sions of the public press and from other sources, that the opinion of the country is almost universally concentrated on this plan.

The leading principles and most important provisions of the bill herewith introduced, to be considered in comparison with other plans, as will be seen, are as follows:

First. We notice the constitutional difficulties, as entertained by large and formidable sections and parties of the country, arising from objections to the building of this work by the government directly, or to putting it indirectly on the national treasury; or to loaning the public credit to a company incorporated for this object; or to the setting apart of a specific portion of the national revenue, the latter leaving the work still in the hands of the government-which three are the only plans proposed, except that of Mr. Whitney. These formidable, and, as your committee think. insurmountable difficulties, if left in the way, are superseded by substituting the principle of private enterprise and private responsibility, as pro posed by the bill, and as therein regulated and controlled.

Secondly. The bill proposes that a belt of territory sixty miles widethat is, thirty miles on each side of the road-with its eastern base on Lak Michigan and its western on the Pacific, comprehending about 78,000,00 of acres, shall be sold and appropriated to this object, to be accounted by Mr. Whitney at the national treasury, at ten cents per acre, good, bad and indifferent-amounting to nearly $8,000,000.

When it is considered that tens and scores of millions of acres of the public domain are now being, and about to be, given away, for various jects, and that some of our leading statesmen are proposing to give al the public lands away, with some prospect of success; and when, moreover. is considered that only a little more than one-third of the belt proposed v be set apart for this road is good and saleable land,-it must be seen ther is little chance or probability that the government will ever get as much for this territory as by selling it for this road at ten cents per acre. Conse quently, the road, built on this plan, will itself be a capital of immense ar incalculable value, and so much positive gain to the nation, which. your committee will endeavor to show, could in no other way be realized. Thirdly. The capital to build the road with is to be created by the increased value which the building of the road will impart to the lands thus set apart, and through which the road is to pass; and, when create and thus invested, the bill provides that the use of the road shall be a p itive and perpetual gratuity to trade and commerce, with no other tax ! transport of passengers and merchandise than such tolls as may be neces sary to keep the road and its apparatus in working order-which tolls are to be determined on and regulated by Congress.

Here, as your committee think will be seen, are two great and pecular principles of this plan, which, as the committee believe, are not only fundamenial, but vital to the great object in view:

1. The capital is created a positive creation—not borrowed. If were borrowed, or drawn from other sources, as all other plans conter: plate, it would be necessary to impose tolls for dividends to satisfy t interest; and then the great end in view would be sacrificed. The en proposed is to draw trade and commerce on this line, by means of ches transport between the great east and the great west of the United States between the United States and Asia, and between Europe and Asia. B if tolls should be required to meet the interest on the cost of the road, this

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end could not be accomplished, and the enterprise would be a stupendous failure. But on the plan proposed, with tolls sufficient only for expenses of operation and necessary repairs, it is believed that a passenger may be taken over the whole line of the road, 2,030 miles, for $20; a bushel of corn for 25 cents; a barrel of flour for $1; a ton weight of merchandise for $10; and one ton measurement of teas (a half ton weight) for $5. At these rates, can it be doubted that the corn of the Mississippi valley may be put down in China for 40 cents transit per bushel-worth there, as your committee are informed, from 75 cents to $1 25 for sixty pounds weight-leaving an average of from 30 to 35 cents a bushel to the producer, and, as the committee are also informed, with an unlimited demand? And so of agricultural products, and of every other species of merchandise, going to and fro between the Atlantic and Pacific ports of the United States, between the Mississippi valley and Asia, between our eastern coast and Asia, and between Europe and Asia-in a word, between a population of 250,000,000 in Europe, across our bosom, and 500,000,000 in Asia; as also between ourselves and all Asia.

But double these rates of transport-as would inevitably be the case were the road built on any other plan of means, always requiring tolls sufficient, in addition to the expenses of operation and reparirs, to meet the interest on the cost of the work-and the whole of this immense and vastly extended commerce would be forever prevented from springing into being; and the comparatively small amount now carried on between us and Asia, and between Europe and Asia, would be found to follow its old routes. Your committee are therefore of opinion that this road can never be built and sustained except by capital created by itself, as by the plan proposed, and that it would be doomed to failure, even if it should be attempted, on the credit of the government, as the people would never submit to perpetual taxation for the interest on its cost.

Your committee are of opinion that the cheap transport to be obtained by the plan proposed involves the only principle on which this road can be made a successful enterprise; and it is all the more satisfactory, as it will not cost the government and people of the United States a single dollar.

