Show THE PACIFIC ROADS Bill to Adjust Their Debts to the Government Washington April 8Senator Gear of Iowa today made a report of the bill to authorize a commission consisting con-sisting of the secretaries of the treasury treas-ury and the interior and the attorney general to adjust the debts of the Pacific railroads to the government The report reviews in detail the financial finan-cial condition of the roads and their relations to the government and expresses ex-presses approval of the plan to permit I the executive officers of the government I govern-ment with the aproval of the government I govern-ment to make an adjustment with the owners of the property Referring to I the provisions of the bill that equal I facilities shall be afforded to all connecting I necting lines it says I has been frequently asserted that I I the foreclosure proceedings pending in respect to the Union Pacific properties i I were likely to cuhpinate in the acquisition j i acquisi-tion of those properties in the interest j of one out of several lines reaching j I j the eastern terminus of the Union Pa j I cifi at or near Omaha I This committee ha thought that I whatever the results of foreclosure of the first mortgage might be and to some extent this is perhaps beyond the I reach of congress on account of the priority conceded to those bonds in the j original acts in any settlement which I might be made with the companies j under the authority of congress these provisions should be inserted in order to make sure that the roads affected by the settlement were kept open as public highways in the future for the benefit of all present or future railroad road connections Upon the foreclosure of the first mortgages the report holds the government gov-ernment would have no rights except for the transportation of troops mails and supplies guaranteed by the original subsidy acts I no other considerations except the guarantee of equal facilities to all connecting roads were concerned the committee holds that this would justify a settlement by a commission as these privileges could be acquired of the as a result of the foreclosure paramount first mortgages The committee considers that any acquisition of the roads by the government gov-ernment would be disadvantageous and that a foreclosure of the government ment lien can be expected to result only in the loss of a large part of the debts of the government The appointment ap-pointment of a committee would save the government from being forced from reluctantly commencing foreclosure fore-closure proceedings for want of authority author-ity to make a more advantageous settlement set-tlement The bill it is explained deals tement only with the subsidy bonds on the Central Pacific to a point five miles west of Ogden a distance ot tdi1 miles and the Western Pacific from San Jose to Sacramento 123 miles all I Pa claims upon the Union and Kansas cific being now before the courts for I settlement The first mortgage bonds I on the Central Pacific are 258S3000 Western Pacific 970OCO subsidy I bonds Central Pacific 25385120 Western Pacific 1970560 I The companies are said to have fully I complied with the terms of the acts of i 1S62 and 1864 and the Thurman act but while their earnings have enabled I I them to meet operating expenses and interest on the first mortgage bonds thev have been unable to provide for the debt to the government The I roads themselves are held to be inadequate in-adequate for the liens upon them which amount to about 100000 a mile I |