It is urged that the plan proposed creates a large class of state pensioners to whom the revenues of the treasury are pledged. They are State pensioners in the same sense as any individual who leases property to the State for a fixed rent, is a State pensioner. Every railroad charter contains a provision for the acquisition of the corporate property by the State, by payment of its presumed value. As well say that all these charters are pension bills. The minority bill simply provides that stockholders yielding their property to the State, shall have a remuneration for the property surrendered. It makes little difference to the individual whether his compensation comes in the form of the payment of a fixed sum or of an annual annuity. It does make some difference to the State, whether it increases a debt to payoff these stockholders at once, or pays such interest as the property acquired may be fairly presumed to earn. The guarantee does not exceed the dividends which the property may be expected to earn, and the advantage which a lease gives over a purchase by avoiding the transfer and changing of capital should not be overlooked. In a word, these stockholders are pensioners only in the sense that they become entitled to secure annuities from the State for which they pay beforehand a full equivalent into the treasury. THE BENEFITS OF THE PROPOSED PLAN. It makes absolutely certain the perpetual control of the Tunnel for the benefit of the people of the whole State. It secures to the people by whose money it has been built, the ultimate value of the enterprise, whatever that value may prove to be. It secures to the people an independent Western line, to be managed for the benefit of the people, free from any danger of combinations by which rates are fixed. It secures to all corporations desiring to use the Tunnel, equal rights. It secures a line stronger than any other, amply able to provide equipment and facilities, and to compete with powerful corporations in neighboring States. It fixes the capital of the corporation without danger of inflation, and without risk of speculative control. It enables the people to try fairly the experiment of cheap transportation. It provides equally with the plan of the majority for the interchange of depots, by which the crossings at the north side of the city may be avoided. If only one-half of these advantages can be gained the experiment is worth trying. If it succeeds and our expectations are fully realized, it will confer upon the people the greatest boon since the introduction of railroads.