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Show M. P. RAILROAD OPENEO WEST TO TRAVEL First ,Line Constructed West of Mississippi May ..Own D. & R. , v i That first railroad biaitt west of the Mississippi river may become part owner of tha Denver . Rio Grande railroad. Under the new reorganisation plan of the "Royal. Gorge" road, the Missouri Pacific, whose rails started point-Ins; point-Ins; into the Great Weat as early as July -4. Ml. will be a potent factor In the stabilising; and Improving Im-proving of the now struggling Rio Grande evetem. In tha flrtr IsiuCoT Thr DfttsonTt Paclflo ma ga sine published srnce the war the following story Is given giv-en of the new part-owner of the line that oonnecte Bait Lke with Denver, Kansas City and the East. "Development of the railway transportation system has covered a. period considerably leea than a century. The flrat real Impetus to railroad building west of the Ml-slselppl Ml-slselppl was In 1111 when ft convention con-vention waa held at St. lula to d.scuss the matter. That ws." followed In 1117 by the Mlneourl legislature ' appropriating $7.7.-00 $7.7.-00 to aid In the development of seventeen roads. MANY DIFFICULTIIS MET. "Many difficulties were encountered encoun-tered by the pioneer railroad builders build-ers and many of the early effnrts i along this line neve reached a, i point where trains were ooerated. The charter for the Paclflo rail-! Voad now the Missouri Pacific) waa granted March 12, 1M, and real progress dated from Mil when1 Thomas Allen, the first president! of the road, obtained sn extension of credit from the state legUla-1 turc. The first locomotive wasj platted In operation on the Pacific j raile on December 1, 151. and theft the-ft tut passenger train operated on j December ft. eight daye later, from St. taoula to the end of the line, a. distance of approximately five ml lea. "By that tlma. December. 111, the lea-lelature had authorised atsta aid to the extent of ..-oo ..-oo In bond a of which the Pacific -ftallroad reoerred $4.n.at nd the Iron Mountain ITM.Mt. The first drvlalon wftav eompleted on July Is. UaJ, and it wss found to have cost about- $47,000 mile, or a total of $1,781 $74 almoat 'twice tha amount of tha preliminary s-tlmatea. s-tlmatea. "Westward program of the lines wa sdelayed from tlma to tlma. especially es-pecially during the Civil war. However, the lines had reached Sedaila by 1M1 and after an Interval In-terval of two yeara had begun pushing westward again. They reached Independence, Mo, on I December De-cember 1$. 1841. connecting there with a line that had been built Rest from Kansas City and thus providing tha first cross -state railroad. a - . SERVES WITHOUT SALARY. "Actuated by the public spirit which attended every step In the building of the first railroad from St. Louis Westward, Thomaai Allen, Al-len, the president of the company, served tha first year without salary. sal-ary. The next year ha accepted a aalary of Sl&Afl- After that he 'resigned, 're-signed, arguing that change of presidents would contribute y to maintain popular Interest In tha project. "In an oration on tha completion comple-tion of the cressets te road. Edward Ed-ward Batee exclaimed: But whither whith-er does It tend? When you have co net rue I ad the road to the frontier fron-tier of the Missouri, what power can atop It there? Beyond He the extended plain a of tha Missouri Mis-souri and the Arkansas, New Mexico. Mex-ico. Utah, California, Oregon, the Pacific and the old Eastern world. "Under a decree of foreclosure, the Missouri Pacific Railway company com-pany and the Ht. Louis. Iron Mountain Moun-tain dt Southern Railway company com-pany were on February 1 . 1917, sold by specie! masters duly appointed ap-pointed by the United State district dis-trict court, and orders confirming such sales were duty entered on record on March ft. 1 1 7. "The purchasers of such salee on Juna 1. 1917. duly turned over th recently acquired properties to; the newly reorganised Missouri Pacific Railroad oempanv. which system now controls the lines! theretofore operated by both the' Miesotiri Pacific snd the St. Lou I a Iron Mountsln aV Southern railroad. At the time of the reorganisation. reorganisa-tion. Benjamin T. Bush wae appointed ap-pointed president of the company and remained In that position until April 1. 1933. when he was appointed ap-pointed chairman of the board of directors, and L. W. Baldwin, the then vice preeldent In charge of operation on the Illinois Central, wae appointed preeldent of Ihe Missouri Pacific railroad . eystem to succeed Mr. Bush, tha retiring president. |