Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/299

OREGON AND CALIFORNIA RAILROAD 261 railroad and disposing of it at more reasonable rates. It was not until the government land was disposed of and the timber supply of the East had become almost exhausted that the grant became of great value. 37 If the aid received from the Federal government did not assist greatly in the construction of the road, the aid tendered by the State was still more disheartening. The same legislature that had originally designated the Ore- gon Central Company as the company to receive the land grant given by Congress also provided that State aid should be given to the proposed railway. This act pro- vided that whenever the company completed twenty miles of road and had received the patents on the congressional land grants from the government they could deposit two hundred bonds of $1000.00 denominations and the State would pay the interest upon them. They were to be twenty year bonds at 7%, and for each twenty mile section the same provision would hold good as the act says, "until the whole number upon which the State has thus under- taken to pay interest shall be one thousand bonds, of the aggregate nominal value of one million dollars, and the faith of the State is pledged to the payment of the said coupons as they mature, but the state will not pay any of the principal of the said bonds." The company was to refund all moneys paid by the state as interest one year after the maturity of the coupons, and until the time when the company refunded the money the State was to have a prior lien. If twenty miles of the road were not completed within two years and twenty miles each succeeding two years the legisla- ture reserved the right to transfer all rights of the com- pany to another. The aid at best was not a large one but before the act was ever utilized it was repealed by the legislature of 1868 as unconstitutional. 37 The question of the handling of the land* grant will be more fully handled in Chapter V which deals with the Oregon and California Land Grant cases. uw, 1