Railroads Quotes
Crocker’s railroad was way behind schedule for laying of track. The problem was an acute shortage of manpower. Someone suggested that they try Chinese labor. However Crocker’s superintendent of construction, James Strobridge, felt that they were too small, not strong enough, and inexperienced at construction. Soon Crocker had 11,000 Chinese workers. The Chinese were wonderful construction workers and the Southern Pacific Railroad thrived as other employers also began using Chinese workers.
In 1902 there was a major coal and railroad labor crisis. The owners and operators refused to negotiate or bargain with labor: This quotation is very famous because it is an iconic picture of the views and attitudes of the large industiralists at the turn of the 20th Century. More than opposing labor unions, they actually believed that God had selected them to run the economic and business affairs of the country if not the world. It was their Christian values and paternalism that the workers should look to in order to determine the rights and priviliges of the working man or woman. This upper class attitude was one of the major reasons that class warfare broke into the open. Ironically, there was not much difference between the attidudes of the industiral leaders and the notions of fudalism.
There was great debate over the value and practicality of railroads. Paine demonstrated a vision which few people of his era had.
His father, Henry Ford, did not agree that the Airplane would be so important, but the son’s vision made Ford the largest airplane manufacturer in America.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. Railroads were vicious monopolies at the time. One technique they used was to build the railroad to the next town. The town would not only prosper by being able to ship its goods and produce back to other towns and cities. Once the town prospered a little, the railroad would extend the line to another town. Then they would raise the rates dramatically for the previous town. If they complained or some farmers or merchants would no longer use the railroad, the railroad would threaten to bypass the town and never stop to pick up and deliver goods. There was no government regulation that said that all towns had to pay the same rate or even a rate that was rationally related to the distance. Often the rate hikes were continued until the town was ruined. The only safety was for the towns or cities at the end where the railroad had to stop there to get cargo from ships or transfer to them. There was no legal requirement for railroads to be fair or reasonable.
Lord Vishwakarma, the son of Brahma, is the Hindu Patron God of Builders and Engineers. He designed the transport – chariot – for the Gods.
While all the benefits of building the Trans-Continental Railroad that were claimed for the public during the Congressional debate turned out to be untrue, many of them were sincerely believed by the Congressmembers and special interests who advocated them. Not only were the benefits claimed unreal in practice, but none of the negative consequences were anticipated. (The destruction of the great Buffalo herd, and the huge foreign immigration were just two.) At the same time, the true benefits were also unanticipated. (The development of the telegraph system of the nation and the standardization of time zones in the country are two of these.) It is a profound historical example of unanticipated consequences, both good and bad, of government policy and programs.
Plessy v. Ferguson was one of the worst Supreme Court Decisions in American history. It held that states could provide and/or mandate racially segregated facilities and institutions so long as they were equal.
Writing about the railroad magnates and monopolists of his day:
Dagestan was the poorest of the Soviet States, It was then mainly populated by feuding Muslim sects who were in constant conflict with each other and an Islamic nationalist group that wanted independence from Russia. There were also a large number of bandits in what was a frontier culture of banditry and lawlessness.
