THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 177 



tries. These bondholders are at the mercy of the stock- 

 holders, who are steadily rendering the property worth- 

 less. The only redress of the bondholders is to foreclose 

 the mortgage upon the road, but it is almost impossible 

 to obtain concert of action among them. 



The stockholders meanwhile use the stock to enrich 

 themselves. It is gambled for, flung up and pulled 

 down, and tossed about the Exchange until no one 

 knows what its value will be twenty-four hours ahead. 

 It is good only for purposes of gambling, and the road 

 is left to take care of itself, and the bondholders to get 

 what return they can for their money. So the divi- 

 dends are paid on the stock of the road, and that 

 commodity thus kept on a respectable footing in the 

 stock market, the speculators care very little whether 

 the bondholders receive their interest or not. 



This system of constructing and managing railroads 

 being false and unsound from the first, it is not sur- 

 prising that it should lead to very grave complications 

 in the monetary affairs of the country. Sound busi- 

 ness men, capitalists whose large and honorable ex- 

 perience entitles them to a respectful hearing, have 

 often warned the people of the Republic that this 

 rotten system could not last, and that the efforts of 

 the railroad managers to wring money from the people 

 by their shameful speculations in the stock of their 

 roads must at some time, sooner or later, result in a 

 terrible financial disaster. Such a climax has been 

 reached, and while these pages are passing through the 

 press, the whole country is reeling from the effects of 

 one of the severest convulsions of the century, brought 

 about by the recklessness of a combination of managers 



of railroads and speculators in railroad stocks. 

 12 



