well known that a route could have been found through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, not far distant from the route chosen, which would have saved 800 feet in elevation and at least 25 per cent. in the expense of grading. It is certainly safe to say that if less than forty thousand dollars a mile was sufficient to construct the road through the Sierra Nevadas the Federal contribution of $50,000,000 for the entire line, from Omaha to San Francisco, left, after the completion, a respectable surplus, either to the companies or those of their members who had the construction contract, and that the $75,000,000 of capital stock and the $55,000,000 of first mortgage bonds which the two companies issued were a gigantic dividend to the stockholders, for which, practically, no consideration was given. The companies might well have been satisfied with the Government's generosity, but their success in imposing upon Congress stimulated their greed. The act of 1864 provided that the charge for Government transportation over these roads should be applied to the liquidation of its bonds, and that after the completion of the lines five per cent. of their net earnings should likewise be so applied. When the Secretary of the Treasury, under the law, refused to pay them the amount earned by Government transportation, and in addition to this demanded the five per cent. of their net earnings in liquidation of their debt, the companies applied to Congress to again amend their charters so as to relieve them for the time being from any direct payment of either principal or interest of the Government bonds, and to make it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to pay to the companies in money one-half of the compensation allowed to them by law for services performed for the Government. And again Congress responded to their demands, granting them, by a rider to the army appropriation bill, passed March 3, 1871, all the relief 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