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Railroads
Missouri,
Kansas and Texas and the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroads. Man is so
constituted that in order to make any appreciable progress in
prosperity and intelligence he must live in a state of civil society.
One's wants are so diverse and innumerable, and the physical
conditions of the country in which he lives so varied, that he can not
possibly supply his needs, either by his individual exertions or from
the products of any one district of country. Hence, trade and commerce
become necessities. 'One, with given talents and aptitudes, in certain
territorial conditions, produces to the best advantage a particular
class of commodities in excess of what he needs, whilst he is able to
produce only at great disadvantage, or not at all, other commodities
quite as needful to him as the first; another produces these needed
commodities in excess of what he personally requires, but none of
those which the industry of his neighbor yields. Thus springs up trade
between the two, an to the advantage of both. As with individuals, so
with communities and peoples. Nations can not live and prosper
independent of each other any more than families can live independent
of their neighbors and prosper. So that, as prosperity constitutes the
foundation of human progress and civilization, and mince this can not
be attained except by means of trade and commerce, these become the
indispensable conditions to advancement in material affairs and in
intelligence. But neither trade nor commerce can flourish without
practicable, efficient means of transportation. Products must be
carried to the place of demand at a cost that will leave the producer
just compensation for his toil after they are delivered and sold and
the cost of carriage paid. Hence, an adequate means of transportation
- means sufficiently cheap and expeditious -becomes a matter of the
first importance. Without some such system communities can not be
built up or be made to flourish. So we see that in earlier times, and
even yet, where regions of country were and are not thus favored, they
have been and still are either uninhabited or peopled by
semi-civilized or barbarous populations. Take the map of the Old World
and scan it; it more than justifies what is here said. In the past
most, and, indeed, all of the more advanced nations inhabited regions
of country washed by the seas, or drained by navigable rivers or other
inland waters. Navigation afforded and still affords to such
countries, to a measurable degree, at least, the means of
transportation required for their prosperity and advancement. But the
interior, or regions far removed from navigation, remained either
unpeopled, or in a savage or tribal state. So such regions, not
penetrated by railways, remain to-day, as, for instance, the
non-navigable districts of India and Russia and other countries. The
problem of meeting this desideratunz of transportation into
non-navigable regions, which constitute a large portion of the best
lands of the globe, came to be looked upon in early times as, and
continued up to our own time, one of the greatest with which mankind
had to deal. In every country were vast regions with every other
advantage for supporting prosperous and enlightened communities which,
on account of their want of transportation facilities, were valueless,
or worse than valueless - the homes of wild and warlike tribes. As
more enlightened and progressive peoples sought to extend themselves
into those regions, the effort was made to supply their want of
transportation facilities by means of canals, which were constructed
on quite an extensive scale in some, and, indeed, in most of the
leading countries of Europe. But the districts of country through
which canals could be constructed were, of course, comparatively
small, and the great problem of interior transportation so far as
non-navigable regions were concerned, continued open and to attract
the thought and experiment of the best minds of all countries and of
every age. At last Stephens' experiment, in 1825, solved the great
problem. It is beyond question that no invention of the present
century, and perhaps of all time, has proved so beneficial to, and
mighty in its influence upon the material affairs of mankind, if not
for the general progress of the human race, as that of land
transportation by steam, as represented in our present railway system.
An eminent French writer has said that "the railway trebled the
area of the inhabitable globe." It has not only brought and is
bringing vast regions hitherto valueless under the dominion of
civilized man, but has quickened and is quickening every movement of
humanity in the onward march of civilization. Wonderful as have been
its results in the development and civilization of our own continent,
results at which the world stands struck with astonishment and
admiration; wonderful as have been its results elsewhere, and wherever
it has penetrated, its achievements in the past, compared to what it
is destined to accomplish in the future, are as the dust that floats
in the air to the suns that people the infinity of space. The railway
has been chiefly instrumental in transforming the wilds of this
country into great and prosperous States, and in placing the American
Union in the front rank of the great nations of the earth. Speaking of
this, in an article in the February number (1884) of the Nineteenth
Century, in which he strongly urges the establishment of an extensive
railway system in India, as the surest means of developing the natural
resources of that magnificent country, Hon. William Fowler, Member of
Parliament for Cambridge, says: " But if encouragement be needed,
it is well to consider what has been done on the other side of the
Atlantic. Before the railway came to Illinois, it was little more than
a prairie. In a very few years its produce doubled, and now it stands
as one of the first producing States of the Union, and can point to
Chicago as an evidence of its progress. It is difficult to imagine
what would have been its present condition had not the railway come to
its aid. Missouri had much facility of water carriage, but its
progress was very slow until railways traversed it. Nebraska, now a
most flourishing young State, has been created by the railway. Its
vast agricultural wealth must have been locked up indefinitely but for
the locomotive. The same remark applies to Kansas, now advancing with
rapid strides. " Shareholders may
grumble at competition in America, and bondholders may tremble, but
the producer flourishes in low rates of carriage, and no economical
facts are so wonderful as those presented by the progress of the
United States since the development of the railway system. The
experience of Canada is hardly less remarkable, for I am informed by
Mr. Macpherson, of Ottawa, that during last year 25,000,000 acres of
land were allotted by the Dominion Government to settlers or
companies. The great temptation of those who settle in that severe
climate is the excellence of the wheat land, but it is obvious that
without cheap carriage no such settlement would be possible, for the
produce would be unsalable." Thus, the railway is rapidly
peopling and developing this continent. What it is doing here, it can
do elsewhere--in India, Australia, Interior Russia, South America,,
and everywhere, where the physical conditions of territory and climate
render possible the abode of man. It is the great civilizer of modern
times, and wherever the headlight of its locomotive gleams out, or the
shrill echo of its whistle is heard, barbarism falls back as the
darkness of ignorance before the light of knowledge. By the railway
communities and States, separated from each other by thousands of
miles, are made neighbors and the populations of whole continents are
not only enabled to intermingle and thus benefit by association and
interchange of ideas, but trade and commerce between them, the
life-blood of all prosperity and advancement, are reduced to a perfect
system and to the minimum of expense. Under its influence the nations
of Europe have been brought more nearly under the government of common
interests and ideas -in fact, are nearer one people, -than the shires
and manors of England were under the feudal system. And its influence
in this direction, as in all others for the betterment of the
condition of mankind, will go on and on, as the ages roll away, until
ultimately the dream of the noblest philosophers who have conned the
affairs of men shall have been realized - the universal brotherhood of
man. By the railway space is already practically obliterated. To
illustrate this, a fact or two will suffice: The present rate on a
bushel of wheat from Huntsville, Missouri, to St. Louis is about 81/2
cents; the rate on to New York is 10 1/2; and from New York to
Liverpool, or Glasgow, 4 cents - thus making the rate from Huntsville
to Great Britain about 22 cents per bushel, or about $7.25 per ton.