Fourthly. It remains to inquire whether capital sufficient can be raised on this plan to build this road. It is estimated that it will cost, on this plan, about $60,000,000. Colonel Abert's estimate, if built by the gov ernment, is $127,500,000. Add to this $8,000,000—the amount to be paid to the government for the lands at ten cents per acre; making together about $68,000,000 required to be produced from this tract of 78,000,000 of acres, good, bad, and indifferent; being an average of 874 cents per acre for the whole tract. Can this be done? The chief reliance must be on the first 800 miles, which constitute, with little exception, the good and saleable lands. From what is known of the effect of railroads and canals on the value of lands and other property bordering upon them, the committee think it safe to conclude that such a road will add great value to the land through which it passes; and whether it will be sufficient for the purpose, is the risk of the party undertaking it. It is his interest and his business to make it so; ard, as he has already devoted more than eight years exclusively, and at his own expense, to the investigation of this subject, in this country, in Asia, and in Europe, as also in placing the whole subject before the people, your committee presume that he has well considered the cost and the chances of success. The public certainly

risk nothing, and are sure to be large and immense gainers, if he succeed. Your committee think he will succeed.

Your committee believe that the building of the road will undoubtedly create facilities for settlement on its line for at least the 800 miles of good lands, and cause a demand for them to an available amount of means equal to any possible judicious application of means to the construction of the work; and the reserved half of lands, as hereinafter provided for, daily increasing in value, would certainly be a sure source of capital for an equal or greater distance beyond the good and through the poor lands, a part of which latter would no doubt be made available for settlement by means of the road.

Your committee think it would be very difficult, and enormously ex pensive, if not impossible, to construct such a road through a now entire wilderness, on any plan of means, unless settlement can keep pace with the work; and that this plan, as it connects the sale and settlement of the lands with the work itself, is not only the only sure plan of means, but by it the work will advance as rapidly, or more so, than on any other plan. ¦ Besides, these lands, with this great highway through their centre, could not, in the opinion of the committee, fail to command any amount of money required for the progress of the work, as their daily-increasing value would render them the inost safe and most profitable investment for

money.

Fifthly. The security of the interests and rights of the public is to be considered. The bill provides that the first eight hundred miles of good land shall be divided into sections of five miles each-that is, five miles by sixty; and that, after Mr. Whitney shall have built his first ten miles of road, and after it shall have been accepted by the government commis sioner appointed for the purpose as being in all things a fulfilment of Mt. Whitney's engagements, and not till then, he shall be entitled to sell the first section of five miles by sixty, as well as he can, to reimburse him self for his expenditures on the first ten miles of road already completed and accepted; and so on, in the same manner and on the same condi tions, for every successive ten miles of the first eight hundred, leaving every alternate section of five miles by sixty untouched, with all its creased value created by the road, as public security for carrying on the work to the Pacific. Thus, when the road shall have been completed through this eight hundred miles of good land, the government will hold as security for the extension and final completion of the work the road itself, all its machinery, four hundred miles by sixty of these good lands untouched and raised to a high value by this public work, together with the entire remainder of the belt to the Pacific.

The bill also provides that the titles of the lands sold by Mr. Whitney shall be given to the actual purchasers by the government, and not by him, and that all remainders unsold shall be disposed of at public auction at the end of ten years after the road shall have been completed on each ten mile section-that is, the unsold parts of Mr. Whitney's sections of five miles by sixty; and this, to prevent the reservation of lands for spect lation. From the end of this first eight hundred miles to the Pacific, where the lands are poor and unavailable, the bill provides that Mr. Whitney shall proceed as follows, to wit: that, at the end of every ten miles road completed and accepted as before, he shall be entitled to sell the whole section of ten miles by sixty, to reimburse himself, as far as the

sales will go, for his expenditures on that ten miles of road; and for any deficit, he shall be entitled to go back and sell at public auction to the highest bidder, in lots of forty to one hundred and sixty acres, as much of the reserved untouched lands on the first eight hundred miles as this deficit may require; and so on, and in the same manner, for every suc⚫ ceeding ten miles to the Pacific, selling the lands of each ten-mile secntion after the road shall have been completed and accepted, and going 2 back to sell the reserved lands only when and so far as there may be a deficit, as before; and all this, under the supervision and authority of the government commissioner, whose duty it shall be to see to the fulfilment of the terms of the bill.

