Sunday, December 28, 2014
On the Crazy and Circuitous Routes of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads
Yeah, this is what happens when you mix business and politics, a shitload of greedy and asinine politicians trying to bring home the bacon (in this instance, having a railroad traveling through your district)...................................................................................P.S. This of course stands in sharp contrast to the Great Northern Railroad of James J. Hill in which no government involvement occurred and in which the route was relatively straight.
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4 comments:
The real "robber barons" of this era were the government.
Apples, oranges. The GN served Mpls and the Pacific NW. The UP
carried traffic from the central
Midwest (Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis,etc) to the big cities of California. We agree that Hill
avoided the stock market scandals
that plagued the Union Pacific and was prescient in developing
agriculture and businesses that
would provide customers.
dmarks, the government in that era was owned by the robber barons. The former followed orders and facilitated the latter in fleecing their fellow citizens.
So, BB, are you saying that the fact that these railroads went through pretty much every district of every Congressman who voted for and dished out taxpayer money to finance these boondoggles (one of which went bankrupt within a decade) was just one big coincidence?......And I agree that the government was owned by the robber barons; Robert Fulton, Leland Stanford, the Cornells, Thomas Durant, Grenville Dodge, Edward Collins, etc..
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