This is but little more than it cost, before the era of railroads, to
haul the same amount of wheat from Randolph county to Glasgow,
Missouri; so that, practically, the market at Glasgow, Scotland, and,
indeed, the markets of the whole world have been brought nearly as
close to the farmers of this county as the market at Glasgow, on the
Missouri river, only twenty or thirty miles away, was in former times.
What is true of wheat is true, in a greater or less measure, of other
products and of merchandise, and of everything that ministers to the
comfort and happiness of man. But without
this system of railway transportation the present vast products of
agriculture in the interior would have been impossible, and population
would still have been compelled to hug closely to the coasts of seas
and to the shores of inland navigable waters. " Had one been
asked ten years ago," says Mr. E. Atkinson, of Boston, in his
paper, in 1880, on " The Railroads of the United States and their
effects on Farming Production," " ' Can 150,000,000 bushels
of grain be removed from the prairies of the West 5,000 miles in a
single season, to feed the suffering millions of Europe, and prevent
almost a famine amongst the nations?' he who answered ' Yes, it is
only necessary to apply the inventions already made to accomplish
that,' would have been deemed visionary. It has been
accomplished." And, illustrating the same point, a writer, under
the caption " The Railroad and the Farmer," in the American
Agricultural Review for August, 1882, speaking for Oregon, says:
" Our export of wheat to Europe had hardly begun ten years ago
for lack of cheap transportation to the ship. * * * Before the advent
of railroads the nominal price of farm land was from $5 to $10 per
acre, yet its average productiveness was from 25 to 30 bushels of
wheat per acre. * * * When railroads were built, or since 1873,
improved farm land sells readily at from $15 to $100 per acre. Wheat
has become the principal product. The export of wheat and flour,
mostly to Europe, has risen from zero to about 5,000,000 bushels per
annum, with regular yearly increase." It is this means of getting
the products of the interior to market that renders the land of
non-navigable regions valuable, and indeed inhabitable, by civilized
man. Ten years ago Oregon exported no wheat, for want of railway
facilities of transportation. In 1880 she exported $5,000,000 worth,
and her exports will continue to increase until her vast wheat lands,
hardly touched yet with the plow, are covered with rich harvests, and
all her territory is filled with a prosperous and enlightened
population. Who can be found, then, bold enough to say that the great
Commonwealth will not owe its greatness more directly to the railway
than to any other and all other physical causes combined? What is true
of Oregon is true of all the States of the West, and, in only a less
measure, of the other States of the Union. Missouri, though
essentially a river State, has been built up almost alone by the
railway since the war. Her vast area of grain and stock lands and her
other resources have been opened up by the railway to industrial
development, for by it the markets of the world have been brought to
her very door. So of Kansas and Nebraska, and of Arkansas and Texas.
Texas, although with a vast extent of sea-coast, has been developed by
railway transportation, and there is hardly a parallel, even in the
history of the Great West, to the wonderful progress that State has
made in material development, and in population, and in wealth and in
intelligence. No people under the sun have shown the enterprise, even
by comparison, shown by the people of this country in railroad
building, and no people have increased in population and in every
measure of advancement in a ratio even approaching the progress made
by the United States. But for railroads this could not, of course,
have been done, for the regions accessible by navigable waters would
long since have been taken up and overcrowded. This country, or
rather, the people of the country, saw at a glance the importance of
railway transportation to their material prosperity and general
interests. Every community, wherever settled, turned its attention to
railroad building in order to open up the territory tributary to it.
The result was that railroads were pushed in all directions, and are
still being extended, so that the whole land is rapidly being warped
and woofed with a perfect labyrinth of railway tracks. Speaking of
this, a recent English writer says: " The American, confident of
the future, pushes forward the railway into the wilderness, certain
that the unoccupied land will be settled, and that he will get his
reward in the increased value of this land, as well as in the traffic
on his railway." At first, in order to make his road
self-sustaining, on account of the sparseness of population (indeed,
there is often no population at all in large regions through which his
road passes), and the consequent lightness of business, he is
compelled to charge high rates of traffic and of travel, and often
these rates do not save him, for it is the experience of most roads
through new States and Territories that in their early years they pass
into the hands of a receiver. But soon the country tributary to them
settles up and the volume of business increases, so that they become
prosperous enterprises. And it is a remarkable fact that, although
railroads in this country have had more to contend against and more to
discourage them than those in any other, they have shown a degree of
public spirit and a regard for the interests of the communities
through which they pass unequaled by any other roads on the globe. To
those who get their information from the average politician, anxious
for an office or solicitous to retain one, and who has been refused a
pass, this statement may sound strange. To begin with, the rates of
traffic on railroads were higher here than those on the roads of any
country in Europe, as it would seem they ought to be, for wages and
everything else are higher, and in most of this country traffic is
much lighter than it is in Europe. But to-day railway freight rates in
the United States are lower than the rates in any other country. And
it is this fact that has proved the salvation of the American farmer,
and, therefore, of the prosperity of the whole country. But for the
high railway rates in India and Russia and in Australia, American
wheat would long since have been driven from the markets of Europe.
