The Black Pall Over Washington’s Future

The bill introduced in the House of Congress in behalf of the Northern Pacific Railroad is as follows: That ten years’ additional time is hereby granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, as now organized, to construct and complete its main line and branch under its charter and the acts and resolutions of Congress relating thereto. That is all there is of it; an absolute and unconditional extension of time; an absolute surrender to a company of speculators of the control of two-thirds of the public domain in Washington Territory west of the Cascade Mountains, embracing the most valuable unoccupied timber and mineral lands upon the continent, without a single provision for the sale of the lands, for the protection of settlers, or to enforce the construction of the road either to Puget Sound or to Portland. It means an overland connection from the head of navigation on the Columbia River, with perpetual monopoly of the navigation of that river, with a black pall extending for ten years over the larger portion of our Territory, prohibiting settlement, repelling enterprise, and obstructing all the avenues of commerce it does not monopolize.