42 G. S. CALLENDER 



general acts were passed granting permission to the counties 

 to issue bonds for this purpose. During the same time the 

 federal government made large grants of land to the states, 

 which were turned over to railway companies; and, in one 

 case, the Union and Central Pacific railways, gave bond sub- 

 sidies as well. Thus so long as corporations found difficulty 

 in raising the capital required to build railway lines, the credit 

 of the national, state, and local government was freely used 

 to assist them. 



The question naturally arises now whether this movement 

 at the beginning was due entirely to the difficulty of securing 

 sufficient capital by means of private enterprise. Was there 

 no feeling on the part of the American people that the busi- 

 ness of supplying transportation and banking facilities could 

 not be safely intrusted to private enterprise? Was there no 

 widespread public opposition to corporations as such? To 

 answer that question, it is necessary to examine the discus- 

 sions which preceded the various public enterprises as they ap- 

 pear in the messages of governors, the reports of legislative 

 committees, and the congressional debates on internal im- 

 provements. Such ideas were not entirely absent from these 

 discussions. Thus the New York canal commissioners in their 

 first report on the Erie canal devoted a few remarks to the 

 question of whether the canal should be built at public or 

 private expense, and protested against a grant to private per- 

 sons or companies : 



Too great a national interest is at stake. It must not 

 become the subject of a job or a fund for speculation. Among 

 many other objections there is one insuperable, — that it would 

 defeat the contemplated cheapness of transportation. It 

 should always, on occasions of this sort, be recollected that the 

 reasons adduced for grants to individuals in Europe apply 

 inversely here. Few of our public citizens have more money 

 than they want, and, of the many who want, few find facilities 

 for obtaining it; but the public can readily, at a fair interest, 

 command any reasonable sum. Moreover, such large ex- 

 penditures can be more economically made under public 

 authority than by the care and vigilance of any company. 