"It costs considerably more, " says a recent writer,
"to carry a ton of wheat 600 miles over the Great Indian
Peninsula Railway than it does to carry the same quantity 1,000 miles
over an American line. " There labor is incomparably cheaper than
it is in this country, the lands are quite as fertile and cheap, and
the ship rates to Europe are nearly or quite as favorable as ours. But
here wheat can be carried from Iowa to New York by rail so cheap that
the Indian grower, with his present railway rates, can not compete to
advantage with the American farmer in European markets. In the United
States rates have been reduced to less than one-fourth of what they
were in 1865. This reduction is still going on, and with the
improvements constantly being made in the railway system, it will
doubtless continue to go on until rates are far below what they are
today. These are the general averages of rates of Western roads, the
different classes and the relative amounts of each class considered,
and both through and local rates computed. Similar estimates for
Eastern roads would of course show much lower rates, as would
estimates of through rates from the West to the East, as, for
instance, grain was being shipped in April, 1884, from St. Louis to
New York at 171 cents per 100 pounds, and from Chicago to New York at
15 cents. These are the present pool rates, which show a ton-rate per
mile of about .33 of a cent, instead of .89, as given above Surely,
when a ton of grain can be hauled three miles for a cent, rates ought
to be satisfactory to the producer. It is not, therefore, surprising
that American farmers are the most prosperous class of agriculturists
on the globe. If, on account of the cheapness, fertility and abundance
of land they can raise produce at a comparatively nominal cost, and,
by the cheapness of transportation rates, they are placed almost as
near the markets of Europe as the farmer of France, England or
Germany, why should they not prosper.? The saving to the producer and
consumer in this country in a single year from the reductions of
freight rates made between 1865 and 1879, according to Mr. Poor, an
American statistician recognized as authority in both America and
Europe, amounted to over $35,000,000. During the same period the rates
from Chicago to New York were reduced over $13.50 on the on. Nor does
it follow that because these reductions have been made, freights could
have been carried at lower rates than were previously charged. As has
been said, the increase of population and traffic and the improvements
made in the railway system have made these reductions possible.
Freights can now be carried at little more than, if indeed not half
the rates charged ten years ago. Explaining this, a prominent Eastern
railroad official recently said: "The economies that are being
introduced in the management of the railroads of this country are very
poorly appreciated. by the public. With the introduction of steel
rails, with which all the leading lines are now equipped, the improved
condition of rolling stock, the enormous increase in the strength and
power of the locomotives and the solidity of 'road-beds, that can only
be attained after many years' use, together with a multitude of
economies that can not be learned without many years' practical
experience, where so many men are employed as are required to handle
one of our trunk lines, the actual cost of transportation has been
reduced far below the point at which a few years ago the most sanguine
advocate of railroad transportation, as the economical successor of
all other means of moving freight, did not dream." The
people of the country are rapidly coming to understand and appreciate
the importance the railway is to their highest and best interests. The
old prejudice against railroads is rapidly dying out. States and
communities, - counties, towns and townships, and the National
Government showed commendable public spirit in assisting in the
construction of railroads in the infancy of the development of our
railway system, and because the roads, when constructed, were
compelled for a tie t o charge what seemed high rates of traffic, much
wrath was visited upon the railway, or rather upon railway management.
But whether these rates were necessary is shown by the result. More
men of means have been bankrupted by railway investments,-not from
mismanagement of the roads, only in exceptional cases, but because, by
the best management they could not be made to pay at the rates
charged, -than by any other class of investments. More roads have gone
into the hands of receivers than any other enterprises have in the
country, numbers and importance considered, and fewer fortunes have
been made by railway investments. True, a few great fortunes have been
accumulated, for the interests involved were of the greatest
magnitude, so that, if one fails, he fails as Villard did, but it he
succeeds, he succeeds as Gould has. But,
however much railways have cost the public generally, who is there to
question that they have been of greater public benefit than their
cost, a thousand fold? Missouri's railways cost her in State and
municipal bonds (county, city, etc.), about $29,000,000. In one year
alone, 1883, her taxable wealth increased $63,349,625, not including
the increase in the value of railway property; and the increase of the
present year will probably carry the aggregate up to $800,000,000. No
one will claim that this would have been possible without the railway,
for Missouri is an agricultural State and to her, efficient
practicable transportation is everything. So far as the railroads are
concerned, they are of far greater benefit and profit to the public at
large, and especially to the farmer and business man, than to their
owners. A fact or two will illustrate this: The net earnings of
Missouri railroads in 1882, after deducting operating expenses, were
in round numbers $11,000,000, which was about $2,444 a mile, or less
than four per cent. on the capital they represent. This is a fair
average of the profits of the roads generally throughout the country.
Where is the farmer or business man whose profits are no more than
these who would not feel outraged if his
customers were to denounce him for
extortion or overcharges? The more one looks for the reasons of
the late outcry against railroads, the more
unreasonable he finds it to have been.
Whilst, in common with all human enterprises and
institutions, it can not be claimed that
railways have always been an unmixed blessing, it
may be safely said of them that they have been productive of less
harm to humanity and have resulted in less
injury in proportion to the good that
they have done than any other influence in material affairs. They
have done more to develop the wealth and resources, to stimulate
the industry, to reward the labor, and to
promote the general comfort and
prosperity of the country than any other, and perhaps all other,
mere physical causes combined. They scatter the productions of
the press and literature broadcast through the country with amazing
rapidity. There is scarcely a want, wish or
aspiration they do not in some measure
help to gratify. They promote the pleasures of social life
and of friendship ; they bring the skilled physician swiftly from a
distance to attend the sick, and enable a friend
to be at the bedside of the dying. They
have more than realized the fabulous conception of the
Eastern imagination, which pictured the genii as transporting
inhabited palaces through the air. They
take whole trains of inhabited palaces
from the Atlantic coast, and with marvelous swiftness deposit them
on the shores that are washed by the Pacific seas. In war they transport
armies and supplies of Government with the utmost celerity, and
carry forward on the wings of the wind, as it were, relief and comfort
to those who are stretched bleeding and wounded on the field of
battle. As a means of inland
transportation the locomotive has exceeded the
expectations of even those most sanguine of its usefulness. Since
its introduction canals have been practically
abandoned and river transportation has
become a matter of comparative unimportance. Missouri
has a river outlet to the sea, but only an insignificant percentage
of her products transported to the Atlantic is
carried down the river. While a few large
shippers of heavy freights in the cities, here and
there, and the politicians are agitating interior water
transportation, the vast body of the
people are shipping by the railroad. In this age time
is money," and the time occupied by freight shipped by river
is generally of more consequence to those
interested, than the small difference of
rates between river and railway charges; and in most instances
this alleged difference is more imaginary than real. The railroads
from St. Louis make the same rates on freights for New Orleans
that are charged by the steamers, and the difference of rates from
St. Louis to the latter city, and from the former to New York, are
merely nominal. By the railway the
shipper, informed what the prices are at the wholesale
markets to-day, may have his products delivered at those
markets in 12, 24, or 36 hours, and thus feel reasonably safe
in the estimates of the prices he expects to get. And by
abolishing space and uniting the communities of a whole continent
in one confederacy of trade and interests,
regularity and stability are given to prices, for the supply of one
section, if that of another fails, tends
to regulate the general demand. This fall the farmer may sow his
wheat and this winter fatten his stock with an intelligent and safe
estimate of the approximate returns he is to
receive the succeeding year. Nor does a
rich harvest in one State glut the markets and depreciate
the prices to ruinous figures, for the markets of the whole world
are almost equally accessible, so far as the cost of carriage is
concerned. The farmer of Missouri is practically
as near to London, England, to-day as was
the farmer in the vicinity of Cambridge less than
half a century ago, and all Christendom is reduced to narrower limits,
so far as time of transit is concerned, than the limits of this
country prior to the era of railroads.
