Political Quotes

“It is interesting that you talk about, there was a great little short book, and I don't remember the title of it, gentleman, that came out with some of the very facts that you just mentioned, and it was a study of how the government in the 1800s got involved in the six major industries in America because the assumption was that the Federal Government has to get involved in these big industries to make us competitive in an industrial world. They got involved in the oil industry, the steamship industry, the steel industry; of course the railroad industry. The example you're talking about, again the government created this incentive that you're paid by the mile. So among other things they did, they used cheap steel rails which wore out right away and wooden ties that were not treated, and also they wouldn't blast which was expensive to go up a steep grade but they would make these long grades back and forth. The result was the company that used all the government money had a rail line that you couldn't maintain it. And, as you said, the northern route was done totally with private money. They had to scrimp and borrow. They built a little piece at a time. At the end of what they could built, they would form a little town and they would give them free shipping to encourage the trade and they built the railroad in pieces that way using the cash that they had.”