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Show A GREAT THROUGH LINE. Mr. Harriman justifies putting all the net earnings earn-ings of the S. P. and U. P. railroads into betterments. better-ments. That is not the way that Improvements aie made In the Old Country. The stockholders get such earnings in dividends and improvements are paid for by selling more bonds. But we suspect sus-pect that all the facts are not given to the public. When the old Central Pacific was purchased at the rate of about $125,000 per mile, it consisted, principally of a streak of rusty iron and a right of way. A practically new line was neede.d. The old owners, that is the original owners, had made just as few repairs as possible for years, not' knowing know-ing what would come when the bonds matured. And the road when the change came was practically prac-tically a sucked orange. It was no longer a first or even second-class road, and was a perpetual temptation for some Gould or Vanderbilt to parallel it. Aside from that danger, it was Inefficient Inef-ficient to perform the work required of it, or to meet the competition north and south. It had to be rebuilt, and no doubt Mr. Harriman naturally H reasoned, that Until rebuilt it could never pay div- H idends and that f it was the best possible thing H to do, to absorb all the earnings in making it iH first class until it reached a stage that it could H draw to itself fair returns in competition with H any line that might parallel it. By the beginning H of next winter it will be a great road, and if the H tunnel is run above Truckee to i educe that sec- iH tion of the road to reasonable grades and do away iH With the snow sheds, it can hold its own against jH all rival loads. H It has been said that Mr. Harriman recently jH made the declaration that after a little while H more he would run a tiain of cars from New York H to San Francisco in three and a half days. That H would be at about 40 miles per hour without stop- H pages, and would mean a fifty-mile schedule most H of the way. It would be via the New York Cen- flH tral, the Michigan Central, the Chicago and North- H western, the Union and old Central Pacific roads. H If this is supplemented with 20,000 ton ships on H the Pacific, it vill malco a distinct factor in the world's great transportation lines. The ships will il make a showing that will attract the attention of Siberian overland passengers at Port Arthur; it H will be a notice to all nations that the carrying ll trade of the Pacific will be contested for by all the appliances that money and mechanics can sup- H ply. These are the days of big things. |