Galveston, Texas, is nearer to New York
by railroad travel to-day than Kansas City was to Huntsville a
few years ago. In making Texas a neighbor to New York State
and Missouri to Massachusetts, in penetrating the great West, the
railways have opened up this mighty region to the flood-tides of
immigration from the East and all the world
which have poured into and are still
pouring in, establishing here the greatest and most prosperous commonwealths
in the Union. Foremost among the railway
systems of the West, and, indeed, the greatest
combination of railway systems on the globe, is that of Gould's
Western System, which includes the Missouri Pacific, or South- Western
system, the Wabash, and the Union Pacific systems, aggregating,
in all, over 15,000 miles of main track. The
lines of these systems penetrate every
State of the West and nearly every Territory, and
aggregate more miles of track than are laid in any country in Europe
except Germany, France and Great Britain, each of which they
closely approach in mileage. These three systems are run in harmony
with each other, and the last two, the South-Western and the
Wabash, are practically under one management, or, in other words,
constitute virtually one system of railways. Together they aggregate
over 10,000 miles of road, and include lines of travel in 12 of the
great States of the Union and in the Indian Territory. The
South-Western and Wabash systems constitute one of the most valuable
and prosperous combinations of railroads in the United States. They
were built up of many independent lines in the different States, and
the Missouri Pacific proper and the old Wabash were taken for the
basis of the systems. The original roads, of which these systems
were finally formed, were in many instances in
financial and business embarrassment, and
some of them were in the hands of receivers. Largely
by the genius of one man, through the assistance of
the able men he drew around him, they were gathered up, one by one,
and were united and made to prosper, so that we have seen built
up in a few years the greatest combination of
railroads of the age, a work that has
been accomplished with such success that one can not but
view it with mingled admiration and surprise. We can not go into
the details of the history of these roads at this time, but must
confine ourselves to an outline of the
South-Western System.
THE
SOUTH-WESTERN RAILWAY SYSTEM
This system includes and operates 5,983 miles of
railroad, which lie in Missouri, Kansas,
Nebraska, Arkansas, the Indian Territory, Louisiana
and Texas, and is composed "of the old Missouri Pacific proper,
the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and
Southern, the International and Great Northern, the Central Branch
of the Union Pacific, and the Texas and Pacific. The following table
shows the miles of each division in operation - MILEAGE.
. . . Missouri
Pacific Division . Missouri, Kansas and
Texas Division .. International and Great
Northern Division . St. Louis and Iron
Mountain Division . .. .
.. ... 990
1,386 826 906
388 1,487 . . . . .
.. . Central
Branch of the Union Pacific Division Texas
and Pacific Division . . 5,983 ... . ....
. . Total As has been said, the Missouri
Pacific forms the basis of this system. The
charter for this road, or, rather, of its predecessor, the pacific
Railroad Company, was granted by the Missouri Legislature by act
approved March 12, 1849. The Pacific Company was authorized to
build two lines of road from St. Louis, one, the main line, to
Jefferson and on to the western boundary
of the State, and the other, a branch, to
the south-western part of the State. The capital stock of the
company was fixed at $10,000,000, and the road received aid from
the State to the amount of $7,000,000. To aid in
the construction of the Southwest Branch,
as the branch was called, Congress also made
a grant to the company of 3,840 acres of land to the mile, which
amounted in all to 1,161,204 acres. Construction of the main line
was commenced July 4, 1851, but its progress was slow. It reached
Jefferson City in 1856 and Sedalia in 1861, but was not completed
to Kansas City until the fall of 1865. The
construction of the Southwest Branch was
even slower, but was finally completed to the State
line by way of Springfield. In 1866, however, the Southwest Branch
was taken possession of by the State for non-payment of interest
on the State subsidy and, with its lands, was
sold to the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad
Company, which company, in 1872, leased the lines
of the old company, or Kansas City trunk road. The two roads were
then operated under one management until 1876, when the Pacific
was sold under foreclosure and conveyed by the purchasers to the
present Missouri Pacific Company. This company, with a capital of
$3,000,000, was incorporated October 21, 1876.
In the meantime, in 1868, $5,000,000 of
the State subsidy had been back-paid to the State.
The amount of indebtedness the new Missouri Pacific assumed when
it bought the road was $13,700,000. Since
the completion of the road to Kansas City, it has successfully competed
with all its rivals for the traffic of the Great West and, besides
its numerous tributary lines, its connections with other roads are
such that cars run to and from St. Louis to every point in the West
and South-west without break of freight-bulk. Its career since it
became the property of its present owners has been one of unparalled
success, and it has grown from a single line
across Missouri to one of the most
important trunk lines in the Union, with its thousands of
miles of feeders extending in every direction west of St. Louis
and in the South-west. In 1880 the St. Louis and Lexington, the
Kansas City and Eastern, the Lexington and Southern, the St. Louis,
Kansas City and Arizona, the Missouri River and the Leavenworth
and North-Western were consolidated with it.
This was on the 11th of August, and the
authorized share-capital of the consolidated company
was fixed at $30,000,000. The amount issued to carry out the
consolidation was $12,419,800. The debt of the company after this
consolidation was $19,259;000.
MISSOURI,
KANSAS AND TEXAS.
On the 1st of December, 1880, the Missouri
Pacific leased the Missouri, Kansas and
Texas Railway for a period of 99 years, the consideration
paid being the net earnings of the road. The Missouri, Kansas
and Texas was organized April 7, 1870, by consolidation of the
Southern branch of the Union Pacific, the Tebo and Neosho, the
Labette and Sedalia, and the Neosho Valley and Holden. The St.
