The making of the American nation; a history for elementary schools . ing of the odd-nnmbered sections in astrip of land twenty miles in width, along the entire route of the railway. The road was completed in 1869.^ 1 To borrow the mouey-in European markets was not a difficult matter. InEurope the interest on large sums was rarely more than three per cent; investedin secured railway bonds in the United States it commanded from four to six percent. A few of these railways were good investments from the first; some barelyearned their operating expenses and interest for many years. Some were hope
The making of the American nation; a history for elementary schools . ing of the odd-nnmbered sections in astrip of land twenty miles in width, along the entire route of the railway. The road was completed in 1869.^ 1 To borrow the mouey-in European markets was not a difficult matter. InEurope the interest on large sums was rarely more than three per cent; investedin secured railway bonds in the United States it commanded from four to six percent. A few of these railways were good investments from the first; some barelyearned their operating expenses and interest for many years. Some were hope-lessly insolvent from the first. The most of them did not pay dividends mitilthey had built up and peopled the territory through which they extended. 2 In building the road the companies let out the contract for construction tothemselves, operating under a different charter, known as the Credit scandals connected with the latter company were such that public sentimentset strongly against granting either lands or subsidies to railways thereafter Where thp; Kaiikd \i) ip;netkates theRookies. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 379 Neither railway paid the interest or priHcipal of the moneysadvanced by the government until forced by the Congress to doso. The Union Pacific did not pay its indebtedness until 1897;in 1899, the Central Pacific gave its promissory notes in settle-ment. The entire indebtedness of the two roads to the govern-ment amounted, principal and interest, to about $59,000,000.^ In the course of twenty years other transcontinental railwayswere built, and at the end of the century several others wereunder way. All of them seemed warranted by the amount oftranscontinental business. One road, the Great Northern, hasa history that is imique among transcontinental railways. Itdid not receive from the government a single acre of land or adollar of subsidy, and it paid from the start. J. Hill, the builder of the road, constructed it Northernfor the purp
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