een sustained by the Supreme
Court Mr. Gould had a plan to build a road from Omaha to
Ogden, just outside the right of way of the Union Pacific,
and give that road back to the Government. It would give
others 'a chance to walk.' The Government tried to squeeze
more out of the turnip than was in it. For $15,000,000 a
road could be built where it had cost the Union Pacific
$75,000,000."

It may be admitted that the Pacific roads, even at an extravagant cost,
have proved a good investment for the country, yet their history
reflects severely on the statesmanship of those members of Congress
whose duty it was to properly protect the interests of the nation at
that time. They were unequal to their task.

The Great Northern Railway Company has just completed its road to the
Pacific Coast. Its line is very direct, and it has unusually light
curvature and low grades, which will enable it to be operated more
cheaply than any Pacific line yet constructed. Much of its route is
through a rich and productive country, insuring to it a heavy local
business.

The following statistics concerning it are given in the _Railway Age_:

Total mileage, December 18, 1890 2,850
Average bonded debt per mile $18,636 75
Average stock per mile 7,015 67
Total 25,652 42
Interest charges per mile 1,005 76
Dividend charges per mile 420 94

A comparison of these figures with those corresponding of other
transcontinental lines is instructive, and is commended to Congressmen
who have to deal with the Union Pacific and Central Pacific questions.

Stock and bond inflation, it may confidently be asserted, has created
from five to six thousand millions of dollars of fictitious railroad
capital. In 1890 the average liabilities of the railroads in the United
States, including the capital stock and the funded and unfunded debt,
were $63,600 per mile. According to Mr. Poor's estimate of the average
cost of American railroads per mile, more than 50 per cent. of this vast
sum is pure water. But, as has been stated before, Mr. Poor is partial
to the railroad interest, and his estimate of $30,000 a mile is too high
for the time at which it was made. Furthermore, railroad building has
since then been materially cheapened. Tens of thousands of miles of road
have been built in recent years that did not co