Mexico under Carranza/Appendix 2
APPENDIX II
UNION AND CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROADS
Line of Road. Omaha, Neb., to Ogden, Utah (Junction C. P. R. R.). 1032 miles.
The Acts of Congress (approved July 1, 1862, and July 2, 1864) incorporating the company provided for a government subsidy equal to $16,000 per mile for that portion of the line between the Missouri River and the base of the Rocky Mountains; $48,000 per mile for a distance of 150 miles through the mountain range; $32,000 per mile for the distance intermediate between the Rocky and the Sierra Nevada range; $48,000 per mile for a distance of 1 50 miles through the Sierra Nevada. The whole distance, as estimated by government, from Omaha to the navigable waters of the Pacific, at Sacramento, California, is 1,800 miles. The company has also a land grant equalling 12,800 acres to the mile. The original act provided that the government subsidy should be a first mortgage on the road; but by a subsequent amendment it was made a second mortgage the company being authorized to issue its own bonds to an amount equal to the government as a first mortgage on the line. The original act provided that the charge for government transportation should be credited to it in liquidation of its bonds; and that in addition, after the road should be completed, 5 per cent. of the net earnings should also be applied to the same purpose. The act was subsequently modified so as to allow the company to retain one half of the charge of transportation on government service, as the cost of the same, and also relieves the company from paying the 5 per cent, of net earnings.
(A claim having been made by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, that the company was bound to pay the interest on the bonds issued by the government to aid in the construction of the road, and that the whole charge for government transportation was to be held to be applied to such interest, Congress, by an amendment to the army appropriation bill which passed March 3, 1871, provided, "that, (sec. 9,) in accordance with the fifth section of the act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, entitled 'An act to amend an act entitled an act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes', approved July first, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to pay over in money to the Pacific Railroad Companies mentioned in said act, and performing services for the United States, one half of the compensation, at the rate provided by law for such services heretofore or hereafter to be rendered; provided, that this section shall not be construed to affect the legal rights of the government or the obligations of the companies, except as herein specifically provided.'")
(Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States, 1872-73, p. 389)
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD
. . . By an amendatory act, passed by Congress April 4, 1864, the Central Pacific was made a body corporate, with authority to own such portion of the road as it might construct east of the eastern boundary of the State of California. The company possesses ample chartered powers, both from the States of California and Nevada and from the federal government.
For that portion of its line between Sacramento and the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a distance of 7.18 miles, the government subsidy is at the rate of $16,000 per mile, in its 6 per cent, bonds. For the succeeding 150 miles through the Sierra Nevada, at the rate of $48,000 per mile; and $32,000 per mile for such other portion of the line constructed west of the Rocky Mountains. The government subsidy is a second mortgage upon the road, the company being especially authorized by an act of Congress to issue its own bonds equal in amount to the government aid, as a first mortgage on the road. In addition to pecuniary aid, Congress granted ten alternate sections of public lands on each side of the line of the road — or 12,800 acres per mile.
(Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States, 1872-73, pp. 529-30)