A Review of Richard White's Book

by

JANSEN ESTRUP

When President Lincoln lamented during the War of the Rebellion that he had two great enemies, he meant Lee's armies and American business. And yet he knew clearly that he had to unite the USA's east and west as desperately as the North and South. So he scraped up $15 million scarce dollars to create the first of many transcontinental railroads. And then he had to give it on faith to some of the most infamous scoundrels in U.S. History, hoping they would realize his urgent dream.

Richard White's book, Railroaded, is a fine addition to any history buff's library. Subtitled The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, it is an engrossing story of the way railroads changed everything, not just in America, and the many opportunists who created vast fortunes through political cronyism and moral ruthlessness.

The book focuses on the westward growth of America's rail industry, its haphazard, almost cancerous intrusion into our vast heartland and the creation of what one reviewer calls our first corporate behemoth. Its motto, indeed its entire business plan, might have been wrapped up in the quote, “It is easier, more delightful, and more profitable to build with other people's money than with your own.”

In addition to the cash, railroads were given right-of-ways, huge tracts of land and water rights which permitted them to cut down forests, build cities and import cheap labor, all for their own profit.

So corrupt was the process that it eventually led to the U.S. Supreme Court being packed with 'railroad lawyers' – scandal upon scandal, which culminated in Gilded Age excesses which nearly destroyed the nation. Most of the so-called railroad magnates knew little about commerce, building, or labor. What they brought to the table was political influence. Their primary goal was to milk each project and companies large and small for every last penny of profit. As a result, every single one went bankrupt at least once before the close of the century.

And yet, there were heroic deeds accomplished, particularly with regard to the much-acclaimed Golden Spike episode. But the heroes were not named, as corporate history would tell it, Gould, Stanford or Huntington.

The book is thoroughly researched, replete with maps, graphs and references. Sprinkled within are personal diary entries by rank and file employees, reporters and travelers.