Full Text of HR0305 101st General Assembly
HR0305 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, With the advent of the railroad in the 1820s, many | 3 | | Americans held a vision
of binding the nation together through | 4 | | the construction of a railroad across the country
from the | 5 | | Atlantic to the Pacific; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, The State of Illinois recognizes the importance of | 7 | | honoring efforts that
provide common benefit and promote | 8 | | opportunity for all its people; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific | 10 | | Railroad Act in 1862 to
provide federal support for the | 11 | | building of the first transcontinental railroad; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, The Central Pacific Railroad Company started | 13 | | building in
Sacramento, California and continued east across | 14 | | the Sierra Nevada Mountains, while a second
company, the Union | 15 | | Pacific Railroad, built westward from the Missouri
River near | 16 | | the Iowa-Nebraska border; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, Building the first major national transportation | 18 | | infrastructure necessitated
the employment of thousands of | 19 | | workers, many of them Chinese and Irish immigrants,
Mormons, | 20 | | Native Americans, Free Blacks, and others who worked together
| 21 | | to construct the railroad; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, The Transcontinental Railroad required the | 2 | | building of over 50 bridges and
trestles and 15 tunnels through | 3 | | the most challenging terrain; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, United States industrialists recruited thousands | 5 | | of Chinese workers to assist
in the construction of the | 6 | | railroad; these laborers, who made up to 80 percent of the
| 7 | | western workforce, were paid substandard wages and faced | 8 | | grueling hours and extremely
harsh conditions in order to lay | 9 | | hundreds of miles of track; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, The First Transcontinental Railroad was completed | 11 | | on May 10, 1869 by the
joining of the two tracks with a | 12 | | symbolic "golden spike" at Promontory, Utah; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, The United States Department of Labor awarded the | 14 | | Chinese railroad
workers a place on the department's Hall of | 15 | | Honor in 2014 on the 145th Anniversary of
the railroad's | 16 | | completion; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, Before the completion of the Transcontinental | 18 | | Railroad, a journey across the United States took six months; | 19 | | after the railroad's completion, it took one week; the cost of | 20 | | such a trip was reduced from $1,000 to $150; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, The impact of the Transcontinental Railroad in the | 2 | | 19th century has been
likened to the impact of the internet in | 3 | | the 21st century, transforming communications,
commerce, and | 4 | | industry and facilitating the movement of peoples across the | 5 | | country, greatly increasing the global presence of the United | 6 | | States; therefore, be it
| 7 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 8 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 9 | | schools and leaders across the State of Illinois are encouraged | 10 | | to observe
May 10, 2019 as the 150th anniversary of the | 11 | | completion of the Transcontinental
Railroad and celebrate the | 12 | | tireless efforts of all of those who overcame brutal obstacles,
| 13 | | both natural and technological, to achieve the dream of uniting | 14 | | the country from coast to
coast; and be it further | 15 | | RESOLVED, That we declare May 10, 2019 as "Transcontinental | 16 | | Railroad Day" in the State of Illinois; and be it further
| 17 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 18 | | presented to the Illinois
Department of Education and each | 19 | | Illinois state university.
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