216 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT. 



call attention to is the bearing of this case upon the 

 transportation question. If the Northern Pacific Rail- 

 road were in running order to-day from Duluth to Puget 

 Sound, the directors would undoubtedly claim the right 

 to put their tolls high enough to yield eight or ten per 

 cent, on the cost of the work. But the cost of the 

 work would have been paid wholly, or almost wholly, 

 out of the national estate. Congress has made a grant 

 rich enough to cover the entire expense, and leave the 

 stockholders handsomely provided for likewise. For 

 more than twenty years the Government has given 

 away land in reckless prodigality to aid in the construc- 

 tion of railways. 



'' In 1871, the total amount of the public domain 

 thus appropriated reached the stupendous total of 

 217,847,375 acres. It is true that a large part of 

 this grant will prove inoperative, as the quantity of 

 vacant land within the designated limits will fall 

 short of the appropriation; but probably over 100,- 

 000,000 acres has been or will be deeded to the favored 

 companies. These concessions represent, at the very 

 lowest computation, a money value of $300,000,000, 

 and an area considerably greater than the whole of the 

 British Isles, and greater than New York, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, and Illinois combined. But when it is 

 proposed that the roads for which the nation has done 

 so much should be required to do something for the 

 people, we are met with the objection, ' Oh, you must 

 not interfere with the vested rights of railroad stock- 

 holders/ 



" Whatever may be said of the railroad question 

 generally, it must be evident that the land-grant roads 

 hold a peculiar relation toward the people, and may 



