LIBRARY SUREAU OF «AILVí'AY ECOA'OV jj Q PACIFIC RAILROAD. SPEECPI OF THE HOJST. C. AV. TOZEIl, n ^ SPEAKER OF THE KEVADA ASSEMBLY, FEBRUARY 6, 1S65. TftE history of tiie somewhat leiigtliy discussion of the subject now before tliis House will bear me out iii tlie assertion that I iiave hitherto refrained from iutriiding upon your time or attention an}' opinions of my own. And I should not now, at tlii.s late stage ef tlie proceed¬ ings, when the résolutions arc before us for their third reading and our final action, arise from my place and crave your brief indulgence, did I îiot feel that the ques¬ tion is or.e fraught with the gravest consequences, for weal or for woe, as we may this day determine, to the people of the State of Hevada. I feel, sir, that I should be recreant to myself, in the character of a representa¬ tive here, to longer keep silence and permit, without en¬ tering my protest, the adoption oí a measure so disas¬ trous to our chief interests, so iniqiiitous in its concep¬ tion, so pernicious in its results. Other advocates of the Central Pacihe Hailroad Company, more able and more eloquent than I, have addressed themselves to tliis ques¬ tion. Their arguments are before you, and, if not un¬ answerable, are nminsw-ered. I shall not trespass upoji your time by a repetition of the reasons, so well given by Mr. Haskell, Mr. Bishop, and others, for the faith JUH IS 13Í5 /SiSi 2 that is in us, but propose only to touch upon those lew points in our case uot already exhausted by those u'cu- tlemen who have pi-eeeded me.. The resolution proposes to ask, through our representatives in tlie Congress of the United States, for a donation of §10,000,000 to that rail¬ road company that shall ürst build a road to the eastern base of the Sierra Uevada Mountains. I do not hesitate to reiterate here and publicly the firm, deliberate con¬ viction of my judgment, often heretofore expressed in private conversation, that the adoption of this resolution is not calculated to expedite the building of any railroad to our borders ; but, on the other hand, is well calcu¬ lated, and intended too, to retard the building of all. I trust I shall not be understood as implicating in such de¬ sign either the introducer or the advocates of this mea¬ sure. I shall charitably accord to those gentlemen mo¬ tives of the loftiest patriotism and most sincere devotion to the interests of their State, while 1 deeply deplore the error into which they have fallen, or have been led. 'Tis not inappropriate to say, "Forgive them. Lord, they know not what they do." ACTIOÍÍ OF CONGRESS. The Congress of the United States, after long deliber¬ ation and the most careful estimates from Government surveys, has selected the Central Pacific Eailroad Com¬ pany as the recipients of the very liberal national bounty so wisely determined to be given in aid of the greatest railroad enterprise in the world. It ill becomes us to call in question, at this late day, the motives that have con¬ trolled the Government in the exercise of her liberality toward us, or the wisdom of the measures she has adopt¬ ed for our especial welfare. It may be admitted now, and I do admit, that had Congress made the Federal aid receivable by the company first completing their road to any given point, thus creating competition, the more speedily would the given point have been reached. • But the Federal aid is given absolutely, without any such 3 conditions of competition, to the Central Pacific Railroad Company, regnlatecl only by the law of Congress ; and so long as that) company shall compl^'^ with the terms upon which the aid was so given them, no power on earth can deprive them of it. Under such circumstances, what reason can he given that the Federal Government will, at our suggestion, change the settled policy of years, and (having already given so largely) offer another SlOr 000,000 for Latrobe competition. The movers of this resolution—and I assume the origi¬ nal mover is not a member of this House—knew full well that there is not the remotest probability that its adoption by this Legislature would result in any addi¬ tional appropriation by Congress ; and we must look elsewhere for the motives which prompt it and for the interest ail'ected thereby. It can be readily seen that the passage of such resolution by this Legislature, the repre¬ sentatives of a people more deeply interested in the speedy completion of the railroad than any other, would operate most directly and most powerfully to depreciate the bonds of the Central Pacific Railroad Company—to render less marketable these bonds, the lands, timber, and all available assets of the company, upon the pro¬ ceeds of the sale of which the company must depend for the money wherewith to purchase material and pay for their labor. A delay of even one year will