The Price Of Speed: Railroads Of The American West

Term Paper Title	The Price Of Speed: Railroads Of The American West
# of Words	4843
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	19.37

The Price of Speed: Railroads of the American West

English 205s

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Outline

Introduction

I. How the railroads promoted themselves

A. To the Government

B. To businesses

C. To farmers and communities

II.     The founders actions

A. Founders greed

B. Founders profited

C. Extravagance

D. Mismanagement

III. Results to Railroads

A. Land Grant Scandals

B. Bankruptcies

E. Public disdain

F. Government intervention

Conclusion

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The Price of Speed: Railroads of the American West
A railroad, fellow citizens, is a machine, and one of the most beautiful and perfect labor- saving machines.  It well suits the energy of the American people.  They love to go ahead fast, and to go with power.  They love to annihilate the magnificent distances.
     Keith Wheeler, in The Railroaders, quotes a promoter�s speech lobbying for support in Congress (28).  The founders of the railroads threw away the traditional economic ways of meeting the supply for the demand and quite possibly were the originators of �build it and they will come.�  The time was 1850 and in their favor were the facts that the expansion west was slow, the government owned vast amounts of land and the desire for trade with Europe was great.  Some called the founders visionaries but in reality, they were businessmen concerned only with the bottom line -- profit.
Throughout the founders promotions to gain public and government support the founders were planning their future and fortunes.  Most people welcomed the idea of a new and faster transportation.  However, the government that was looking for a way to improve transportation questioned the feasibility, and some of the public had misgivings about these machines.  John F. Stover, in The Life and Decline of the American Railroad, quotes a school board members� opinion for this new machine: �If God had designed that His intelligent creatures should travel at the frightful speed of 15 miles an hour by steam, He would have foretold it through His holy prophets.  It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to Hell� (16).  However, the founders were shrewd and lured the people in with prospects of a future with a bustling economy, rich lands, and a civilized nation.  The promises of easy fortunes and robust farms were hard to resist.  Until the West could be civilized, no one would prosper except the founders.
Many historians of the 20th Century romanticize the railroads and depict them as having civilized the West.  The impact of railroads in the American West is undeniable.  They were our first major industry.  The railroads brought about or promoted other industries growth such as coal, steel and most importantly faster settlement.  However, it could be questioned, did the �Iron Horse� civilize the West or did the West civilize the railroad and at the expense of whom or what?  While promoters for railroads of the American West promised a bright future of prosperity to others, the founders� greed for profit, their extravagance and their mismanaging of funds caused the resulting scandals, bankruptcies, public disdain and government intervention.
The founders promoted railroad development as a medium to attain prosperity, giving the
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image of a bright future for everyone.  To obtain support of the railroad ventures they first needed to convince the government, then the private sectors of society.  According to Keith L. Bryant Jr., in �Entering the Global Economy,� the founders presented to Congress a proposal to solve the government quest for better transportation, with a price.  He states that to build these railroads a tremendous amount of financing would be needed; specifically, �loans, land grants, and financial guarantees" (215) from the government.  Bryant quotes one promoter, Asa Whitney, lobbying that railroads would make an 'iron path� to obtain the trade with Europe (213).  He adds that politician William Gilpin argued that Congress was practically keeping �the West in bondage�(214).  In her book Passage to Union, Sarah H. Gordon confir...

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