4
"Whereas our public lands contain niines of the precious metals which are unsurpassed in extent, and can, with proper development, be made speedily to enhance the value of all property, and thereby relieve the burdens of the people; and
" Whereas a wise policy indicates that the revenue derived from our mineral lands should, to some extent, be devoted again to the much-needed development of that important interest; and
"Whereas Congress, by an act approved July twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, authorized the construction of a draining and exploring tunnel to the Comstock lode, in the State of Nevada, and granted to Adolnh Sutro certain rights and privileges, which have been assigned, transferred, and set over to a corporation, duly organized under the laws of the State of California, and known as the Sutro Tunnel Company; and
"Whereas great benefits will accrue to the people of the United States from the construction of said tunnel, which, as a great geological survey, penetrating into an argentiferous mountain to a greater depth than has yet been reached by any similar work in the world, will establish the value of our mineral domain; and
"Whereas the principal wealth of our mineral regions consists in low-grade ores, which can only be utilized by means of improved reduction, concentration, and smelting works, for the erection of which extraordinary facilities exist at the mouth of said tunnel; and
"Whereas this work bears a national character, and its magnitude is beyond the capacity of private enterprise, and the security offered to the Government is ample for the repayment of any sums to be advanced under this act: Therefore, be it enacted," etc., etc.
2.   " Congress has already granted to Sutro and his corporation.
franchises that for speculative purposes he claims are worth over six millions of dollars a year."
Congress has granted certain franchises, which are of no value unless the tunnel is completed; and if they be then worth six millions of dollars, they offer most excellent security for a loan of two millions of dollars.
3.   "These grants were made on the assurance that the corporation
would go on and construct its tunnel, and thus develop all there was to be developed of the Comstock lode. This has not been done."
The most persistent and strenuous efforts were made for years to carry out the work, which would have been completed long before this time, had it not been for the continued, unscrupulous, and powerful efforts of the Bank of California io prevent it.