4172                  U. S. PACIFIC  RAILWAY  COMMISSION.
Congress are due the bounties therein provided for, the company does not owe its existence to that act, but to the laws of the State of California. However the repeal of the act of Congress may affect these bounties, it can in no wise affect the existence of this company.
It will moreover be observed that this reserved power is qualified with the attendant obligation on the part of the Government to only exercise it "having due regard for the rights of said companies." In the exercise of this reserved power, on the 19th of June, 1878, Congress passed an act to create an Auditor of Railroad Accounts, and for other purposes (Statutes of 1878-'79, page 169). The designation of this office was changed by the act of March 3, 1881, to "United States Commissioner of Railroads." The change has only been in title; the power and duties x>f the office remain the same. The first Auditor of Eailroad Accounts appointed under the act of 1878 visited the office of the Central Pacific Eailroad Company, in San Francisco, in 1879, and made a thorough examination of the accounts, books, and vouchers of the company from the date of its organization down to the date of his examination. He was given every facility for his examination.
Upon his report the account between the company and the Government was then settled and adjusted. Like examinations have actually been made, and the accounts between the Government and the company adjusted accordingly, the last one being on December 31,1886, In these, various ways was the Government kept fully informed, in the mode prescribed by Congress, of the condition of the affairs of the company as they stood up to the 31st of December, 1886. The affairs of the company, running from the 1st day of July, 1862, to the 31st of December, 1886, were thus annually made public to the country before the road of the Central Pacific Railroad Company had assumed any tangible shape. Its condition was reported to the United States Secretary of the Treasury. To him was annually reported the amount received from passengers and freight over the road. To him was reported " a statement of the indebtedness of the company, setting forth the various kind thereof." As the road was constructed and the indebtedness therefor created, it had to be reported to the Secretary of the Treasury, and it was so reported annually. Congress and the country were thus annually advised of the progress of the enterprise and of the mode and manner in which it was conducted. The work was not done in secret; its magnitude forbade; the interests of the parties forbade; the interests of the public forbade. The solemn declaration of Congress that " the better to accomplish the object of this act, namely, to promote public interest and welfare by the construction of said railroad and telegraph line, and the keeping the same in order," fully attest the character of the enterprise, and at once demonstrate how futile have been the efforts to conceal or disguise aught concerning the mode or manner in which it was carried forward. The mode and manner in which it was carried on was not disguised from the public; but the public in this State, and the public throughout the United States, at the time well knew how the work was carried on.
The embarrassments and the difficulties attendant upon the construction of the road deterred capital and banished all grounds for cupidity. While risks had to bo incurred, liabilities assumed, the prospective profit and success were contingent and doubtful, and few were hardy enough to embark in the enterprise. While myself and my associates did not at the time hesitate to take the risk and stake our fortunes on the success or failure of the enterprise, and while we do not feel that we are on that account alone entitled to justly complain of any fair and candid or even