why they had voted such great subsidies, such immense land grants and
such sweeping and unprecedented privileges to private corporations,
could fall back upon the justification (and a legitimate one it
seemed) that to get the railroads built, public encouragement and aid
were necessary.

Many of the projectors of railroads were small tradesmen, landlords,
mill owners, merchants, bankers, associated politicians and lawyers.
Not infrequently, however, did it happen that some charters and
grants were obtained by politicians and lawyers who, at best, were
impecunious sharpers. Their greatest asset was a devious knowledge of
how to get something for nothing. With a grandiloquent front and a
superb bluff they would organize a company to build a railroad from
this to that point; an undertaking costing millions, while perhaps
they could not pay their board bill. An arrangement with a printer to
turn out stock issues on credit was easy; with the promise of batches
of this stock, they would then get a sufficient number of legislators
to vote a charter, money and land.

After that, the future was rosy. Bankers, either in the United States
or abroad, could always be found to buy out the franchise or finance
it. In fact, the bankers, who themselves were well schooled in the
art of bribery and other forms of corruption, [Footnote: "Schooled in
the art of bribery."--In previous chapters many facts have been
brought out showing the extent of corrupt methods used by the
bankers. The great scandal caused in Pennsylvania in 1840 by the
revelations of the persistent bribery carried on by the United States
Bank for many years, was only one of many such scandals throughout
the United States. One of the most characteristic phases of the
reports of the various legislative investigating committees was the