Louis and Sante Fe Railroad from Holden, Missouri, to Paola, Kansas,
was purchased by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas in 1872, and
the Hannibal and Central Missouri, from Hannibal to Moberly, was
purchased in 1874. This is the division of the road which passes
through Randolph county and is about 20 miles in
length. It was chartered February 13,
1865. The line of the Missouri, Kansas and
Texas was opened from Junction City to the southern boundary of
Kansas in 1870, and from Sedalia to Parsons in 1871. From the southern
boundary of Kansas to Denison it was opened January 1, 1873,
and from Hannibal to Sedalia, in September of the same year, thus
completing a continuous line from Hannibal, Missouri, to Denison,
Texas. The
Missouri, Kansas and Texas' received large grants of land under
act of Congress, both in Kansas and in the
Indian Territory, and also important
grants from the State of Kansas. The lands in the Indian Territory,
however, are subject to the extinguishment of the Indian title,
and have not therefore become available to the company. This road
has been mainly instrumental in settling up and developing South-west
Missouri and Southern Kansas. By it, also, Texas was given
an outlet to the North, and over its line a perfect stream of trade
and commerce and of travel, flowed to and from that great State.
Probably no road on the continent has been of so much value and
importance to a State or section of country, as the Missouri, Kansas
and Texas has been and still is to Texas. Over it population has
pushed into the State and settled up all of its northern counties,
a section of country nearly as large as the
entire State of Missouri. Hundreds of
thousands of people have been added to its population, and
millions of property have augmented its wealth. The Missouri, Kansas
and Texas has been to Texas what the Missouri river was in pre-railroad
days to Central Missouri--the main artery of its population and
wealth, and of its general advancement and prosperity. In
1882 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas acquired the International and
Great Northern by the exchange of two shares of its own stock for
one share of the latter. This exchange increased the share-capital
of the company by $16,470,000. By the
International and Great Northern, the
Missouri, Kansas and Texas also acquired a land grant in
Texas of about 5,000,000 acres. With the acquisition of the International
and Great Northern and other tributary lines, a continuous route
was given from Hannibal and St. Louis to Galveston, Texas,
and to Laredo, on the Rio Grande. At Laredo connection is
made with the Mexican National, which will lead into the city of
Mexico, when the present gap in its line shall
have been filled up. 1 The Missouri,
Kansas and Texas Railroad was completed through Monroe county in
1871. This road passes through the entire length of the county.
However by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas a
through rail route is already opened to
Mexico, by connection with the Texas Pacific and the
Mexican Central, which latter is completed to the capital city of
the Montezumas. Official
record of the result of the railroad election held in Monroe county
on the 18th day of April, 1868, and upon which is based the subscription
of $250,000 stock by said county in the Hannibal and Central
Missouri Railroad. On the 19th of May,
1873, at a meeting of the county court (a special
term), at which the propositions made by the Missouri, Kansas and
Texas Railroad Company was considered, the court appointed Abram
B. Baylis agent for and in behalf of Monroe county to assign and
transfer the stock of said county in the Hannibal and Central Missouri
Railroad Company to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company.
Hon. A. W. Lamb, of Hannibal, Mo., was appointed
by the court agent and proxy for Monroe
county to vote the stock of said county on
any proposition which might be brought before the meeting of the
stockholders of the Hannibal and Central
Missouri Railroad Company, having for its
object the consolidation of said railroad with the Missouri, Kansas
and Texas Railroad. The following are the
general officers of the Missouri Pacific Railway:
GENERAL
OFFICERS. Jay Gould, President, New York
City. R. S. Hayes, First Vice-President,
St. Louis, Mo. A. L. Hopkins, Second
Vice-President, New York City. H. M.
Hoxie, Third Vice-President, St. Louis, Mo. D.
S. H. Smith, Fourth Vice-President, Assistant Secretary and Local
Treasurer, St. Louis, Mo, A. H..Calef,
Secretary and Treasurer, New York City. John
C. Brown, General Solicitor, St. Louis, Mo. C.
G. Warner, General Auditor, St. Louis, Mo. George
Olds, General Traffic Manager, St. Louis, Mo. W.
H. Newman, Traffic Manager Lines South of Texarkana and Denison,
Galveston, Texas. G. W. Lilley, General
Freight Agent, St. Louis, Mo. H. C.
Townsend, General Passenger and Ticket Agent Lines North H.
A. Fisher, Assistant General Passenger and Ticket Agent, St. B.
W. McCullough, General Passenger and Ticket Agent, Lines of
Texarkana and Denison, St. Louis, Mo. Louis,
Mo. South of Texarkana and Denison,
Galveston, Texas. LOCAL AGENTS. G.
Meslier, Special Passenger and Land Agent, 102 North Fourth Street,
St. Louis, Mo. W. H. Morton, Land and
Passenger Agent, Union Depot, St. Louis,
Mo. S. W. Elliott, Ticket Agent,
102 North Fourth Street, St. Louis, Mo. H.
Lihou, Ticket Agent, Union Depot, St. Louis, Mo. M.
Griffin, City Passenger Agent, 102 North Fourth Street, St. Louis,
Mo. J. C. Nicholas, General Baggage
Agent, St. Louis, Mo. MR. JAY GOULD,
the well known president of the South-Western
System, is certainly one of the most
remarkable men of this or any other age. A
New York farmer's son, self-educated, and starting out in life for
himself without a dollar, by dint of his own
exertions and character he has risen to
the position of the first railroad manager on the globe. A
great deal has been said for and against Mr. Gould. A great deal
has been said for and against every man who has
made a distinguished success in life. It
is one of the conditions of success to be criticised and
slandered as well as honored and esteemed. But if men are to be
judged according to the general results of their
lives, Mr. Gould has nothing to fear for
his reputation in history. He has given to the country
the finest systems of railway and telegraph the world ever saw,
and if the people do not seem to appreciate "
What manner of man is passing by their doors," the
time will come when his services and character will receive the
homage which is their due. Mr. Gould became the
President of the Wabash, St. Louis and
Pacific on the organization of the company in 1879.
Personally, however, he does not direct the affairs of the road,
but is directly represented in its management, as he is in the management
of all his other Western roads, by Capt. R. S. Hayes.