result so vastly to the profit of the parties now having and hold¬ ing a monopoly of the immense trade and travel with California, that we need look no farther for the motives which have so long impelled them to acts of open, un¬ mistakable hostility towards the other and rival route. bishop's repout. Having alluded to the cause of this railroad warfare, I wish now to call your attention particularly to one of the weapons with which the battle, here at least, has been waged. Some days after the introduction of these reso¬ lutions, copies of a report, prepared by F. A. Bishop, 4 and directed to tlie President and Directors of tlie San Francisco and Washoe Pailroad Company, were laid upon our desks. More recently I have observed tliat these copies have mysteriously disappeared—have l)een principally withdrawn from circulation. I cannot com¬ mend the taking from me the copy to which I had ac¬ quired a title, but yet it was a wise discretion that dic¬ tated their removal. Had Major Bee been at home, this document, so open to criticism, would never have found its way here. It will be remembered tiiat tins .last named company was only organized by the " large and wholly responsible body of respectable capitalists"—ten Placerville millionaires, whose aggregate wealth would not buy a steam whistle—on the 6th day of January, 1865. And yet in a few days appears this elaborate re¬ port, prepared evidently for this market, and intended to act its part in this discussion. It is plain that this survey was not made by the com¬ pany to whom the report was directed, for it was com¬ pleted months before that company was created. The report does not inlorm us who caused this survey to be made, but it affords internal evidence that it wag done by the owners of the several toll roads and stage lines on the Placerville route, who have so bitterly opposed the Central Pacific (and I might with justice say any Pacific) Kailroad, and that it was drawn by a skillful and design¬ ing writer to be used against it. To accomplish this pur¬ pose it was necessary to make it appear that a road could be built at less cost by the way of Placerville. The au¬ thor of that report, who has clearly a mathem'atical turn of mind, having the figures of the Central Pacific Com¬ pany before him, was not at great loss to make the figures of the would-be rival company, by whom he was em¬ ployed, somewhat lower than the other. As a result of this style of railroad engineering we have the statement that ninety-two miles of railroad over a lofty mountain range, with 3'4,14I: feet (equal to about six and one-half miles) of trestle work, some of which is one hundred and 5 seventy-eight feet high, with twenty-three tunnels of an aggregate of 9,752 feet (nearly two miles), can be built for §5,824,318 92. Ton will observe this most exact and accomplislied engineer mentions the amonnt to a cent that tiie road will (iost. This estimate is only §63,287 per mile. A comparison of these figures Avith the actual cost of nearly all tlie railroads built in the Eastern States, where all the material and the labor is procurable at less than one-half the price they command here, will show that but very few lailroads have ever been built at a cost so low as the estimates of " Our Bishop." This state¬ ment alone should be quite sufRcient to condemn the re¬ port and its author to a well earned oblivion, and to con¬ vince this Assembly that the publication Avas only intend¬ ed to deceive and mislead. HIS ESTIMATES. Again, please observe with Aidiat complacency our au¬ thor says : " A comparison of these estimates with those made by the of5- cer.s of tiio [Tnited States, and the Central Pacific Railroad Corn- ])any, upon the cost of a railroad across the mountains, must sat- isly the most incredulous of the superiority of this route." Wonderful achievement of engineering skill, but still more wonderful exhibition of audacity and egotism on the part of the engineer. If this paragraph, quoted lite¬ rally from the report, proves anything, it proves this pro-- ])ositiou, viz : You. have only to make known to this jjaragon of an engineer Avdiat you want, and Avith his ver¬ satile genius and elastic conscience he will fi|pire it out to suit you. Let me call your attention, sir, to another signilicant expose into Avhich this report has led the com¬ pany, for Avliose purposes it is fabricated. This resolu¬ tion asks for a donation of §10,000,000 in United States bonds. Uo less amount, it seems, Avill suit them, and yet theA- prove (by this publication) that the whole line from Flacerville to the divide betAveen Carson Valley and AYashoe A'alley can be built, stocked and put in perfect running order for the sum of $8,726,568 92, or §1,273,- 6 481 18 less than they modestly ask Congress to give them. Does not the amount asked