IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. MAY 4, 1874.-Ordered to be printed. Mr. KELLY submitted the following REPORT: [To accompany bill S. 331.] The United States are now paying $224,000 per annum for carrying a daily United States mail, in four-horse coaches, each way, between Kelton, in Salt Lake Valley, and The Dalles, in Oregon, a distance of about six hundred miles; and $18,000 for carrying it by steamboat (and over a short portage by railroad) six times a week, each way, between The Dalles and Portland, a distance of about one hundred miles thus making the sum of $242,000 which the Government is annually paying simply for the transportation of the mails between Kelton and Portland. The schedule time for performing this duty between those points is seven days in summer, and nine in the winter. If, therefore, by changing an appropriation of money for the performance of an inferior and inefficient service to a vastly superior one, without greatly increasing the cost to the Government, the closest stickler for retrenchment and reform could but regard the measure as a wise one. That is the object sought to be accomplished by the bill reported by the committee, and if, by its passage, it can be shown that even in the period of twenty years the Government will save from one to four million dollars, it may with reason be expected that the most rigid economist will yield it his hearty support. And when, in addition to this economical expenditure of the public money, and wise arrangement of the public service, it is made to appear that a series of benefits will be conferred, not only upon the people of that vast extent of country through which the road passes, but upon the whole Union, there ought to be no hesitation in adopting the measure proposed. These are the general features of the bill. Whenever the Portland, Dalles and Salt Lake Railroad Company shall complete a section of its road, of twenty-five miles in length, the United States will guarantee and pay interest at the rate of 5 per centum per annum, for ten years, on $8,000 of the construction bouds of the company, for every mile of completed road, not, however, exceeding in the whole seven hundred miles, between Ogden or Kelton and Portland, whatever the actual distance between those points may be. In consideration of their payment of interest, the railroad company obligates itself, its successors and assigns, to carry the United States mails, Army and Indian supplies, troops, and munitions of war of every kind, and transmit all telegraph messages for the Government free of charge forever. Whenever the entire line of railway shall be completed, then the interest required to be paid by the United States will be the sum of $280,000 annually for ten years. On the other side, the Government will save the cost of carrying the mails, which, as before stated, amounts to $242,000 per annum; Army supplies, which, during the year 1873, amounted to $26,629.49, and which doubtless will be greatly increased upon the completion of the road; telegraphic and signal services from Salt Lake to Portland, which amounted during the year 1873 to $1,085. Beside all this, the Goverument could well dispense with mail-service on the route from Winnemucca to Boise City, now necessary for the transportation of the mails between San Francisco and Boise Valley, and which at the present time costs the Government $72,000 per annum. Arranged in tabular form, the account stands thus: Thus for services performed during the past year the Government has actually paid $61,714.49 more than it would be required to pay for interest as proposed in the bill which the committee has reported, a sav ing, in ten years, of $617,144.90 over and above the whole amount of money which the United States would pay to the company for constructing the road. On the basis of compensation allowed by act of Congress for carrying the mails on railroads, at the rate of $200 per mile, the company, after the completion of its road, would be entitled to $140,000 per annum for transporting the mails from Salt Lake Valley to Portland. Add to this, for the annual transportation of military supplies, &c., the same as paid last year, and the account would stand thus for a period of twenty years: Carrying mails on 700 miles of railroad. Transportation of military supplies.. Telegraphic and signal service. Winnemucca mail-service omitted. Annual amount for services.. Amount for twenty years... Deduct interest paid by United States.. Saving to Government in twenty years.... $140,000 00 26, 629 49 1,085 00 72,000 00 239,714 49 4,794, 289 80 2, 800, 000 00 1.994, 289 80 The foregoing statements, it will be observed, do not take into account the cost of transporting Indian supplies and annuity goods, for the reason that no reliable data have been obtained on which to base an estimate. And yet it must be manifest to every one at all acquainted with the nature of this service that the amount would be no inconsiderable item in a country dotted over as that is with Indian reservations. Every precaution has been taken by the committee to guard the rights and interest of the United States, and secure the performance of the services to be rendered by the railroad company for the Government. The bill provides that the Secretary of the Treasury shall not guarantee the payment of interest on the bonds of the company until the road shall be completed in sections of twenty-five miles; nor even then until it shall be made to appear to him that there are no liens of any kind having priority to that of the United States to have those services performed. The road is declared to be a military and post road for governmental purposes; and the right to have the mails, military and Indian supplies, and troops transported over it made to inhere in and become a part of the corporate existence of the company and be a lien upon the road and its equipments of every kind, whether the same be in the possession and control of the Portland, Dalles and Salt Lake Railroad Company, or of its successors or assigns. In addition to all this, a section in the bill makes it a penal offense for any officer, agent, or employé of the railroad company, its successors or assigns, to willfully refuse to transport the mails or supplies specified in the bill after the United States are entitled to have the services performed. In short, every precaution has been taken to protect the Government against loss, and to secure its rights in perpetuity. What has heretofore been said relates to the interest which the United States have in the construction of the road in their