If at any stage of this work Mr. Whitney shall fail on his part, the bill provides that all his rights shall be forfeited to the government, and that the road, so far as completed, with all its machinery, shall belong to the government; and Congress may sell or dispose of it as may be deemed meet, for the benefit of the nation; and all the unsold and reserved lands would revert and belong to the nation, the same as if this act had never been made a law. And if Mr. Whitney should die, his successors would be under the same obligations, and liable to the same penalties, on the same conditions. The bill also provides that, when the road is completed to the Pacific, with its machinery in operation, to the satisfaction of Congress, so that the government can in no way be made liable for the expenses of its operation and repairs, then whatever, if any, surplus lands may remain unsold, shall be sold for the account and benefit of Mr. Whitney; and whatever surplus money may remain, after paying all charges against said road, shall be his, as a reward or compensation for this work, and the road and its machinery shall be considered as belonging to the nation. Although the bill provides that the title thereto shall vest in Mr. Whin y, still Congress retains the power to fix and regulate the tolls for both passengers and merchandise, so that no more shall be earned than barely sufficient for the expenses of operation and repairs, and the United States mails are to be transported free. Congress will hold the power to give the management of the road to any other party at any time when Mr. Whitney may fail to operate it as the wants of the people require. Thus it is clear to your committee that Mr. Whitney's only chance of gain from the enterprise is in the hope of making the lands, by building the road through them, produce him a sum exceeding what will have been his actual outlay for the construction of the road, its machinery, and the $8,000,000, or the ten cents per acre, which he is to pay into the treasury of the United States for the entire belt of lands.

Your committee believe that, by the provisions of the bill, it is not possible that the government or public should either risk or lose anything; and so far as the road goes, though it should not be completed, the public will be gainers. In any contingency whatever, should the road be commenced and continued for 100 or 200 or more miles, the government will hold a capital under its control for a new arrangement, if required, to complete the road, without loss, and without taxing the people.

In this manner, and in the execution of this stupendous work, the country will realize, as your committee believe, all the energy and effect of private enterprise, without risk and without expense, and will have in the end a public work costing upwards of $60,000,000, with $8,000,000 in the public treasury, for lands which, without the road, would never

produce to the government $10,000,000, and when the same work done by the government would probably cost near $200,000, 00, which would leave a public debt of at least, as your committee believe, $190,000,000, for the interest on which would be required a perpetual tax on the property and industry of the nation; whereas, by the provisions of this bill, it will not cost the nation a single dollar, and the public treasury will have $8,000,000 in its vaults for these lands.

It has been suggested that Mr. Whitney should be employed as an agent of the government to execute this work; and that, as the lands are sold. the avails should go into the national treasury, and be drawn thence as required for the work, and by this mode to secure to the nation any increase of value which the building of the road would cause to the lands through which it may pass. To adopt this plan, Mr. Whitney's proposed route must be taken, because there are no considerable amount of lands suitable for culture and settlement in the possession of the government on any other route. Your committee see many objections to this plan, which, as the committee believe, will cause its defeat. It would, to all intents and purposes, be a government work, and be subject to constitutional objec tions and party opposition. It would be also subject to constant changes of direction and management, from legislative enactments, which work hardly fail to defeat it. And should the lands not produce means so fast as would be required for the work, then, as your committee believe, the treasury would be called upon for whatever might be demanded. Your committee believe the lands on any route whatever would be inadequate to supply the means for such a work: first, because government cannot speculate in the sale of public lands; next, because the rates of sales under government must be graduated by the slow process of legislation, and not by market value at a particular time and place; and, thirdly, because the rates of sales under government cannot be raised, but are naturally de scending to no price at all. Such is the difference, in the opinion of the committee, between the faculties of the government and those of a private individual, in this particular, that Mr. Whitney, or any competent person. could, without doubt, under the provisions of this bill, raise or produ the sum necessary to build the road and pay for the lands at ten cents per acre; whereas the government could not, in any probability, by any mode in its power, raise one-tenth part of that sum out of the same amount of lands on any route likely to be selected by Congress. Your committee think that private enterprise alone is economically adapted to this work, and that it will be for the public good and for public economy, on the largest scale, to adopt such a plan.

Admitting that a colossal private fortune should be made, as has been urged, out of this work, that supposes success, the very thing desired. for it will be seen by the bill, and your committee have before shown, that no compensation could ever be realized, except as a consequence of the fulfilment of all the conditions of the bill, and with a surplus created by the work itself. But suppose a great fortune should be acquired: who is wronged by it? And are not the nation and the world benefited? Or, Mr Whitney may come out minus: who will indemnify him? He at least runs a risk; and, as your coinmittee believe, the risk is all on his side. The more he makes, the better; for it is a creation of capital, by the appr cation of labor, now unemployed and useless, to a vast wilderness, and will add so much to the wealth of the nation. Even a private fortune