THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 215 



of the market arose, they were among the first to sink 

 under the weight of their unpopular loan. The result 

 was in accordance with the general opinion of men who 

 knew the true nature of the scheme, and it was a 

 blessing to the country at large, however unfortunate 

 it may have been to a few individuals. 



" If the bonds had been duly negotiated according to 

 programme," says the New York Tribune, " the case 

 would have stood just thus: A few speculators would 

 have subscribed $200,000 and persuaded Congress to 

 build a railroad for them worth fifty times that amount 

 out of the national estate. In a short time they would 

 get back their original investment in dividends. Then 

 they would be the absolute owners of 2000 miles of 

 road, for which they had paid nothing, and probably 

 they would still have also a large quantity of unsold 

 land to divide among themselves. Whether we should 

 have had a repetition of the Credit Mobilier Building- 

 Rings, and a rapid absorption of the profits and estate 

 of the company by a little coterie of inside managers, 

 railway Congressmen, and Christian statesmen, we leave 

 our readers to conjecture. 



" The bonds were offered in Europe and declined. 

 Then the house of Jay Cooke & Co. undertook to place 

 them among the multitude as a popular investment in 

 other words, to persuade the middle classes to advance 

 the money which the nation was ultimately to repay 

 with interest. 



" Probably it was a combination of accidents, rather 

 than any intrinsic defect in the arrangements, which 

 brought this scheme to grief. Similar methods have 

 succeeded before, and, if we are not cautious, will be 

 attempted again. But what we particularly wish to 



