THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 43 



acres, and to the Atlantic and Pacific road 42,000,000 ; 

 making a total of 135,000,000 acres to the three Pacific 

 roads, or about 200,000 square miles. 



Lands, however, lavishly as they have been given, 

 no longer form the limit of railway expectations. The 

 greed of these corporations has extended to the public 

 funds, and bonds and- money are now demanded with 

 as much coolness as lands. The railway incorporators 

 have learned that with a pliant Congress it is easy to 

 draw from the National Treasury the funds they are 

 not willing to provide for their enterprises. 



In order to effect this, they maintain at Washington 

 a force of paid lobbyists, whose business it is to influ- 

 ence the legislation of Congress by unpatriotic and ille- 

 gal means. What these means are was shown by the 

 investigations attending the Credit Mobilier scandal of 

 the last session. Yet, that the reader may the better 

 understand how these railroad leeches fasten upon the 

 Government, we give the following account of the 

 schemes that were introduced into the Fortieth Con- 

 gress, which was particularly distinguished for them. 

 Many of these schemes were successful : 



"At present," says a correspondent writing from 

 Washington early in the session, "perhaps there is 

 more money in the various railroad schemes than in 

 any other. And this thing is on a scale which the 

 country does not comprehend, notwithstanding the con- 

 stant talk about it. Thus far, in the Fortieth Congress, 

 there have been seventy-two railroad bills introduced 

 into the Senate alone. Eight were presented at the 

 first short session, fifty-two at the second session, and 

 in the two weeks of the present session eleven have 

 been reported and printed. And these last do not in- 



