Great Fortunes from Railroads

Great Fortunes from Railroads

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Title: Great Fortunes from Railroads
Author: Gustavus Myers
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FORTUNES FROM RAILROADS ***

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HISTORY OF THE GREAT AMERICAN FORTUNES
BY GUSTAVUS MYERS
AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF TAMMANY HALL," "HISTORY
OF PUBLIC FRANCHISES IN NEW YORK CITY," ETC.

VOL. II
GREAT FORTUNES FROM RAILROADS

I. THE SEIZURE OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
II. A NECESSARY CONTRAST
III. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE VANDERBILT FORTUNE
IV. THE ONRUSH OF THE VANDERBILT FORTUNE
V. THE VANDERBILT FORTUNE INCREASES MANIFOLD
VI. THE ENTAILING OF THE VANDERBILT FORTUNE
VII. THE VANDERBILT FORTUNE IN THE PRESENT
GENERATION
VIII. FURTHER ASPECTS OF THE VANDERBILT FORTUNE
IX. THE RISE OR THE GOULD FORTUNE
X. THE SECOND STAGE OF THE GOULD FORTUNE
XI. THE GOULD FORTUNE BOUNDS FORWARD
XII. THE GOULD FORTUNE AND SOME ANTECEDENT
FACTORS
XIII. FURTHER ASPECTS OF THE VANDERBILT FORTUNE 260

PART III

THE GREAT FORTUNES FROM RAILROADS

CHAPTER I
THE SEIZURE OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Before setting out to relate in detail the narrative of the amassing of the
great individual fortunes from railroads, it is advisable to present a
preliminary survey of the concatenating circumstances leading up to the
time when these vast fortunes were rolled together. Without this
explanation, this work would be deficient in clarity, and would leave
unelucidated many important points, the absence of which might puzzle
or vex the reader.
Although industrial establishments, as exemplified by mills, factories
and shops, much preceded the construction of railroads, yet the next
great group of fortunes to develop after, and along with, those from
land were the fortunes plucked from the control and manipulation of
railroad systems.
THE LAGGING FACTORY FORTUNES.
Under the first stages of the old chaotic competitive system, in which
factory warred against factory, and an intense struggle for survival and
ascendency enveloped the whole tense sphere of manufacturing, no
striking industrial fortunes were made.
Fortunate was that factory owner regarded who could claim $250,000
clear. All of those modern and complex factors offering such
unbounded opportunities for gathering in spoils mounting into the
hundreds of millions of dollars, were either unknown or in an inchoate
or rudimentary state. Invention, if we may put it so, was just
blossoming forth. Hand labor was largely prevalent. Huge
combinations were undreamed of; paper capitalization as embodied in
the fictitious issues of immense quantities of bonds and stocks was not
yet a part of the devices of the factory owner, although it was a fixed
plan of the bankers and insurance companies.

The factory owner was the supreme type of that sheer individualism
which had burst forth from the restraints of feudalism. He stood alone
fighting his commercial contests with persistent personal doggedness.
Beneath his occasional benevolence and his religious professions was a
wild ardor in the checkmating or bankruptcy of his competitors. These
were his enemies; he fought them with every mercantile weapon, and
they him; and none gave quarter.
Apart from the destructive character of this incessant warfare, dooming
many of the combatants, other intervening factors had the tendency of
holding back the factory owners' quick progress-- obstacles and
drawbacks copiously described in later and more appropriate parts of
this work.
MIGHT OF THE RAILROAD OWNERS.
In contrast to the slow, almost creeping pace of the factory owners in
the race for wealth, the railroad owners sprang at once into the lists of
mighty wealth-possessers, armed with the most comprehensive and
puissant powers and privileges, and vested with a sweep of properties
beside which those of the petty industrial bosses were puny. Railroad
owners, we say; the distinction is necessary between the