ief asked for. Owing to the policy of the managers of the
Pacific line to pay as little of the interest on the Government subsidy
debt as is absolutely necessary to prevent foreclosure proceedings, the
unpaid interest has accumulated until it now almost equals the amount of
the original indebtedness. The last report of the Commissioner of
Railroads shows that the total indebtedness, principal and interest, to
the United States of the Pacific railroad companies, was $114,490,000 on
July 1, 1892. The Commissioner seems to be of the opinion that the Union
Pacific Company will not be able to pay the subsidy bonds at maturity,
and he urges that some step be taken in the matter by Congress, whether
it be to extend the loan, which will mature within the next six years,
or to sell the road. The managers of the Pacific roads and their friends
ask an extension of the Government subsidy bonds for fifty years, and a
reduction of interest from 6 to 2 per cent. If Congress continues to be
servile to these interests, the Pacific railroad lobby will secure just
such legislation as they demand.

At the time the Pacific roads were built the people of the United States
had no adequate knowledge of the topography of the Territories, and the
promoters of the road for a while found it a difficult task to convince
capitalists that the investment would be a safe one. That they knew the
value of the projected road was shown by the contest between the Central
Pacific and the Union Pacific for mileage. For a distance of over 200
miles the two companies graded roads side by side in contest for the
Government subsidy.

The promoters were even disappointed in the cost of the roads, as Mr.
Sidney Dillon states in an article published in the August number of
_Scribner's Magazine_, 1892, in which he says:

"At the end of 1867 the road was completed to the top of the
mountains and nearly half way to Salt Lake City. The cost of
building over the mountains was so much less than we had
expected that the construction company found itself with a
surplus from the proceeds of the subsidy bonds. This was
imprudently distributed in dividends."

The United States Government could parallel to-day the line of either
road for less than the amount of its first mortgage bonds, and its
subsidy bonds are therefore nearly worthless.

Mr. Clews, in his "Twenty-Eight Years in Wall Street," says:

"After the Thurman bill had b