490 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



CENTRAL PACIFIC STOCK. 



The Central Pacific road is reported to have cost $120,- 

 432,717. Its length is 881 miles. Its cost, therefore, at 

 that rate, would be $136,700 per mile. Mr. Cloud, the 

 author of &quot; Monopolies and the People,&quot; says that informa 

 tion obtained through reliable channels induces the belief 

 that it cost less than $50,000 per mile, and less than $50,000,- 

 OpO for the whole road. He says : &quot; The company represent 

 a capital stock $54,283,190, and a funded debt $82,208,000. 

 They also report the liabilities of the road at $136,491,190, 

 being more than $80,000,000 above the actual cost, and 

 $16,000,000 more than the reported cost. The stock of this 

 company was watered to so great an extent that, to pay the 

 interest on the funded debt and declare a dividend on the 

 stock, and pay operating expenses and other contingencies, 

 the road must earn at least fifty per cent, per annum.&quot; 



Are the public, therefore, defrauded or not in this road ? 

 If so, how is it by virtue of vested rights that they so cheat 

 the people? 



May roads absorbing vast grants of land, and heavily sub 

 sidized, as in the case of the Union and Central Pacific 

 roads, now make charges that will allow high dividends 

 upon stock fraudulently obtained ? If so, where is the jus 

 tice in sending the petty swindlers of our cities to the Bride 

 wells, or in consigning the common forger to the peniten 

 tiary ? Has this fictitious wealth already become so omnip 

 otent in this once free land that the people are powerless to 

 help themselves ? It would almost seem so. 



Is it not time that not only the farmers, but also every 

 other industrial class in the country, were banded together 

 in one vast brotherhood ; to put a stop to these crimes, these 

 robberies forever; to assert their rights at the ballot-box, 



