
project of building a road across the Sierras was first determined.
The Central Pacific Company, or the same six persons, under
the association of other corporate names, has builded the longest
railroad in the world. This company, by its splendid enterprise
and untiring effort, has not only united the valley of
the Mississippi with the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin,
but connected us with Oregon, Washington Territory,
and the British possessions of the north, with Mexico in the
southern peninsula, with Guaymas on the Pacific Coast, with
Central Mexico and its capital city by connections which its
southern road has made possible. Lower California, Arizona,
and New Mexico have been brought into commercial and
social relations with the Pacific Coast. These gentlemen, with
their enterprise, their energy, their courage, and their success,
made possible every other railroad on this coast that has followed
where they had the boldness to blaze the way. Now
they are cornered in a committee-room, at Washington, to answer
the vilest charges that blackmailers, demagogues, railroad
wreckers, business rivals, unprincipled politicians, and unscupulous
and sensational newspapers can urge against them.
Of the six who conceived the herculean labor of crossing the
Sierras by steam and rail, three have joined the innumerable
caravan—their labors ended. Stanford, Charles Crocker, and
Huntington are left to combat this fierce attack in the halls of
the national capital, where they are compelled to justify themselves
from assaults involving their characters, their motives,
and the integrity of their conduct. We are glad that they have
the courage to stand up before the nation's Congress and repel
the charges preferred against them; we are proud of our Californians,
that they have not dodged this conflict, nor sought to
avoid it. Governor Stanford—now a Senator of the United
States—has made, not a speech eloquent in words, but a
statement unanswerable for its eloquence of facts, in
explanation of the entire business connected with the
construction of the Central Pacific Railroad and its connection
with the Congress of the United States. He had
demonstrated the character of the contest entered into between
his company and the government, and explained to

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the honorable committee of the Senate, charged with the
investigation, the equities that exist between the company and the
government. From this committee, and from any unfriendly
action that may be had, the surviving members of the Central
Pacific Company will appeal to the people of the United
States for a vindication of all their business relations with
Congress, in the construction of the first interoceanic road.
The surviving members of this company have outlived—or
better—lived down all the bitter prejudices that have been stirred
against them; they have corrected their mistakes; the company
has developed its policy; it is still pursuing its work of
advancing the material interest of the Pacific Coast and its
legitimate connections, a policy that is making our State more
attractive than any other in the nation, and is destined to make
this harbor the emporium of a magnificent and extended
commerce, and this metropolis one of the greatest and
wealthiest cities of the American continent. The issue presented
in this controversy is stated by Mr. Creed Haymond to
the committee, and in presence of Governor Stanford, and by
his consent, and the approval of all the members of the company,
as follows. It is a frank, open, and manly acceptance
of the challenge flung the company by all its calumniating and
vituperative business rivals and political enemies. Standing in
the open forum of the nation, in the presence of its sixty-three
millions of intelligent jurors, this company says of itself: "The
directors of the Central Pacific Railroad Company have
faithfully performed, at the time and place mentioned in the
law, every obligation they ever undertook to perform toward
the United States. On the other hand, the Government of
the United States has not performed one single obligation
which it undertook, but has from the year 1864, down to the
present time, with a reckless disregard of the rights of this
company, which would have disgraced a private contractor,
failed and refused to perform in the manner in which it
covenanted to do, any of its obligations. The directors of
the company have never done one single act which they
would not repeat under the same circumstances. They
can account, and are now ready and willing to account, and
challenge the United States to meet them before any judicial
tribunal now organized, or which may hereafter be organized,
for all of their actions, not only under the laws which govern
the relations between trustee and trustor, but they are willing
to waive every statute of limitation, and take that account
under the stricter law which governs the relations between
guardian and ward. They are willing to meet the Government
of the United States, and to answer not only that they
have adminstered the estate fairly and to the interests of the
ward, but they have gone further, and have protected their
property to the extent of their power against the improvidence
of the government." We give the speech of Governor
Stanford to the special committee of the Senate, as presenting
in a plain manner the issues on trial between the company and
Congress—issues which every intelligent business-man in the
country ought to understand. We have not the space to print
the very exhaustive and eloquent argument of Mr. Creed Haymond,
the solicitor of the company. The entire history of this
examination will appear, doubtless, in pamphlet form. Governor
Stanford spoke, in his address to the members of the committee, as follows:

In the year 1860, a few gentlemen living in California met together, and, as a
result of this meeting, concluded to have a preliminary survey made over the
Sierra Nevada Mountains to see if it was possible to build a railroad across them.
Civil engineers had declared that it was practicable to build a road over these
mountains. The result of that exploration was that we determined that a road
could be built, and we formally organized a company in 1861.

Having that purpose in view, knowing there was no way to reach the great interior
country except by wagon teams, we came to the conclusion—and so said in
talking it over—that if a vessel could start from San Francisco, sail around Cape
Horn, and reach that great basin, we would not be justified in building a road
over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Or, if a vessel could start from any port on
the Atlantic side and sail around Cape Horn, we could not afford to build a road;
but we knew that could not be done, and the only competitors of the railroad
would be the mule and ox-teams then used. Therefore, we should be able to ask
a price for transportation which would justify the construction of the road, if it
could be built at all.

At that time the exploration had shown that, in all probability, Nevada, Idaho,
Montana, and Utah were rich mineral countries, and we thought that it in itself
would give us a good deal of business for the road. As the result turned out, it
justified those expectations, and the road over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, without
any competing line of railroad, would to-day be a grand piece of property.
We commenced to build the road under the laws of the State of California, and
prior to the passage of the Act of 1864 we had constructed thirty-one miles of
railroad, and had material enough on hand to complete fifty miles of road, but
we had great trouble and litigation, and were not then able to go beyond that
thirty-one miles within our means.

In 1864, the act of Congress was passed—the act under which the road was
constructed. That immediately gave credit to the company, and we were able to
dispose of our own first-mortgage bonds before the time when we could receive
the government bonds. The government loaned to the company its credit. It
did not give it money; it gave it credit, and that credit is ours to-day. The entire
amount given by the government, or loaned by the government was twenty-seven
million eight hundred and sixty-five thousand six hundred and eighty dollars.
That was the loan, and that is all the company received from the government, except
the lands, the most of which it has been unable to dispose of up to the present
time. The company were authorized to issue their own first-mortagage bonds for
an amount equal to the government bonds. These bonds of the government were
sold for gold. They were currency bonds, to be redeemable, and were sold at
about seventy-two cents on the dollar, or, in gross, we received for that twenty-
seven million eight hundred and sixty-five thousand six hundred and eighty dollars
the sum of twenty million four hundred and forty-eight thousand four hundred
and sixty-six dollars and seventy-five cents. All this money, and all the
money that the company received from its first-mortgage bonds, went into the
construction of the road between Sacramento and Ogden. We sold the bonds for
twenty million four hundred and forty-eight thousand four hundred and sixty-six
dollars and seventy cents.

We were authorized by law to issue our first-mortgage bonds equal to the amount
which the government loaned, on which we realized just about the same amount
of money that we did from the government bonds.

Senator Davis—And that money all went to the construction of the railroad?
Mr. Stanford—Yes.
Chairman—The whole forty million dollars?
Mr. Stanford—Yes, every cent of it, and more besides. Of course, you have
heard the wild stories, which have been circulated, that we made one hundred
million dollars or more, and that it was made at the expense of the government.
I never have been able myself to understand how you could make much more out
of a thing than there is in it. The road was built, and the government only parted
with twenty-seven million dollars and some odd of its bonds, and we realized much
less by the construction of that road. In connection with the Union Pacific Rail-

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