580 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



donees own and manage the road, and, receiving a fixed 

 and assured interest upon their bonds, enjoy a further right 

 to exact an additional sum, and one as large as they are 

 able to make it, from the developing business of the coun- 

 try, as dividends on the stock. Instances of this form of 

 railroad financiering need not be specified, for it is now the 

 common course of Western railroad construction. 



Perhaps the best instance on record of the manner in 

 which skillful directors of a railroad can procure the con- 

 struction of their road at the cost of other parties, and 

 secure the profits to themselves, is afforded, by the history 

 of the notorious Credit Mobilier company, which con- 

 structed the Union Pacific Railway; and, though the story 

 is now old, it will bear repeating here: 



"The early history of the Pacific Railroad is a story 

 of constant struggles and disappointments. It seemed to 

 the soundest capitalists a piece of mere fool-hardiness to 

 undertake to build a railroad across the continent and over 

 the Rocky Mountains, and, although government aid was 

 liberally pledged to the undertaking, it did not, for a long 

 time, attract to it the capital it needed. At length, after 

 many struggles, the doubt which had attended the enter- 

 prise was ended. Capital was found, and with it men 

 ready to carry on the work. In September, 1864, a con- 

 tract was entered into between the Union Pacific Company 

 and H. W. Hoxie for the building by the said Hoxie of 

 one hundred miles of the road, from Omaha west. Mr. 

 Hoxie at once assigned this contract to a company, as had 

 been the understanding from the first. This company, 

 then comparatively unknown, but since very famous, was 

 known as the Credit Mobilier of America. The company 

 had bought up an old charter that had been granted by the 

 Legislature of Pennsylvania to another company in that 

 State, but which had not been used by them. 



''In 1865 or 1866, the late Oakes Ames, then a mem- 



