The end of Gould's looting of the Erie railroad was now in sight. However the small stockholders might assent, the large English stockholders, some of whom had invidious schemes of their own in the way of which Gould stood, were determined to gain control themselves.
GOULD'S DIRECTORS BRIBED TO RESIGN.
They made no further attempt to resort to the law. A fund of $300,000 was sent over by them to their American agents with which to bribe a number of Gould's directors to resign. As Gould had used these directors as catspaws, they were aggrieved because he had kept all of the loot himself. If he had even partly divided, their sentiments would have been quite different. The $300,000 bribery fund was distributed among them, and they carried out their part of the bargain by resigning. [Footnote: Assembly Document No. 98, 1873: xii and xiii. The English stockholders took no chances on this occasion. The committee reported that not until the directors had resigned did they "receive their price." ] The Assembly Investigating Committee of 1873 referred carelessly to the English stockholders as being "impatient at the law's delay" and therefore taking matters into their own hands. If a poor man or a trade union had become "impatient at the law's delay" and sought an illegal remedy, the judiciary would have quickly pronounced condign punishment and voided the whole proceeding. The boasted "majesty of law" was a majesty to which the underdogs only were expected to look up to in fear and trepidation.
When the English stockholders elected their own board Gould obtained an injunction from the courts. This writ was absolutely disregarded, and the anti-Gould faction on March 11, 1872, seized possession of the offices and books of the company by physical force. Did the courts punish these men for criminal contempt? No effort was made to. Many a worker or labor union leader had been sent to jail (and has been since), for "contempt of court," but the courts evidently have been willing enough to stomach all of the contempt profusely shown for them by the puissant rich. The propertyless owned nothing, not to speak of a judge, but the capitalists owned whole strings of judges, and those whom they did not own or corrupt were generally influenced to their side by association or environment. "All of this," reported the Assembly Investigating Committee of 1873, speaking of the means employed to overthrow Gould, "has been done without authority of law." But no law was invoked by the officials to make the participants account for their illegal acts.
THE LEGISLATURE BRIBED AGAIN.
It seems that the entire amount, including the large fees paid to agents and lawyers, corruptly expended by the English capitalists in ousting Gould, was $750,000. Did they foot this bill out of their own pockets? By no means. They arranged the reimbursements by voting this sum to themselves out of the Erie Railroad treasury; [Footnote: Assembly Document No. 98, 1873: xii and xvi.] that is to say, they compelled the public to shoulder it by adding to the bonded burdens on which the people were taxed to pay interest.
To complete their control they bribed the New York Legislature to repeal the Classification Act. As has been shown, the Legislature of 1872 was considered a "reform" body, and it also has been brought out how Vanderbilt bribed it to give him invaluable public franchises and large grants of public money. In fact, other railroad magnates as well as he systematically bribed; and it is clear that they contributed jointly a pool of money both to buy laws and to prevent the passage of objectionable acts. "It appears conclusive," reported the Assembly Investigating Committee of 1873, "that a large amount— reported by one witness at $100,000—was appropriated for legislative purposes by the railroad interest in 1872, and that this [$30,000] was Erie's proportion." [Footnote: Ibid., xvii.] One of the lobbyists, James D. Barber, "a ruling spirit in the Republican party," admitted receiving $50,000 from the Vanderbilts. [Footnote: Ibid., 633.] While uniting to suppress bills feared by them all, each of the magnates bribed to foil the others' purposes.
GOULD'S DIRECT ERIE THEFTS WERE $12,000,000.
What did Gould's plunder amount to? His direct thefts, by reason of his Erie frauds, seem to have reached more than twelve million dollars, all, or nearly all, of which he personally kept.
That sum, considering the falling prices of commodities after the panic of 1873, and comparable with current standards of cost and living, was equivalent to perhaps double the amount at present. Various approximations of his thefts were made. After a minute examination of the Erie railroad's books, Augustus Stein, an expert accountant, testified before the "Hepburn Committee" (the New York Assembly Investigating Committee of 1879) that Gould had himself pocketed twelve or thirteen million dollars. [Footnote: Q.—Do you think you could remember the aggregate amount of wrong-doing on the part of Mr. Gould that you have discovered?