i1 OREGON AND CALIFORNIA RAILROAD 277 a part of the road and then it apparently would be easy to gain a loan to complete the road because of the pros- pects of success for the road. Holladay had been in touch with financial circles be- fore entering into the railway business, so it was with comparative ease that he was able to float the ten and a half million dollar bond issue which was bought in the main by German investors. Two things, however, worked against Holladay's suc- cess; first was the changed financial conditions under which he had to work, and secondly the failure of the rail- road to bring in the estimated earnings. Thus had Hol- laday been most judicious in his use of money it would have been impossible to have made the road a success. It is necessary to consider these because some of the rank charges that have been made against Holladay are in no way justified. For example, Gaston says, 59 "Holladay sold in Germany ten and a half million dollars of bonds upon the land grant and the road to be constructed. Ap- plied at the rate of $30,000 per mile of road, these bonds were estimated to build three hundred and fifty miles, or practically to the California line. But by Holladay's reck- less, if not dishonest management, not more than fifty- seven cents on the dollar of the bonds ever went into the construction of the road; so that by the time the track had reached Roseburg from Portland, the proceeds of the bonds were exhausted and !Roseburg remained the south- ern terminus of the road for ten years." We have shown that the estimates of cost of construction wereover $30,000 per mile for the cheapest section of road. The actual cost of construction for that section only amounted to $27,478 per mile. This was not extravagant, but on the other hand quite economical. If the construction was not extrava- gant then the reason for his failure must be looked for elsewhere. •ir-'sn 8 Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. VII, June 1906, page 117. if• I