HANNIBAL
AND ST. JOSEPH RAILROAD.
The Hannibal and Joseph Railroad was completed
to Monroe City from Hannibal in 1858, and
to St. Joseph in 1859. Along this railroad, for
12 miles on each side of the road, the company was granted alternate
sections of land by the United States Government in 1852. As
early as August 11, 1851, we find the following proceedings had
by the county court in reference to the Hannibal and St. Joseph
Railroad Company:- Now,
at this day, came R. Stewart, president, and makes a motion for the
board of directors of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Only about
four miles of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad passes through
Monroe county. that Macon county take as much as 100 shares of stock
in said road by authorizing the judges of said court to subscribe the
same. Whereupon, it is ordered by the court that the county of Macon
take 100 shares of stock il said road, and that the president of said
stock subscribe the same, provided said road runs through the county,
and not prejudicial to the county seat of said Macon county. In our
history of Buchanan county, we gave some facts in reference to the
early history and completion of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad
to St. Joseph, and as they will not be out of place here we will
reproduce them. The people of St. Joseph early awoke to a sense of the
importance and necessity of railroad communication with the East.
About the first reference to this matter we find in the Gazette of
Friday, November 6, 1846:- "Our
country is destined to suffer much, and is now suffering, from the
difficulty of navigation and the extremely high rates the boats now
charge. Our farmers may calculate that they will get much less for
produce and will be compelled to pay much. more for their goods than
heretofore, and this will certainly always be the case when the
Missouri river shall be as low as it now is. The chances are fearfully
against having any considerable work bestowed in improving the river,
and until it is improved by artificial means, the navigation of it to
this point must always be dangerous and very uncertain. "
The prospects for this fall and winter are well calculated to make the
people look about to see if there is no way to remedy this
inconvenience, if there can be any plan suggested whereby our people
can be placed more nearly upon terms of equality with the good
citizens of other parts of our land. " We suggest the propriety
of a railroad from St. Joseph to some point on the Mississippi-either
St. Louis, Hannibal or Quincy. For ourselves, we like the idea of a
railroad to one of the latter places suggested, for this course would
place us nearer to the eastern cities and make our road thither a
direct one; we like this road, too, because it would so much relieve
the intermediate country which is now suffering and must always suffer
so much for transporting facilities in the absence of such an
enterprise. " If this be the favorite route, we must expect
opposition from the southern portion of the State, as well as all the
river counties below this. For the present, we mean merely to throw
out the suggestion with the view of
awaking public opinion and eliciting a discussion of the
subject. In some future number we propose presenting more advantages
of such a road, and will likewise propose and enforce by argument
the ways and means of accomplishing the object." The
suggestions thus offered of the necessity of a railroad seemed to
have been universally popular, and through the vigorous action of
the friends of the enterprise, we find, thus
early, a charter granted by the
Legislature, as follows :
AN
ACT TO INCORPORATE THE HANNIBAL AND ST. JOSEPH RAILROAD COMPANY.
Be
it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as
follows:
SECTION
1. That Joseph Robidoux, John Corby and Robert J. Boyd, of
St. Joseph, in Buchanan county; Samuel J. Harrison. Zachariah G.
Draper and Erasmus M. Moffett, of the City of Hannibal; Alexander
McMurtry, of Shelby county; George A. Shortridge
and Thomas Sharp, of Macon county; Wesley
Halliburton, of Linn county; John Graves,
of Livingston county; Robert Wilson, of Davies county, and
George W. Smith, of Caldwell county, and all such persons as may
hereafter become stockholders in the said company, shall be and
they are hereby created a body corporate and politic in fact and
in name, by the name and style of the Hannibal
and St. Joseph Railroad Company, and the
same title, the stockholders shall be in perpetual succession,
and be able to sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded
in all courts of record and elsewhere, and to purchase, receive,
have, hold and enjoy to them and their successors lands, tenements
and hereditaments, goods, chattels and all
estates, real, personal and mixed of what
kind or quality soever, and the same from time to time
to sell, mortgage, grant, alien and convey, and to make dividends
of such portion of the profits as they may deem
proper, and, also, to make and have a
common seal, and the same to alter or renew at pleasure,
and also to ordain, establish and put in execution such bylaws,
ordinances and regulations as shall appear
necessary and convenient for the
government of such corporation, and not being contrary
or repugnant to the Constitution and laws of the United States
or of the State of Missouri, and generally to do all and singular
the matters and things which to them it shall
lawfully appertain to do for the well
being of the said corporation and the due management and
ordering of the affairs of the same: Provided, always, that it shall
not be lawful for the said corporation to deal, or use or employ
any part of the stock, funds or money, in buying
or selling any wares or merchandise in
the way of traffic, or in banking or broking operations.
SEC.
2. That the capital stock of said corporation shall be $2,000,-
000, divided into 20,000 shares of $100 each,
and it shall be lawful for said
corporation, when and so soon as in the opinion of the individuals
named in the foregoing section a sufficient
amount of stock shall have been taken for
that purpose,, to commence and carry on their said proper
business and railroad operations under the privileges and conditions
herein granted.
SEC.
3. That the said company is hereby authorized and empowered to
cause books for the subscription stock to be opened at such times
and places as they may deem most conducive to the attainment of
the stock required.
SEC.
4. The said company [shall] have power to view, lay out and construct
a railroad from St. Joseph, in Buchanan county, to Palmyra, in
Marion county, and thence to Hannibal, in said county of Marion,
and shall, in all things, be subject to the same
restrictions and entitled to all the
privileges, rights and immunities which were granted to the Louisiana
and Columbia Railroad Company by an act entitled " An act
to incorporate the Louisiana and Columbia Railroad Company,"
passed at the session of the General Assembly in
1836 and 1837, and approved January 27,
1837, so far as the same are applicable to the company
hereby created, as fully and completely as if the same were herein
enacted.
SEC.
5. Nothing in this act, nor in that to which it refers, shall be
construed so as to allow said company to hold or
purchase any more real estate than may be
necessary and proper for the use of the road and
the business transacted thereon. This act
to take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved
February 16, 1847.
