Monopolies -- United States; Railroads and state -- United States
Section ten provides for a union or consolidation of the Union Pacific,
the Central Pacific, the Leavenworth, Pawnee, & Western, and the
Hannibal & St. Joseph companies; and section thirteen provides: "That
the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad company, of Missouri, may extend its
road from St. Joseph, via Atchison, to connect and unite with the road
through Kansas, upon filing its assent to the provisions of this act,
upon the same terms and conditions in all respects, for one hundred
miles in length next to the Missouri river, as are provided in this act
for the construction of the railroad and telegraph line first mentioned,
and may for this purpose use any railroad charter which has been or may
be granted by the legislature of Kansas." The section also provides for
connecting this road with the main line. This company promised to be a
rival, but when congress is appealed to, $1,600,000 in subsidy bonds,
and two thousand sections of land are given it as its share of the
spoils, provided it will accept this trifle as an inducement to combine
its interest with this great corporation. This disposes of all rivals
south of Omaha. True the people have paid dearly for it. They, through
their servants in congress, have enriched a lot of unscrupulous men,
banded together for the purpose of plundering the public, and given to
these corporations the power to oppress the people for all time to come;
but as it affords a safe means of transporting the mails, &c., for a
consideration which the people must pay as the services are rendered,
the public should not complain. Congress thought the matter so important
as to require the gift of vast sums of the public moneys, and princely
donations out of the public domain, and as our legislators acted for the
people, and the companies have built their roads, the public must
submit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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