“But will he succeed?” Elvira asked.
“He has powerful enemies, but his cause is good. The construction of the Texas Pacific ought to be advocated by every honest man in the United States, for it is the thing that will help the exhausted South to get back its strength and vitality.”
“Will it really help the South so much?”
“Certainly. Don't we see here in our little town of San Diego how everything is depending on the success of this road? Look at all the business of the town, all the farming of this county, all the industries of Southern California—everything is at a stand-still, waiting for Congress to aid the Texas Pacific. Well, the poor South is in pretty much the same fix that we are. I am sure that there are many homes in the Southern States whose peace and happiness depend upon the construction of the Texas Pacific. Look at our two families. All the future prosperity of the Alamares and Mechlins is entirely based upon the success of this road. If it is built, we will be well off, we will have comfortable homes and a sure income to live upon. But if the Texas Pacific fails, then we will be financially wrecked. That is, my father will, and Don Mariano will be sadly crippled, for he has invested heavily in town property. For my part, I'll lose a great deal, but I have my bank stock in New York to fall back upon. So my poor father and yours will be the worst sufferers. Many other poor fellows will suffer like them—for almost the entire San Diego is in the same boat with us. It all depends on Congress.”
“But why should Congress refuse to aid the Texas Pacific, knowing how necessary the road is to the South? It would be wicked, George, downright injustice, to refuse aid.”
“And so it would, but if rumors are true, the bribes of the Central Pacific monopolists have more power with some Congressmen than the sense of justice or the rights of communities. The preamble and resolution which Luttrell introduced last session were a ‘flash in the pan,’ that was soon forgotten, as it seems. In that document it was clearly shown that the managers of the Central Pacific Railroad Company were guilty of undeniable and open frauds. Enough was said by Luttrell to prove those proud railroad magnates most culpable, and yet with their record still extant, their power in Congress seems greater every year. Still, uncle writes that Tom Scott is to make a big fight this winter, and that his chances are good. I am bound to hope that he'll win.”
“But why has he to fight? What right have those men of the Central Pacific to oppose his getting Congressional aid? Does the money of the American people belong to those men, that they should have so much to say about how it should be used? Is it not very audacious, outrageous, to come forward and oppose aid being given, only because they don't want to have competition? Isn't that their reason?”
“That's all. They have not an earthly right to oppose the Texas Pacific, and all their motive is that they don't want competition to their Central Pacific Railroad. They have already made millions out of this road, but they want no one else to make a single dollar. They want to grab every cent that might be made out of the traffic between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and they don't care how many people are ruined or how many homes are made desolate in the South or in California.”
“Oh, George, but this is awful! If those men are so very rapacious and cruel, what hope have we? They will certainly sacrifice San Diego if their influence in Congress is so great! Poor San Diego! my poor, little, native town, to be sacrificed to the heartless greed of four or five men.”
“And what claim have these men upon the American people? Think of that! Have they or their fathers ever rendered any services to the nation? None whatever. All they rely upon is their boldness in openly asking that others be sacrificed, and backing their modest request with money earned out of the road they built with Government funds and Government credit. But they have tasted the sweets of ill-gotten gain, and now their rapacity keeps increasing, and in a few years—if they kill the Texas Pacific—they will want to absorb every possible dollar that might be made on this coast. The only thing that will put a check upon their voracity is the Texas Pacific. If this is killed, then heaven knows what a Herculean work the people of this coast will have to destroy this hydra-headed monster, or in some way put a bit in each of its many voracious mouths.”