Page:The Pacific Monthly volume 17.djvu/750

 the Congressional land grant and state aid, was taken early in November, while Gaston did not return his papers and consequently consummate his incorporation until subse- quently, or on November 21.

Holladaj^'s content ion was that the Oregon Central Railroad Company (the West Sicl- ers) did not come into legal existence until the consummation of the incorporation, and that consequently the action of the Legisla- ture of 1866, in designating a corporation that had no legal existence as the recipient of its bounty, was necessarily null and void.

In reprisal, the AVest Siders went to the United States Circuit Court, asking that their opponents be enjoined from the use of their (the West Siders') corporate title.

When the Legislature of 1S68-69 con- vened, Holladay went to Salem, the state capital, opened up headquarters with a splurge and, by lavish entertainment and ex- penditures on a royal scale, ingratiated him- self with the members. The result was all he could ask. The act of 1866, designating Gaston's company as the recipient of the subsidies, was declared invalid, and a grant made to the East Siders (Holladay's com- pany) of practically the same character.

The West Siders appealed to the Secre- tary of the Interior to confirm them in their possession of the land grant by Congress, on the grounds that they had acted in good faith ; that they had hied their acceptance of the terms of the grant within the year, as prescribed by the act of Congress; that they had expended large sums of money in the construction of their line, and that they were in a position to complete the required twenty miles within the two years desig- nated by said act.

The decision of the Interior Department was against them. It was to the effect that there was no company in existence that had a legal right to the land grant in question, and that as no properly-constituted organi- zation had complied with the act of Con- gress by tiling its acceptance of 1 lie terms of the grant, that same had lapsed and could only be revived by new legislation.

Judge Deady, of the United Slates Court, gave as his decision that the East Siders had no legal rights to the name Oregon Central Railroad Company. This was little consola- tion to Gaston and his friends, in the face of losing their subsidies. In fact, it proved a

barren victory, for Holladay immediately proceeded to incorporate a new organization under the title of the Oregon and California Railroad Company, transferring to it all rights, property and franchises held by the East Side Company. He also was instru- mental in having a further act of Congress passed, in 1869, reviving the land grant by extending the time in which acceptance of the terms of the grant could be filed for one year from the date of the supplementary act. This practically meant that the first company completing twenty miles would get the land, and it was a foregone conclusion that this would be the Holladay outfit.

The loss of their subsidies greatly im- paired the credit of the West Side Company, so much so that S. G. Reed & Company, who had the contract for the construction of the line, threw up their contract, leaving Gaston and his friends in extremities, a land grant being regarded as an absolutely essential adjunct to the successful financier- ing and operation of a railroad. Accordingly Gaston went to Washington in December, 1869, arriving there just in time to see his opponents confirmed in the possession of the land which, through his exertions, had orig- inally been granted to the Oregon Central, this being accomplished by the Holladay in- terests through filing of the required papers covering the completion of the requisite twenty miles of track.

Still hopeful, he started in with his usual vim to secure a new grant for his company, meeting with partial success, Congress pass- ing an act in 1S70 granting the customary alternate sections of land — twenty to each mile — to aid in the construction of a railroad from Portland to MeMinnville, Oregon, with a branch to Astoria, the Holladay influence being sufficient to prevent aid being given to his line south of MeMinnville, with a view of heading off the construction of a compet- ing line, the Astoria branch being thrown in as an added incentive to the West Siders to confine their projects to local territory.

While waiting for Congress to act. Gaston succeeded in arranging with Philadelphia parties for the extension of the Oregon Cen- tral lor 1") miles, or about to Eugene City, Oregon, lie also entered into negotiations with the projectors of a line from Win- nemucca. New, on the line of the Central Pacific Railroad, to the Columbia River, and