Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/298

 ;it'v 260 JOHN TDLSON GANOE SI Francisco fire in 1906, so there are many things we would like to know which probably never will be known. A. Aids to the Roads. 1. The East Side Company. By the grant given by the Federal government, the East Side Company had as a resource, if they fulfilled the conditions, approximately 3,800,000 acres, computed by mileage at the rate of twenty sections a mile. By the amendment of April 10, 1869, Congress placed a limita- tion upon the price for which the land should sell. The amendment provided that the land should be sold for $2.50 per acre and in lots of not over one quarter section. Obviously the purpose of the grant was not only to aid the railroad but to make the railroad a mediary for the sale of land. The benefit accruing to the railroad from the land de- pended upon two things; first the line must be built, and secondly the land must be disposed of for they could not hope to gain more by holding it for investment because of the $2.50 price limitation set by Congress. Had the rail- road been able to sell every acre of the grant at the price stated by the act, the aid would have been of considerable assistance. But in fact, except as a basis for loans, the grant does not seem to have aided the road greatly during this early period, for although the road was constructed to Roseburg, a distance of about 197 miles, during the years 1870, 1871, and 1872 very little land was patented. The record shows that between the years 1871 and 1877 the patent on the land by the East Side Company only amounted to about 323,000 acres and most of these pat- ents adjoined the first 125 miles of track. The reason for the delay in patenting the land seems to lie in the fact that at that time the land was not salable. They could not at that period, have violated the terms of the act had they desired since the government was also in the market with land which immediately adjoined the i