584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ence of actual abuses in the railway system of the country there is 

 little room for dispute," it were not impossible to substitute for the 

 term "railway system of the country" the term "everything human" 

 — let us pass to the counts of the indictment : 



I. Land-Grants. — Of these Mr. Hudson says : " We might even 

 make allowance for the men who, having received a gift of an empire 

 of lands and money for the construction of a transcontinental railway, 

 proceed to bribe legislators and buy up public officials to prevent ad- 

 verse action as to the ratification of past donations. ..." (page 6). 

 " If the Government has secured the settlement of the Western Terri- 

 tories, the pacification of the Indians, and quick transit to the Pacific 

 coast, by giving the men who built the transcontinental railways the 

 money to build the roads, and an empire of land in addition, it is still 

 permissible to ask whether it will not suffice to present the projectors 

 of the next enterprise with the completed railroad, without adding the 

 millions of acres of territory to induce them to take the gift " (page 8). 

 This is hardly in what might be termed "the scientific spirit." But 

 let that pass. The point is, does Mr. Hudson know what a land-grant 

 is ? In the free and buoyant West, where language is as bounding 

 and breezy as its own prairies, a land-grant is often spoken of as a 

 "land-grab." Mr. Hudson is more choice in his phrase, and calls it 

 simply and grandly, a gift — a " gift of empire " — but his idea appears 

 to be much the same. If the Government makes one a gift of land, 

 that ought to be the end of it, by every principle of morality and 

 justice, if not of politics. The Government is just as much bound by 

 its gifts (barring the rule of construction to be noted) as any other 

 giver. But Mr. Hudson says it is not a gift, exactly ; but " a gift . . . 

 for the construction of a transcontinental railway." Those who have 

 tried it have been heard to affirm that "the construction of a trans- 

 continental railway" is a matter of some considerable magnitude, re- 

 quiring time, perseverance, and even labor. The Government, then, 

 makes men a gift to build a transcontinental railway much as Mr. 

 Hudson would make a builder a gift to build Mr. Hudson a house ; 

 and Mr. Hudson will even "make allowance for" men who will bribe 

 legislators to prevent adverse action as to ratification of such a gift as 

 that ! Bribery is an intolerable crime ; of all crimes most subversive 

 of the public weal. But if bribery were ever, or ever by any possi- 

 bility could be, justifiable as a last resort, it seems to me it would be 

 justifiable to prevent adverse action by legislators who were deter- 

 mined to prevent the Government from ratifying a gift of land to men 

 who had relied upon its honor and good faith even to such a trifling 

 extent as to build a mere transcontinental railway ! If the Govern- 

 ment gives Mr. Hudson land, surely it ought not to take it away again, 

 ratified or unratified. But, if it it gives him land in consideration of 

 labor and services rendered and material furnished, and he deliver 

 the material and perform the labor and services, surely he ought not 