governmental capa city. That, however, is but an insignificant matter compared with the benefits which would result to the people at large from its completion, and especially to the people .of that widely-extended region through which the road will go-the valleys drained by the Columbia River and its tributaries, the great northwestern portion of the republic. The State of Oregon and the Territories of Washington and Idaho embrace an area of 260,000 square miles, and are greater in territorial extent than all the New England States, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, and Indiana combined. And yet this vast region is wholly disconnected by railroad communication with the other States and Territories of the Union, and almost inaccessible to the emigrant who may desire to make it his home; indeed, it can only be reached by the long circuitous sea-voyage from San Francisco to Portland, eight hundred miles out of the way; or by the tiresome stagecoach ride of three hundred miles from the present terminus of the California and Oregon Railroad, and over a lofty mountain-range; or by the still more wearisome way, by wagons or stage-coach from the valley of Salt Lake. This explains the reason why the State of Oregon and the Territories of Washington and Idaho, with such boundless resources of natural wealth, and of such ample territorial domain, are yet so sparsely popu lated that all combined had not, at the time of the last census, a sufficient number of inhabitants for a single congressional district under the present apportionment for members of Congress, although settlements were commenced there as early as 1843. There seems to be, at the present time, an earnest spirit of inquiry abroad among the people of the United States, and especially those living in the valley of the Mississippi, how to obtain cheaper modes of transportation to the great centers of trade, and particularly on the outlets to the sea. Railroad charges for the transportation of freight on the leading routes, although not averaging more than $2 per ton for every one hundred miles, are yet considered excessive and exorbitant. Perhaps this is so; but how insignificant the cost appears to be when compared with that which the people living along the line of the proposed railway are compelled to bear. The charges made for carrying freight from different points to Boise City may be taken, for example, to illustrate how great is the difference in the cost to the people living here and those living there. This place is selected because it is the capital of Idaho, and the radiating point for the trade and transporta tion of that Territory, and because it is on the line of the contemplated railroad, and nearly midway between Salt Lake and the navigable waters of the Columbia River. Kelton to Boise City, distance in miles..... 250 $100 850 280 $120 $55 275 $110 844 From Portland to Umatilla, the point of departure on the Columbia River for Boise City, the distance is about two hundred and forty miles, and the cost of transporting freight by steamboat and railway around the portages of the cascades and Dalles to that place is $25 per ton, making the total amount from Portland to Boise City $135 per ton. The prices specified above are all payable in gold coin. When it is known that the transportation of goods and merchandise on the abovementioned routes, excepting on the Columbia River, is made in wagons, drawn sometimes by horses or inules, but more frequently by oxen, trayeling, on an average, about ten miles a day, some conception may be had of the wearisome delays, as well as the burdensome charges which the people of the Pacific Northwest are compelled to endure. Having suffered for years all these vexations and exactions, is it a matter of any special wonder that the legislatures of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho have memorialized Congress to give some relief by aiding in the construction of the road? All political parties there have passed resolutions in favor of the project; and the petitions on file from the people, presented to Congress, and referred to the committee, attest how earnest they have become in this matter, and how hopeful they are that Congress will give them relief. This road once completed, it would from that time become the leading, indeed the only, traveled route from the East to the great Northwest, a country richly endowed with natural resources of wealth of almost every kind, agricultural, commercial, and mineral, but the greater portion of which is now only a magnificent, unpeopled waste. Once completed, it would be to Oregon what the Central Pacific is to California, the great artery of commerce, conveying health and vigor into every channel of trade, and awakening into activity every dormant industry in the land. The enhanced value it would give to the unoccupied public lands would, of itself, more than compensate the United States for any outlay, if such it may be called, which is asked for in the bill reported to the Senate. And there is its great mineral wealth; mines of silver and of gold, almost countless in number and of exhaustless value, in Idaho and Eastern Oregon, now lying neglected and unwrought because it is im possible, except at a ruinous cost, to transport thither the expensive machinery required for their development, and the supplies necessary for the subsistence of the miners. Were the road constructed, this industry would at once revive throughout Idaho, and develop mines already discovered as rich, perhaps, as any in Nevada, and certainly greater in number. It would prolong this report, already extended farther than was contemplated, to advert to all the benefits which would result from the con struction of the road, but reference to one matter ought not to be omit ted. It is the duty which the Government owes to the early pioneers who, thirty years ago, passed over an almost trackless way from the Missouri River to the sea, braving alike the dangers from hostile Indians and the weariness of a six months' journey across the plains. They are the men who occupied the Oregon Territory in behalf of the United States, when occupancy was necessary to maintain our right to it against the claims and aggressions of Great Britain, before the treaty of June 15, 1846. They and those who followed in their footsteps are the men who carried our laws and institutions there, and laid the foundations of great commonwealths on the Pacific coast; and to them surely something is due from the Government, in order to facilitate their intercourse with other portions of the Union. S. Rep. 317-2 |