Mr. NORTON. Mr. President, the State of Minnesota certainly has no disposition to die State to the State of Wisconsin upon this subjse t, or upon any other; and at the same time that she has no such disposition, she is certainly not disposed to allow the State of Wisconsin to dictate to her what shall be the stem of railroads within her State. The roa built by this Wine na and StPeters Railroad company is one of the land grant roads built in pursuance of and in carrying out the general railroad system of Minnesota. The proposition of the Senfrom Wisconsin is to cou.pel Minnesota to change that railroad system and construct a read some 40 miles to make an eastern connection which she can make in 27 and a half miles. Neither the the people of the city of Wine na, nor this company, nor the State of Minnesota has any sort of objection to the construction of a bridge at LaCrosse whenever the railroads at that point or the State of Wisconsin shall want it. We are entirely willing that the shall construct a bridge there, and we thinkt atit is not asking too much that the State of Wisconsin should consent to the construction of this bridge at Wine na. As I said before, there is no railroad company in Minnesota authorized to construct a road from Wine na to LaCrosse on the west side of the river. There is a road through southern Minnesota touching the riveropposlte LaCrosse. Thatis a land grant road, and one being constructed in pursuance of the general railroad system of the State. The company constructing the road louchin at Wine na have authority from the State ofWise onsin to construct a road on the east side of the river a distance of 27 and 47/100ths miles to a oint on the Milwaukee and LaCrosse road. Now if we should be compelled in Minnesota to construct a road on the west side of the river and cross at LaCrosse we should be required to construct a road 15 miles longer to reach the same point on the east side of the river, and at a cost estimated from surveys on the west side of the river of something nearly 3 quarters of a million dollars more than the cost of a road on the east side connecting at the same point with the Milwaukee and LaCrosse road. It is true the road on the east side of the river is not yet constructed, but it is in process of construc 1tion, and I am assured wr lbe constructed this summer. This company desire the privilege of building the bridge, so that by the time the road is constructed, or nearly by that time, the bridge may be completed and afford a contin peius connection and communication with the 9. es. The Senator says that Wisconsin has refused to consent to the construction of this bridge. The Senator will allow me to say that he is misinformed. The truth is, that late in the session of the Legislature of Wisconsin application was made for the consent of that State to construct this bridge, that the bill in the House passed through the ComWhole, but owing to the pressure of business, it bein near the end of the session, it was not reache and was not acted upon, and in point of fact there was no refusal on the part of the Legislature of Wisconsin to consent to the construction of this bridge. Now, I think I can explain to the Senate in a very few words the precise condition of this matter. LaCrosse lies some 40 miles below Wine na. It is the terminus of the Milwaukee and LaCrosse road on the east and of the Southern Minnesota railroad on the west side of the river. Wine na is the terminus of the Wine na and StPeters road on the west side and the terminus of the LaCrosse, Trempealeau, and Prese ott road on the east side 0 the river. I am informed, and I have had an opportunity to know something myself in regard to the fact, that the only interest in the State of Wisconsin that opposes the construction of this bridge at Wine na is the local influence of the city of LaCrosse. We are entirely willin that that local interest shall be subserved so fir as it may be by the construction of a bridge at that point; and all we ask of them is that they Will not object to the construction of this bridge at the city of Wine na, which is certainly quite as much required and demanded by the business and commercial interests of the 2 States as is the construction of a bridge at LaCrosse. I hope that the Senate will not, by the adoption of this amendment, place this matter in the position that it would be in ofcontinning a contest between those 2 States which must inev itably result in the failure to construct any bridge at all.