In order that a comparison may be made of the terms upon which the respective governments aided railroad construction in Mexico and in our own country, the grants by the U. S. Government to the Union Pacific Company and the Central Pacific Company, are set forth in Appendix II. By this it will be seen that in addition to an outright gift to the companies of 12,800 acres of government land per mile of railroad constructed, a subsidy was granted in the form of a cash loan "equal to $16,000 per mile for that portion of the line between the Missouri River and the base of the Rocky Mountains; $48,000 per mile for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles through the mountain range; $32,000 per mile for the distance intermediate between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada range; $48,000 per mile for the distance of one hundred and fifty miles through the Sierra Nevadas."
The original act provided that the cash subsidy should be a first mortgage upon the road, but by a subsequent amendment it was made a second mortgage, the company being authorized to issue its own bonds to an amount equal to the Government's issue as a first mortgage on the lines. It will be noted that there is no provision for any reversionary interest of the Government in these lines, for which the aid afforded was much greater than any subsidy ever granted by the Mexican
