Chapter I: Preface

So far as the author knows there is no published study which discusses in detail the important business problems connected with the history of the Southern Pacific Railroad lines. Most of the books which contain references to the Southern Pacific or to the Central Pacific limit themselves to a few chapters upon the romantic aspects of their construction. The few works which treat of the later period confine themselves chiefly to particular episodes in Southern Pacific history, often with the deliberate attempt to discredit the railroad company. The truth is that most writers upon the Southern Pacific have relied upon the reports of the United States Pacific Railway Commission or on Bancroft’s “History of California,” and very few have done original work from source material.

Yet the usable material dealing with the subject of Pacific railroads is abundant. The Southern Pacific has left a broad trail in California. The record of its doings is to be found in court reports; in state, city, and federal records; in the public testimony, or still better, in the private letters of owners or managers of company enterprises; in the reports of the company itself and of its engineers or other representatives; in pamphlets without number; in files of newspapers. It is true that much of the data is partisan and unreliable as to details. Yet a partisan statement is serviceable if one knows it to be partisan, and, if one has reliable information with which to check the unreliable, the extent of partisan exaggeration in a given case becomes itself a fact of no insignificant importance.

Most of the documents used in the following pages have been consulted in one or another of three large collections: that of the Bancroft Library of the University of California; that of the Hopkins’ Railway Library of Stanford University; and that of the State Library at Sacramento. Use has also been made of data in the office of the Secretary of State of California and of the State Railroad Commission. In certain cases the manuscript has been submitted to officials of the Southern Pacific Company for their comment, or to shippers or business men who were believed to be well-informed. The work has been more or less actively in progress over a period of eight years so that there has been more than usual opportunity for checking, comparison of views, and the testing of material. It is the author’s hope that he has at least examined all the significant classes of information on the particular subjects which he has discussed. With a subject so extensive it is rarely, if ever, possible to reach all the fugitive literature, or to consult all the living men from whom opinions or scraps of information might be obtained. The most that can be said is that there has been a diligent search, with good facilities, through a number of years.

The conclusions which the writer has himself reached with respect to the political and business activities of the Southern Pacific in California, he has explained in the book at length and will not now repeat. There is claimed for them no more conclusiveness than the facts presented in each particular case may justify, although the conclusions are free from conscious bias, and the author’s own interests are engaged on neither side.

Acknowledgment is hereby made of the courtesies extended by the libraries of Berkeley, Palo Alto, and Sacramento, and of the patient attention which individuals have given to particular portions of the book.

STUART DAGGETT

Berkeley, California,
February 1, 1922.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I INCEPTION OF THE PROJECT 3

II RESOURCES FOR CONSTRUCTION—STATE AND LOCAL AID 21

III FEDERAL LAND GRANTS AND SUBSIDIES 45

IV PROGRESS OF CONSTRUCTION—CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES 65

V THE SEARCH FOR A TERMINAL 83

VI ACQUISITION OF THE CALIFORNIA PACIFIC 104

VII BUILDING OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 119

VIII ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC-SOUTHERN
PACIFIC SYSTEM FROM 1870 TO 1893 140

IX THE CASE OF DAVID D. COLTON 154

X FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES FROM 1870 TO 1879 169

XI THE RAILROAD COMMISSION OF 1880 TO 1883 181

XII THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC AND POLITICS 199

XIII WATER COMPETITION 222

XIV THE RATE SYSTEM OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC 237

XV LOCAL RATES IN CALIFORNIA 257

XVI THE TRANSCONTINENTAL TARIFF 275

XVII THE TRAFFIC ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA 293

XVIII THE SAN FRANCISCO AND SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
RAILWAY 317

XIX OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC
LINES 347

XX THE THURMAN ACT 370

XXI FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC INDEBTEDNESS
TO THE GOVERNMENT 395

XXII THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC MERGER CASES 425

XXIII OIL AND TIMBER LAND LITIGATION 441

XXIV FINAL REMARKS 454

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

“The Golden Gate” (_Frontispiece_)

Theodore Dehone Judah (opposite) 6

Sketch of train on the Sacramento Valley Railroad 1860 ” 10

Leland Stanford ” 16

Henry P. Coon ” 32

Chas. Crocker ” 66

Summit Valley, Emigrant Mountain and Railroad Pass ” 72

Summit tunnel before completion—Sierra Nevada Mountains ” 80

Map of Oakland and Brooklyn 93

Boundaries of Railroad Tide-Land Grant, as proposed in 1868 96

Map of California Pacific Railroad 106

Map showing northern end of the San Francisco and San José
Railroad in 1862 121

Proposed route of the Southern Pacific Railroad, January 3, 1867 124

View south from over the San Fernando tunnel—Southern Pacific
Railroad (opposite) 128

David D. Colton ” 160

Mark Hopkins ” 176

George Stoneman ” 192

C. P. Huntington ” 208

Chart showing rates on second-class freight and on grain in the
Sacramento Valley, 1876 260

Chart showing rates on miscellaneous commodities in the San
Joaquin Valley, 1892 261

Diagram showing adjustment of freight rates between San Francisco
and Stockton, 1916 266

Diagram showing adjustment of freight rates between San Francisco,
Santa Rosa, and Sebastopol, 1916 268

Diagram showing adjustment of freight rates between Los Angeles
and points north and east of Los Angeles, 1916 269

Map showing the line of the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley
Railway, together with portions of the systems of the Southern
Pacific and of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé, 1898 325

Map showing mileage owned in 1913 by the Central Pacific Railway
and the Southern Pacific Railroad (opposite) 432

CHAPTERS ON THE HISTORY

OF THE

SOUTHERN PACIFIC