52 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



CHAPTER III. 



WATERED STOCKS. 



Adroitness of Railroad Managers in securing Valuable Privileges from the 

 Public Recklessness of the People in granting the Demands of the Road 

 The only Restraints imposed How the People made it possible for the 

 Corporations to fleece them How to Build a Road without Subscribing the 

 necessary Funds A False System The Story of the Credit Mobilier Swindle 

 How the Pacific Railroad bled the National Treasury New System of Rail- 

 road Financiering The Process of " Stock Watering " Instances of success- 

 ful Stock Watering How a Bankrupt Road was made to pay Good Dividends 

 Successful Policy of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company Vanderbilt's 

 Master Stroke Who pays for Watered Stock A Lesson for the People. 



WE have seen the eagerness and success with which 

 the railroad corporations of the present day seize upon 

 the public lands, paying the public nothing in return for 

 the immense wealth thus given them ; and we have as- 

 serted that it is in reality the people who build the 

 roads for the benefit of these corporations. The facts 

 presented sustain our assertion. 



It is the boast of the modern railway director that he 

 is the friend of the public, and that his work is entirely 

 for the good of the community. He modestly keeps 

 himself in the background, and speaks of his road only, 

 and of the immense advantages that it will bestow upon 

 the regions through which it is to pass, and so plausible 

 and well delivered are his words, that he succeeds in 

 making the public believe that he is really working for 

 the good of others, and investing his own capital for the 

 benefit of the community, without thought for himself. 



