212 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT. 



the Cookes had committed a serious error in connecting 

 themselves with the scheme. 



The truth is, the Cookes had committed a very serious 

 error in undertaking the management of this loan. 

 The Northern Pacific scheme never possessed the confi- 

 dence of the people of the country, and Jay Cooke & 

 Co. undertook too much in endeavoring to carry it 

 through. Their judgment may have been, and doubt- 

 less was, satisfied, but the people were not so easily de- 

 ceived. They did not see the necessity for the road, in 

 the first place, nor could they understand how the road 

 was to earn the money needed to pay the interest on its 

 loan after discharging its ordinary expenses. 



The loan was extensively advertised, and the more 

 complaisant section of the newspaper press puffed it 

 liberally. It was declared to be equal to any of the 

 loans of the United States. The bonds were pronounced 

 by some papers better than Five-Twenties. The ad- 

 vantges of the scheme, as they appeared to those in 

 charge of it, were set forth in glowing terms, and the 

 Cookes lent the whole force of 'their reputation and 

 their great popularity to the task of popularizing the 

 loan. But without avail. Many there were who pur- 

 chased the bonds, and thus placed their funds at the 

 mercy of the road, but the loan, though it absorbed 

 immense sums, never became popular. 



The mass of the people could not forget that this loan 

 was in behalf of a road that was twenty years in ad- 

 vance of the demand for it. They could not forget 

 that the road was to be constructed through an unin- 

 habited region, much of which never would be fit for 

 the dwellings of human beings; and much of which 

 was exposed to the fury of hostile savages, who would 



