Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 2).pdf/374

States. Section 3 was as follows: “That there be, and hereby is, granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, its successors and assigns, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line to the Pacific coast, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores over the route of said line of railway, every alternate section of public land, not mineral, designated by odd numbers,” etc. Section 5 provided that the railroad and telegraph line should be constructed as therein specified. Section 10 enacts that “all people of the United States shall have the right to subscribe to the stock of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company until the whole capital named in this act of incorporation is taken up, by complying with the terms of subscription; and no mortgage or construction bonds shall ever be issued by said company on said road, or mortgage or lien made in any way, except by the consent of the congress of the United States.” Section 11 declared that the railroad should be “a post route and a military road, subject to the use of the United States for postal, military, naval, and all other government service, and also subject to such regulations as congress may impose, restricting the charges for such government transportation.” It is obvious from these provisions that congress considered the construction of appellant’s railroad to be a matter of national importance warranting the grant of extraordinary aids and concessions by the federal government. In order to carry out the purposes of the act congress granted to the appellant a princely domain, a part of which composes the lands involved in this suit. But it is apparent from the previsions of appellant’s charter above given that this land did not pass to appellant absolutely, and free from all restrictions and limitations as to its use. Appellant received the lands, and now holds them, subject to the purposes specified in its charter, and in strict subordination thereto. It holds them in trust, to carry out the object of its creation, as expressed in § 3 of the charter, namely, for the purpose of “aiding in the construction of said railroad, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war and public stores;” and cannot make any disposition of the lands inconsistent with this pure