for, when considered in connection with their estimates, show conclusively that they ask with no expectation of receiving, and again lead US to the irresistible conclusion that their sole oliject is to hinder and delay tlie work on that route and of that company wliich has now guaranteed to it, by the most solemn legal enactments of the highest law-making pow¬ er in the land, the governmental aid, confessedly liberal, and ample for the early completion of the road, unless, forsooth, such unfriendly legislation as is now proposed shall to some extent render it nugatoiy ? BACLOON COXNKO-TTO.V. Another curious tact is shown by this report of this pretended survey. I quote from the report : " The initial points of the survey of the located line are on the summit of the Divide between 'Placer creek' and the South fork of the American river." Placerville is about 1,850 feet above tide water, and this initial point, we are told, is 2,490 feet above tide wa¬ ter, or just 640 feet vertically above Placerville, the ter¬ minus of the survey of the l.atrobe road. Whether this slight elevation is to be overcome by an inclined plane or by the use of a balloon, we are unin¬ formed, but should presume the latter, after a careful study of the map now on exhibition by my friend from Storey, Mr. Patten. There i^one admission in the report, however, which is only accounted for by the great haste in which it was prepared, and will doubtless be corrected in the second edition. It is admitted that Johnson's Pass is several hundred feet higher than the Pacific Railroad Pass. It will be observed by I'efcrence to' the document itself, that where the trestle-work is spoken of the " average " hight is only given. . Why not state, as is usual, the hight of the highest bent? How do we know that some of these loose, " average " statements do not cover an im- 7 practicable elevation? The bight of one is stated at 178 feet ; and as all others are omitted in the report, it is a fair pi-esumption they are still higher. Certainly, the highest would not be selected from all as an example- SXOW PLATEAUS. By far the most interesting and valuable part of this "Chief Engineer's" report, is the dissertation on the subject, of "snow." We are gravely told that the snow on the " Donner Pass " is deeper because it has an " ele¬ vated plateau " to catch it. So we are told that while the snow in Lake Y alley, a still more " elevated plateau," only falls to the depth of live or six feet, in the Donner Lake Valley, which has less elevation, it falls to the depth of twenty-five or thirty feet. Let ,ns hope that this report will not gain circulation in Donner Lake Valley, else the inhabitants there, who have heretofore suffered no inconvenience from the snow, may accept the vaga¬ ries of Bi.shop for facts controverting their own long ex¬ perience, and abandon their pleasant homes in the valley where thus far they have only found say four feet of snow in one of the severest Winters ever known. Tliis state¬ ment in the report completely explodes the " elevated plateau" theory, for, bereft of all circumlocution, the plain statement is made—the higher valley of Lake Ta- hoe has less snow than the lower valley of Donner Lake. The enemies of the Pacitic Pailroad, and their engineer. Bishop, have long made this snow question one of, their strong points. This was the case when they supposed that Johnson's Pass was the lower, and they adhere to their pet affection when, by their own showing, the Don¬ ner Lake Pass is found to be the lowest. Every day ex¬ perience teaches us that in two places differing so little in tlieir latitude, that which has the greater elevation will have the deeper fall of snow. But, sir, all this talk about the snow being an obstruc¬ tion to railroad communication across the Sierras amounts to nothing. We all know that railroads are successfully 8 operated in the mountains of New England and of Can¬ ada, where tlie Winters are longer, colder, and the fall of snow much greater than any railroad across the Sier* ras will have to contend with. I have no fear that any railroad tliat may ever he huilt over these mountains cannot he successfully worked on account of the snow. At the comrnenc.ement of Winter, the San Francisco Âlia^ a paper which I characterize as the organ of the enemies of the Paeitic Eailrond, made a prediction that the iirst snow storm would close up the Dutch Flat route, hut, equally to their astouishinent and chagrin, they find that after the heaviest snow storm of the season passen¬ gers by that route arrive in San Francisco twenty-four hours sooner tlian by the Plácerville. , " rigid" surveys. We are often informed, or rather misinforniecl, throus'h the same interested source, that "no otiier line over the mountains has ever been subjected to such rigid instru¬ mental