Nothing in this country has contributed so much to the subversion of our republican institutions as Land Grants made by congress to railroad corporations, and congressional legislation in their favor. The policy has opened a wide field for reckless speculation and corrupt legislation. It has reversed the old rule, that "the people are sovereign," and has given to "the favored few" the absolute control of the nation. The reckless giving of lands to railroad corporations, by congress, is without excuse, or even apology. When grants were first made to states, it was pretended that railroads could not be built without this aid. Subsequent developments exploded this idea. Take Iowa as an example: In 1856 four leading railroads crossing the state from east to west, received grants of lands sufficient to pay at least one-half of the entire cost of their construction across the state, yet they were not built until long years after the grants were made, nor were they constructed as rapidly as roads built exclusively by private enterprise and private capital. The effect of the grants was to retard the settlement and development of the wealth and resources of the state, by demanding from those who wished to settle upon the lands so granted, an extortionate, or at least a greatly appreciated price therefor. It does not require a great stretch of the imagination to arrive at the conclusion that but for these grants the population and wealth of Iowa (the taxable wealth) would be quite one-fourth greater now. The grant of lands to certain railroad companies in Iowa reach eight thousand acres per mile; this, at $1.25 per acre, amounts to $10,000. per mile; much more than one-half of the actual entire cost of their construction. Yet, as a matter-of-fact, some, if not all, of them became insolvent, and either before, or soon after their completion, their roads were sold to other parties—the original companies becoming bankrupt. But while the companies became bankrupt, the officers and few stockholders who controlled the corporation retired with immense wealth. These are the men who, at the inception of the land grant system of building railroads, inaugurated the theory which has since been practiced, that all lands thus granted were to be treated as donations to the men who controlled the roads receiving the grants. The result has been demoralizing. It has opened a field to adventurers, stock jobbers, and unscrupulous men, who have gone to the national capital and organized themselves into squads, rings, and companies, for the purpose of robbing the people. Not unfrequently the men elected by the people to look after their interests in congress, have themselves become leaders and partners in these raids upon the public treasurer; and so powerful are these organizations that all the departments of government have yielded to them, and the rule, with but few exceptions, is, to plunder the treasury upon all occasions, and for every conceivable object. But as these matters will be treated in detail in the following pages, we dismiss them for the present.

The rule has been, with few exceptions, in granting lands, to provide that the railroad company shall select alternate sections; that the residue shall be for sale at $2.50 per acre; that it shall not be subject to settlement under the pre-emption or homestead law. By these provisions, those persons who enter the remaining alternate sections, pay back to government the value of the lands donated to the railroad company. This plan of aiding monopolies is at variance with every principal of right and justice. The people themselves are the governing power. They are the government. Those who fill the various offices are not rulers, but agents and servants of the people. The public lands are the property of the people, and these agents or servants representing them in congress have no more right to give these lands to corporations than to vote a part of each citizen's private fortune to the same corporations. When, in addition to these grants, embracing territory eight or ten times larger than the state of Iowa, large subsidies of money are also voted to accompany the lands, the people should become alarmed, and, if possible, arrest such abuses.

Every acre of land given to railroad companies is a direct robbery of the people, and the fact that whenever a grant is made the people are required to make good the amount taken from them by paying a double price for the moiety that is left to them, but adds insult to injury. The citizen who wishes to live upon and improve his quarter section, instead of claiming it as a homestead, or even purchasing it at the government price of $1.25 per acre, must pay $2.50 per acre before he will be permitted to occupy it. Nor is this all; he must be taxed to pay the interest on the subsidy bonds issued to the same companies that have received the grants of land, and all the benefit he derives from these unjust burdens imposed upon him, is the privilege of traveling upon railroads, or of shipping his produce over them, after he has paid to their officers whatever sum they choose to demand for the privilege.

To show more fully the extent to which the people are being plundered under the plea of assisting railroads in their efforts to develope the country, we desire to direct the reader's attention to some of the acts of congress covering "railroad legislation." Let us, for an example, take the Union and Central Pacific railroad, beginning at Council Bluffs and terminating at San Francisco. The charter for this road was granted in 1862, at a time when the country was at war; when it would be natural to presume that the government had no surplus capital, and when reason and common prudence demanded strict integrity and rigid economy in every department. In chartering the company, all idea of economy, integrity, or even common honesty seems to have been abandoned. The demand for the road as a national necessity in time of war, for direct communication between the Atlantic and Pacific states, and the immense cost of the road, with its great length, were the arguments used in favor of liberal aid. All these reasons were plausible—perhaps valid. They were seized upon, and the action of congress besought in the premises by a ring that was formed for the purpose of making immense fortunes out of the enterprise. A noticeable feature in the matter is, that members of congress, in the senate and house, as soon as the act was passed granting the charter, became large stockholders and managers in the corporations. The aid granted by congress to this company was sufficient, if honestly applied, to construct a double track road the entire distance, and leave a large margin for distribution among the stockholders. The act of congress granting the charter, with subsequent amendments, opened a wide field for plunder, and the way the corporators availed themselves of their opportunity shows that they had determined to plunder the people of the last available dollar. A reference to this act and amendments, as published by congress, will fully sustain all we have asserted. Selecting the charter of this road as an apt illustration of all others receiving aid from government, we ask the reader's attention to some of its more remarkable features.