214 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



resist any effort to settle the region. There was no 

 local business to furnish the road with ready money ; 

 and the through business, it was clear to thinking men, 

 would amount to nothing; for whatever Duluth or 

 Puget Sound might offer in years to come in the way 

 of inducements to commerce, their advantages at 

 present were too insignificant ' o be taken into serious 

 consideration. Messrs. Jay Cooke & Co. assumed a 

 most serious responsibility in venturing to assure the 

 purchasers of the bonds that the interest on them would 

 be paid. The amount of money necessary for this pur- 

 pose could be derived only from the earnings of the 

 road, and it was clear to men of as profound knowledge 

 and as great financial skill as the Cookes, that it would 

 be impossible for the road, for the first years of its ex- 

 istence at least, to earn this amount. 



It is true that matters might be different ; true that 

 the country along the road might be settled with a 

 rapidity that would surpass all previous western 

 growths ; true that the hostile Sioux might offer no re- 

 sistance ; true that there might spring up along the line 

 a local and a through business that miertit enable the 



o < 



company to earn $20,000,000 a year, the amount needed 

 for their wants ; but all these things were, and still are, 

 uncertain. They might be, but it was very improbable. 

 There was a terrible doubt hanging over the whole 

 matter. The road could pay its interest and other ex- 

 penses only in the event of an unusually brilliant suc- 

 cess, but the presumption was against it. The risk was 

 too great. People, shrank from the loan, and the Cookes, 

 who had made heavy advances to the road, found them- 

 selves encumbered with a mass of bonds which they 

 could not sell, and when the first serious disturbance 



