northward of West Union to the Cedar river. This preliminary line has been run, and the engineer considers that the expense can be reduced very much below his estimates, which he claims are very liberal. The friends of the McGregor & Sioux City Railroad Company have been challenged to produce a report of their engineer showing a more practicable route but have failed to produce it. The resources of the country, the number of the people now occupying it, and the capability of the country to sustain a population, and business are such as to furnish a remunerative business for a line of road. The supply of fuel is abundant. The supply extending to the Cedar river is so abundant that the demand of the road for its fuel will not operate as a drain upon the agricultural resources of the adjoining and tributary country. The grades do not exceed a practicable limit, and it is the line contemplated for years by the people and presented to Congress for land grant aid, and it is the line which determined Congress to fix the forty-third parallel as a guide for the line, and it conforms to all the conditions of the land grant act, and if these facts are true, and they can not be successfully disputed, the State of Iowa as trustee of the Nation can not divert the land grant from this line. It is further contended that inasmuch as twenty miles of road are now built on another line it is cheaper to use it than to build a new line. This is simply claiming the right to take advantage of ones own wrong. Having adopted the wrong line, one not contemplated in the land grant act, the advocates of the McGregor & Sioux City Company claim not only the right to continue the wrong, but claim lands the same as if they had performed the conditions of the act of Congress. If the grant is to be conferred upon the McGregor & Sioux City Company, it can only be conferred upon them upon conditions that they construct the land grant line, to which condition they, by their authorized agent, once consented, and by such consent admitted the same to be the land grant line. In any court of justice they would be bound by the admission. But it seems that they ask this Legislature to release them from obligation imposed by law upon the citizens of Iowa from the condition of the act Congress and the obligation imposed by good faith and common honesty. By confining the company to the land grant line the people of Fayette, Bremer and Chickasaw counties will secure the advantages of the road, as intended by act of Congress, and the number of people of these counties exceeds the entire population west of the Cedar river within the limits of the land grant along the forty-third parallel to the Missouri river, and the construction of the road so as to make it accessible to this large population, who now have no road, does not prevent or interfere with the construction of the line so that the greatest possible facilities may be furnished to those who live beyond the Cedar river along the land grant line. There is now in process of construction, to be finished in July, 1868, a railroad to Charles City, in Floyd county, and the Milwaukee & St. Paul road is now running to the State line. By next harvest such will be the road facilities that there will not be one thousand people between Calmar and Charles City who can not go to a depot and return the same day; and should the lower or land grant line be constructed south of Turkey river, and the road extended from Charles City to Austin, as contemplated, then there will not be a farmer between the Turkey and the Cedar rivers distant more than half-a-day's drive from a railroad depot. If the line south of the Turkey is not constructed, there are now more than 20,000 people who will remain without like railroad facilities. Having now presented the questions to be determined, in disposing of the land granted by the Act of Congress approved May 12th, 1864, we earnestly urge this house to determine the line, and to confer the land on such a company as will guarantee the fulfillment of the trust reposed in the State,-not merely for the benefit of the people on and west of the Cedar river, but also for those other and more numerous people who also live near the 43d parallel, and who should enjoy equal railway facilities with their fellow citizens of Iowa. We, therefore report Senate File No. 140, and recommend its passage. W. LARRABEE, MINORITY REPORT OF THE Committee on Railroads ON HOUSE FILES NO. 232-238. DES MOINES: F, W. PALMER, STATE PRINTER. 1868. 8 COMMITTEE ON RAILROADS. of the act Congress and the obligation imposed by good faith and common honesty. By confining the company to the land grant line the people of Fayette, Bremer and Chickasaw counties will secure the advantages of the road, as intended by act of Congress, and the number of people of these counties exceeds the entire population west of the Cedar river within the limits of the land grant along the forty - third parallel to the Missouri river, and the construction of the road so as to make it accessible to this large population, who now have no road, does not prevent or interfere with the construction of the line so that the greatest possible facilities may be furnished to those who live beyond the Cedar river along the land grant line. There is now in process of construction, to be finished in July, 1868, a railroad to Charles City, in Floyd county, and the Milwaukee & St. Paul road is now running to the State line. By next harvest such will be the road facilities that there will not be one thousand people between Calmar and Charles City who can not go to a depot and return the same day; and should the lower or land grant line be constructed south of Turkey river, and the road extended from Charles City to Austin, as contemplated, then there will not be a farmer between the Turkey and the Cedar rivers distant more than half-a-day's drive from a railroad depot. If the line south of the Turkey is not constructed, there are DOW more than 20,000 people who will remain without like railroad facilities. Having now presented the questions to be determined, in disposing of the land granted by the Act of Congress approved May 12th, 1864, we earnestly urge this house to determine the line, and to confer the land on such a company as will guarantee the fulfillment of the trust reposed in the State,-not merely for the benefit of the people on and west of the Cedar river, but also for those other and more numerous people who also live near the 43d parallel, and who should enjoy equal railway facilities with their fellow citizens of Iowa. HORACE HAMILTON. |