The
following were the PROCEEDINGS OF THE
RAILROAD CONVENTION, held at Chillicothe,
Mo., June 2, 1847. Delegates from the
various counties of North Missouri assembled at Chillicothe,
Mo., on June 2, 1847, according to previous notice. The convention
was organized in the court-house at 11 o'clock, by calling Judge
A. A. King, of Ray county, to the chair, and electing Dr. John Craven,
of Davies county, and Alexander McMurtry, of Shelby county, vice-presidents,
and H. D. La Cossitt, of Marion county, and Charles J.
Hughes, of Caldwell county, secretaries. It
was moved that the delegates in attendance report themselves to
the secretaries, whereupon the following
gentlemen gave in their names and took
their seats:- B. F. Loan and Lawrence
Archer, from Buchanan county; Absalom Karnes,
from DeKalb; Robert Wilson, John B. Connor, Volney E. Bragg,
William Peniston, James Turley, Thomas T. Frame, Jacob S.
Rogers, M. F. Greene, John Mann, Woody Manson and John Craven,
fiom Davies county; George Smith, Patrick Smith, Jesse Baxter,
A. B. Davis and C. J. Hughes, from Caldwell county; A A. King,
from Ray county; John Craven, Thomas B. Bryan, Elisha Manford,
John Harper, F. Preston, F. L. Willard, John L. Johnson, S.
Munser, John Bryan, B. F. Tarr, Thomas Jennings, William Hudgens,
William Hicklin, William L. Black, James H. Darlington, Robert
Mitchell, John Austin, James Austin and F. Preston, from Livingston
county; Dr. Livingston, from Grundy county; W.
B. Woodruff, James C. Moore, James
Lintell, John J. Flora, Jeremiah Phillips and
W. Halliburton, Linn county; George Shortridge, A. L. Gilstrap and
Benjamin Sharp, from Macon county; Alexander McMurtry, from Shelby
county; Z. G. Draper, James Waugh, Henry Collins, H. D. La
Cossitt and William P. Samuel, from Marion county. On
motion of Col. Peniston, it was resolved that a committee consisting
of one member from each county represented in
the convention be appointed for the
purpose of reporting upon what subjects this
convention shall act. The president appointed Robert Wilson, L.
Archer, A. Karnes, G. Smith, F. L. Willard, Dr. Livingston, W. B.
Woodruff, George Shortridge and Z. G. Draper. On
motion, it was resolved that a committee, consisting of one member
from each county here represented, be appointed to report a basis
upon which to vote in this convention. The president appointed A.
L. Gilstrap, B. F. Loan, William P. Peniston, Thomas Butts, Thomas
R. Bryan, Dr. Livingston, W. Halliburton and James Waugh.
George Smith, of Caldwell, presented the
following propositions for the
consideration of the convention, and moved to lay the same upon
the table, which was done:
WHEREAS,
The people of Northern Missouri are in favor of the project
of a railroad from Hannibal to St. Joseph; therefore, Resolved,
By the delegates (their representatives) that we recommend the
following as the best method to procure the means for the construction
of the same:- First. A liberal
subscription by the citizens of the State to the capital
stock of said company. Second. That
Congress be petitioned for a grant of alternate sections and
parts of sections of all vacant lands 10 miles on each side of
said road, when located. Third. That the
company procure a subscription to the stock by Eastern
capitalists, and, should the foregoing means prove inadequate, we
then recommend that the Legislature pass an act authorizing the
1 Austin A. King, who presided over this
convention, was Judge of the Fifth Judicial
Circuit, of which Ray county was a part, from 1837 to 1848, when he
was elected Governor of Missouri. company
to issue bonds, to be indorsed by the Governor or Secretary of
State, for the residue; the company to give a mortgage on the whole
work to the State, for the liquidation of said bonds. The
convention then adjourned till afternoon. At
the opening of the afternoon session, it was resolved that the rules
for the government of the House of Representatives, of Missouri,
be adopted for the government of this
convention. A report was adopted, by
which the basis of voting in the convention was
fixed as follows: that each county represented in the convention
be entitled to one vote for every 100 votes
therein, by which rule the county of
Marion was allowed 15 votes; Shelby, 7; Macon, 9;
Linn, 7; Livingston, 8; Grundy, 6; Davies, 9; Caldwell, 4; Ray,
15; DeKalb, 3; and Buchanan, 22. The
committee to whom was referred the duty of submitting subjects for
action of this convention reported. 1. To
appoint a committee of three members to draft an address in the
name of this convention to the people of Western Missouri, setting
forth the advantages to be derived from the
contemplated railroad from St. Joseph to
Hannibal. 2. To appoint a committee of
three, whose duty it shall be to petition the
Legislature of Missouri for such aid in the undertaking as can
be afforded consistently with the rights of other sections of the
State. 3. To
appoint a committee of three to petition Congress for a donation
of alternate sections of lands within six miles
on each side of said road when located.
4. To appoint a committee whose duty it shall be
to superintend the publication and
distribution of the proceedings of this convention, together
with the charter of the road, and the address to the people of
Northern Missouri. 5. Said committees to
be appointed by the president and the members of
each committee as nearly contiguous as practicable. The
convention then adjourned till the following morning, when on reassembling,
the five above mentioned resolutions were unanimously adopted,
with the exception of the fifth, which was adopted with an amendment
striking out all after the word president. Among
other resolutions offered at this session of the convention, the
following by Judge King, of Ray, was unanimously adopted by way
of amendment to a similar one offered by Dr. Grundy, of Livingston
:-
Resolved,
That, whereas, this convention has adopted a resolution authorizing
a memorial to Congress for donation of alternate sections of
land to aid in the construction of the contemplated railroad, also
authorizing a memorial to the Legislature for
such aid in the undertaking as can be
afforded consistently with the rights of other portions of
the State; therefore, we, the delegates, pledge ourselves to support
no man for Congress who will not pledge himself
to the support of the proposition
aforesaid, nor will we support any man for Governor, Lieutenant-Governor,
or member of the Legislature who will not pledge himself to give such
aid in the construction of the said railroad consistent with the
rights of other portions of the State as contemplated by the
resolution aforesaid. Mr. George Smith, of Caldwell, offered the
following resolution, which was read and adopted:- Resolved, That the
committee appointed to petition the Legislature be instructed to ask
for an amendment to the fourth section of the act incorporating the
Louisiana and Columbia Railroad Company (being the law by which the
Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad Company are to be governed), so as to
give the power to the president and directors of the last mentioned
company to call in an amount not exceeding
10 per cent every 60 days, and change the notice from 60 to
30 days. The following resolution by Mr.
