nce of the House while I
read a few short passages, which are sufficient, in my judgment, to
place the merits of the great enterprise contemplated in the measure now
under discussion beyond all possible controversy.

The honorable gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Wilson), who, I believe, is
managing this bill, in speaking of the character of the country through
which this railroad is to pass, says this:--

"We want to have the timber brought to us as cheaply as possible. Now,
if you tie up the lands in this way, so that no title can be obtained to
them,--for no settler will go on these lands, for he can not make a
living,--you deprive us of the benefit of that timber."

Now, sir, I would not have it by any means inferred from this that the
gentleman from Minnesota would insinuate that the people out in his
section desire this timber merely for the purpose of fencing up their
farms, so that their stock may not wander off and die of starvation
among the bleak hills of the St. Croix. (Laughter.) I read it for no
such purpose, sir, and make no such comment on it myself. In
corroboration of this statement of the gentleman from Minnesota, I find
this testimony given by the honorable gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
Washburn). Speaking of these same lands, he says:

"Under the bill, as amended by my friend from Minnesota, nine tenths of
the land is open to actual settlers at $2.50 per acre; the remaining one
tenth is pine-timbered land, that is not fit for settlement, and never
will be settled upon; but the timber will be cut off. I admit that it is
the most valuable portion of the grant, for most of the grant is not
valuable. It is quite valueless; and if you put in this amendment of the
gentleman from Indiana, you may as well just kill the bill, for no man
and no company will take the grant and build the road."

I simply pause here to ask some gentleman better versed in the science
of mathematics than I am to tell me, if the timbered lands are in fact
the most valuable portion of that section of country, and they would be
entirely valueless without the timber that is on them, what the
remainder of the land is worth which has no timber on it at all.
(Laughter.)

But further on I find a most entertaining and instructive interchange of
views between the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Rogers), the gentleman
from Wisconsin (Mr. Washburn), and the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Peters)
upon the subject of pine lands generally, which I wi