Mr. SLOAN. It secms to be conceded that this railroad company has no legal right to the money that has been paid it for transporting the freight and troops of the Government. There is not the least ground for claiming that this railroad has any legal right to this money. They entered into a contract to which there was no exception. It applied to and was in force in time of peace as well as in time of war, and the contract thus entered into has been kept and werformed on the part of the Government, on there is no reason why this railroad company should not keep and perform the contract upon its part, unless, as is now alleged, it would be a very inequitable and unjust thing to require them todo so, and it a pealsto congress to relieve it from what isa hard bargain. But I submit that no gentleman, certainly not the gentleman who has just taken his seat, [Mr. Woonmuoeu] has attempted to show that this railroad company has made a hard bargain with the Government from which it ought in justice and in equity to be relieved. Sir, what is the extent of the consideration which this railroad company received for carrying free of charge the freights and troops of the Government? It is the most magnificent grant of land that eier has been or ever will be donated by this Government, worth to this company at least 20 million dollars. This company will realize from this magnificent grant of land enough money to build the entire road without the investment of a dollar be sides. At least every dollar invested by the stockholders will be reimbursed to this company from the sale of this land. Now, in comparison with this very large amount which this company has received, the cost of transportation for the Government is very small, and there is no reason in equity or in justice why the Government, in time of war, and when its finances are absorbed in carrying on its military operations, should put its hand into the Treasury and give as a donation, for it is nothing else, to this monopoly, this railroad company to which this GOvernment has already given from the public domain at least 20 million dollars, this further amount which has already been paid it for transportation of freight and troops for the Government. I notice, and I ask this committee to notice, that gentlemen who base this claim upon the ground of equity and justice fail to point out how and why, in an equitable and just ioint of view, the Governmentin its time of nee(, when its resources are taxed to their utmost capacity, should give to this corporation this additional sum, when both the legal right of the Government and every consideration of equity and justice require that the railroad company should perform its part of the contract it enteredinto. t has already received an amp] consideration ten times over for the services which it has performed for the Government and gentlemen will now be unjust to the country, unjust to their constituents who are bearing an onerous bur den of taxation to en iport the Government, if they are willing to give this amountof moncy as a mere donation to this corporation, already wealthy and prosperous. Instead of having been injured by the war this company has never been so prosperous, has never made so much money, as never divided so large dividends. as during the last 5 years. Never could this corporation better aflbrd to carry out the contract into which it has entered than now; and there will never arrive a time when the government will more need that the contract should be performed. I trust that we shall act in this matter as it is our duty tovdo Tmtoct the interests of the Government and the interests of the people. If this were a hard case, ifthis company had received an inadequate consideration, if it were unable to perform its part of the bargain, or if it were a hardship to compel the performance of the contract, I would be willingto join with gentlemen here in relieving the company from its obligations. But there are no such circumstances appealing to our consideration. Taking into view the amount which this company has received from the Government, and its prosperous condition during the war, Idefy gentlemen to state on facts which will convince any impartial mind that any consideration of justice or equity demands that we should now pay this amountof money from the public Treasury to this railroad corporation. We might as well give the money to any other corporation as to this company, which it is admitted has no legal claim, and whose equitable claim, I submit, stands upon as slender a foundation as the legal one.