Act substantially the same ends were obtained through rate agreements.

The majority of the commission of 1887 reported that pools were, in their essence, neither good nor bad. "When resorted to for the purpose of attempting a monopoly, and the imposition of burdensome rates, they should be severely condemned. When resorted to for the purpose of preventing ruinous competition, they may serve a good purpose. Pooling agreements, with proper provisions for publicity as to the terms of the contract between the constituent members, and as to the rates to be charged, if subjected to reasonable supervision and control, are beneficial both to railroads and to the communities which deal with them. It seems that too often the object of the above pools was to maintain excessive rates, while they proved ineffectual against the decline in net earnings which came after 1882.

Ibid., p. 125.

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CHAPTER IX

THE SOUTHERN ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC

The South suffered much from the Civil War. Among the economic losses was that which came with the construction of the first transcontinental railway without reference to her interests; and one of the urgent demands of her statesmen during the dark days of reconstruction was a Pacific railway over the "southern route.” There can be little doubt that, but for the war, the first railway would have been on or near the thirtysecond parallel. In 1853 the Gadsden purchase was made largely to acquire that route, and by 1860, so a committee report of 1878 states, "this was the line which public opinion had settled as the one to be constructed.""

No comprehensive history of the occupation of the southern route has been written, and it will be especially interesting to trace the development of the originally favored way, when peace and union brought the energies of the nation to bear upon it.

Perhaps it would be more minutely accurate to speak of the southern routes, for in the southern march to the Pacific there were two distinct lines taken. One of these was planned to extend along the thirty-fifth parallel; the other along the thirtysecond, the latter occupying in part the Gila river route as secured by the Gadsden purchase, the former following the Santa Fe trail and the valley of the Colorado. But both were focused on the passes of southeastern California, uniting in one line before reaching the coast; and as opposed to the "northern route" or the "central route" they formed the "southern route." This is especially clear when the objective point, the Pacific, is considered, together with the barrier of the Rockies.

1 Rep. of Com., 1877-78, no. 619, p. 6.

When, however, one turns to the points of eastern connection, widely separated points like St. Louis and Memphis on the one hand and New Orleans on the other constitute the termini. The route is one; simply it is bifurcated, as is the central route at the west, with its Oregon Short Line.

In the exploitation of this southern route, three different railways came prominently before Congress and it will be necessary to perform the rather difficult task of keeping their courses distinct while at the same time weaving them together-even as they were woven.

THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC

On December 11, 1865, a bill granting lands to aid in the construction of a railway and telegraph line from Missouri and Arkansas to the Pacific coast by the southern route was introduced in the Senate; it was referred to the committee on Pacific railroads favorably reported, and became a law on July 27, 1866, by the signature of President Johnson. The Atlantic and Pacific was the result.

This was the first company chartered and aided by Congress to construct a Pacific railway over the southern route, and by its agency the fourth through route between the East and the Pacific coast was opened.

Beginning at or near Springfield, Mo., the road was to proceed to the Canadian river and to Albuquerque, thence along the thirty-fifth parallel to the Colorado-and to the Pacific. From its intersection with the Canadian river a branch was to be extended eastwardly to the border of Arkansas.

In addition to a two-hundred-foot right of way and the usual right to take materials from adjacent public lands, a land grant of twenty odd-numbered sections per mile on each side of its line was made. This applied only to the territories; within the bounds of a state the donation was but half as large. The railway company was to receive the lands by twenty-five mile sections as such sections were reported satisfactorily completed by an examining commission.

2 Cong. Globe, 1865-66, p. 806.

The road was to be of uniform gauge, equal in all respects to railways of the first class, and its rails of the best quality of American iron.

It is notable that in this charter Congress provided that, if the route taken should coincide with another road which had received government aid, the previous grant would be deducted; and especially this,-"that no money shall be drawn from the treasury of the United States to aid in the construction of the said Atlantic and Pacific Railroad." By 1866 Congress had become more wary than in 1862.

Then, too, the act required that $1,000,000 be subscribed and 10 per cent. be paid in within two years, that construction be begun in two years, that not less than fifty miles a year be built after the second year from beginning, and that the whole should be completed by July 4, 1878, finally, that if any violation of the act was continued through one year, the government might complete the road.

Other provisions made the railway a post route and military road, provided that government rates should be no higher than to individuals for similar transportation, required sworn annual reports to the secretary of the interior, and reserved the right to alter, amend, or repeal.

Two further provisions remain for special attention. One of the chief grounds of discussion over the bill arose from the fact that the line of the road crossed Indian lands. The Cherokees and Chickasaws objected to the section which made it the duty of the United States to extinguish Indian titles as rapidly as might be consistent with public policy and the welfare of the Indians, and, as finally passed, the bill provided that extinguishment should be only by the voluntary cession of the Indians.

The other provision authorized the Southern Pacific Railroad of California to connect with the Atlantic and Pacific at any point near the eastern boundary of California for the purpose of forming a line to San Francisco. The Southern Pacific, if such connection were made, was to make its gauge and rates uniform with those of the Atlantic and Pacific and was to re