examination." If Bishop's report is made upon that rigid instrnineiital examination, the friends of tiio Pacific llailroad may well congratulate themaelves and the country that tliey have haen mercifully spared such infliction. But, sir, Judah, the late Chief Engineer of the Pacilic Pailroad, a competent, earnest, honest man, has told us of the careful and accurate manner in wliich he conducted his surveys, and his statements and esti¬ mates bear upon tlieir tace and all through them evi¬ dence of their accuracy and truthfuluess. The ciiaracter of Judah is too well known to be aifeeted by such news¬ paper assaults or by the petty slanderers who assert that no lines were run or stakes driven by him. I have said enough of this newspaper warfare and of this wonderful report. I only wonder that the baud wliich signed the uanie of F. A. Bislnip thereto is not palsied forever. If he ever had any reputation as a surveyor this report sweeps it away, and he, ]>oor man, must turn his atten¬ tion to other pursuits more congenial to his peculiar or- 9 der of talent. He should deal entirely in fiction, not fact—in figures of speech, and not arithmetic. EEASOXS AGAINST EPSTEIN'S EESOLUTIONS. Tlio gentleman from Douglas (Mr. Epstein), who claims the unenviable paternity of these resolutions, asks, witii an apparent sincerity well calculated to de¬ ceive, Wliy not vote for this resolution and ask Congress to give §10,000,000 to that company first completing a road across the mountains? If that gentleman and oth¬ ers are not now informed by the course of my argument wliy I cannot vote for the resolution, and why they should not. permit me to state more briefly my reasons for voting against it : 1st. Because Congress will not, cannot, comply with the request if we make it, and the resolution asks the Congress of tiie United States to repudiate the action already had by them on this subject. i'd. Because I firmly believe there is but one company aiming or intending to cross the mountains with a rail¬ road ; and the passage of these resolutions would create the false imju-ession abroad th.at there are two or more. lid. Because parties well known for years as the ene¬ mies of the Pacific Bailroad are urging their passage. They have their accomplished agents at work here. " How doth the busy, busv bee improve each shining hour!" Ith. Because it is evident that these resolutions, should they pass, can be used to delay the Pacific ilailroad and to injure the company building it. nth. Because I will not have mj' name enrolled among those who will one day be reckoned as the enemies of this great national work. Otli. Because I can plainly see in this measure another, and probably not. the last, of a series of blows aimed by the same hand and nerved by the same interest, which has sought to retard the Central Pacific Company since the commencement of their work. 10 ,WHO OPPOSE THE PAOIFIC KAILEOAD. Mr. Speaker ; Since the organization of the Centi-al Pacific Railroad Company, and the selection of their route, the owners of stage lines, toll roads and other projected but impossible railroad lines across the moun- sains, have notoriously resisted in every possible way the building of their road. They have sent their agents to "Washington, to the legislative halls of California, to our ■Constitutional Convention, before the people of the sev¬ eral counties in California proposing to aid in the work, before the Courts of all those counties, after the people had voted to subscribe to the capital stock of the Central Pacific Company, and being beaten there, before the Supreme Court of the State of California. And, gentle¬ men. we meet them here ui'ging the passage before this Legislature of identically the same proposition argued so long, but happily so unsuccessfully, befo-re the Legis¬ lature and the Courts of our sister State. I earnestly hope the same fate awaits them hei-e. These men, with a pertinacity worthy of a better cause, have sought everywhere for an official or even semi-official recognition, and everywhere have they most signally failed. As a dernier resort they have now se¬ lected the Nevada Legislature. The Cutter Resolutions are introduced, but the able report of our Committee on Pederal Relations, to whom they were referred, punc¬ tured that bubble, and they fell back upon the cunningly- devised sul)stitute of my somewhat credulous friend from Douglas, Mr. Epstein-—who, by the way, 1 am confident really believes his substitute is somewhere near the fair thing. I would not charge him or any gentleman on this floor with the intention of wrong doing ; but I do im¬ plore him, and others who act with him, to pause before it be too late, and hélp to arrest this blow aimed at the prosperity of the State of Nevada, and the advancement of our whole country. 11 WELLS, FAEGO