Sharp, of Macon, was adopted:
WHEREAS,
It is not only extremely important to the agricultural and
commercial interests of the immediate country that a good wagon
road be opened from St. Joseph to Hannibal, but
the United States mail stages can not be
put in motion on said route until said road shall be
opened. And
WHEREAS,
It is of the utmost importance, as well to the whole intermediate
country as to the two extremes, that mail
facilities be speedily obtained in stages
through said country. Therefore, Resolved,
by this Convention, That it be recommended to each county
through which said road may pass, immediately to open, bridge, and
put in good repair the said road, in order that mail stages may
be immediately started, according to the act of
Congress establishing said road. Mr.
Tarr, of Livingston, moved to reconsider the vote adopting the
third proposition reported by the committee on business, which was
agreed to. He then offered the following
amendment to said third proposition -
Adding to third proposition by the committee on
business, as follows, "Also to
petition Congress that should any of the alternate sections
on the road, or within six miles on either side thereof to be sold
at any time subsequent to the 16th day of February, 1847, and before
the action of Congress in relation to these lands, that other ands be
granted as nearly contiguous as possible in lieu thereof." This
was agreed to, and the third proposition as amended was then adopted.
Dr. Livingston, of Grundy, offered the following resolution, which was
adopted:
Resolved,
That the proceedings of this convention be signed by the president,
vice-presidents and secretaries, and that the president be requested
to transmit a copy thereof to each of our representatives in Congress,
requesting them to use their utmost endeavors to obtain from Congress
the grant of land contemplated by the proceedings of this convention.
The president then announced the following committees : 1.
To address the people of Northern Missouri -Archer, Bragg, and La
Cossitt. 2. To petition Congress,
in accordance with the resolution of the convention -- Cravens,
Halliburton and Shortridge. 3. To
petition the Legislature -Tarr, George Smith, of Caldwell, and Dr.
Livingston. On motion, it was resolved
that the thanks of the delegates and constituents are due the officers
of this convention for the able manner in which they have discharged
their duties in this convention. The convention then adjourned sine
die. The charter of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad was secured
mainly by the exertion of Robert M. Stewart, afterwards Governor of
the State, and at the time of its issuance, a member of the State
Senate, and of Gen. James Craig, and Judge J. B. Gardenhire, who
represented Buchanan county in the Legislature. (Gen. Craig was
afterward president of this road, with two brief intervals, for the
period of 11 years, from 1861). With all the enthusiasm on the part of
the people, material aid was lacking, as it was not until 1852 that
the building of the road became a definite fact. At that period, Hon.
Willard P. Hall represented a district of Missouri in Congress, and
was chairman of the committee of public lands. By his efforts the
passage of a bill was secured granting six hundred thousand acres of
land to the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Company, and the success
of that long cherished enterprise was finally assured. The preliminary
survey had been made by Simeon Kemper and Col. M. F. Tiernan,
accompanied by Robert M. Stewart, whose indefatigable efforts in
behalf of the interests of the road, contributed as much if not more
than those of any other man to their ultimate accomplishment. Stewart
became afterwards the first president of the company. The building of
the road commenced at the east end. About
the spring of 1857 work was begun on the west end, and by March of
that year, the track extended out from St. Joseph a distance of seven
miles. The first 'fire under the first engine that started out of St.
Joseph on the Hannibal and St. Joseph. Railroad, was kindled by M.
Jefferson Thompson. This was several years before the arrival of the
first through train in February, 1859. (Sometime in the early part of
1857). The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was completed February 13,
1859. On Monday, February 14, 1859, the first through passenger train
ran out of St. Joseph. Of this train E. Sleppy, now (1881), master
mechanic of the St. Joseph and Western machine shops, in Elwood, was
engineer, and Benjamin H. Colt, conductor. The first to run a train
into St. Joseph was Geo. Thompson, who ran first a construction and
then a freight train. The first master mechanic of the Hannibal and
St. Joseph Railroad shops in St. Joseph was C. F. Shivel. These shops
were established in 1857. In the following year Mr. Shivel put up the
first car ever built in the city. On the 22d of February, 1859,
occurred in St. Joseph the celebration of the completion of the
Hannibal and St. Joseph Road. This was, beyond doubt, the grandest
display ever witnessed in the city up to that period. M. Jefferson
Thompson, at that time mayor of the city, presided over the ceremonies
and festivities of this brilliant occasion. The city was wild with
enthusiasm and the most profuse and unbounded hospitality prevailed. A
grand banquet was held in the spacious apartments of the Odd Fellows'
Hall, which then stood on the corner of Fifth and Felix Streets. Not
less than 600 invited guests were feasted here; and it was estimated
that several thousand ate during the day at this hospitable board.
Broaddus Thompson, Esq., a brother of Gen. M. Jefferson Thompson, made
the grand speech of the occasion, and performed the ceremony of
mingling the waters of the two mighty streams thus linked by a double
band of iron. The completion of the road constituted an era in the
history of St. Joseph, and from that period dawned the light of a new
prosperity. In the five succeeding years the population of the city
was quadrupled, and her name heralded to the remotest East as the
rising emporium of the West.
MONROE
COUNTY BONDED DEBT.
In
the summer of 1872, the managers of this road commenced the building
of a branch southward from St. Joseph, 21 miles, to the city of
Atchison. This was completed in October of the same year. $178,000 00
30 ten per cent.- bonds of $500 each, issued December 15, 1869, to aid
in the construction of the Hannibal & Central Missouri Railroad,
now the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, interest payable 15th
of January and July, at National Park Bank, New York . .$15,000 200
six per cent. 5 year bonds of $100 each, issued May 15, 1880, 40 do. 6
year bonds of $500 each, 40 do. 7 year, 40 do. 8 year, 40 do. 9 year,
20 do. 13 year of $1,000 each, 20 do. 14 year, and 23 do. 15 year,
issued May 15, 1880, under Chap. 83, Revised Statutes, in compromise
and redemption of bonds issued to the Hannibal & Central Missouri
Railroad, now the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, interest
payable annually May 15, at National Park Bank, New York ..Interest
promptly paid; interest tax on $100 valuation 50 cents. Taxable wealth
$5,118,788.
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