In Washington the lobbyists were demanding blackmail with threats of organized hostility. Speculators in Well Street were a unit in bearing the stock and in attacking the credit of the Company.
The stock of the Credit Mobilier up to the assignment by Ames to the seven trustees, had not met with anything like a ready sale. For reasons of policy, some of this was assigned to members of Congress, Senators, and other public men. Some being paid for, others had it carried on their account. After the crisis had passed, the value of the stock rapidly appreciated and in the forthcoming political campaign the subornation of Congress in the interest of the Credit Mobilier by the use of this stock was made an issue and occasioned a great outcry. The accusation was thoroughly investigated by two committees during the next session and it was clearly proven to have been unfounded, so far as members of Congress having received the stock as bribes, it being demonstrated that the Company had no further favors to ask from Congress and that the members receiving it had paid the market value therefor. Notwithstanding, Oakes Ames was called to the bar of the House and severely censured for having sold it to them. The facts were, popular clamor demanded a scapegoat and Ames was selected. This, and the anxiety and strain of the load he had been carrying proved too much for him and he died May 8th, 1873. After his death the voice of calumny silenced, his work and character received the recognition it so well deserved.
The cost of material used in the construction of the road was enormous, thus the ties brought from the East ran as high as two dollars and fifty cents laid down in Omaha. The rails for the first four hundred and forty miles one hundred and thirty-five dollars per ton. This was before railroad connection was established between Council Bluffs and the East. After that the price got down to ninety-seven dollars and fifty cents per ton.
The pay of laborers ran from two dollars and twenty-five cents to three dollars and fifty cents per day. Train men two hundred dollars per month for conductors, one hundred and twenty-five dollars for brakemen, two hundred dollars to two hundred and fifty dollars for engineers, and one hundred and fifty dollars to one hundred and seventy-five dollars for firemen. Telegraph operators eighty dollars to a hundred dollars.
At times the Company (Credit Mobilier) was paying as high as five hundred thousand dollars per month interest. And in fact it was claimed by several of the directors that the paramount reason for the haste displayed in building the road was not so much the competition with the Central Pacific as it was to get rid of the enormous interest charges they were paying and which they would cut off upon the road being accepted by the Government and the consequent receipt of Government Bonds.[(Back to Content)]
CHAPTER IV.
Commencement of the work.
Selection of Omaha as Eastern Terminus — Celebration Over Breaking Ground — Speech, George Francis Train — Commencement of Work — Conditions October, 1864 — Routes Considered.
The first move towards the construction of the road was the selection of an eastern terminus which by the Charter was left to the President of the United States. This was fixed by President Lincoln on December 2nd, 1863, the official announcement being as follows: "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do upon application of said Company (The Union Pacific Railroad) designate and establish such first above named point on the western boundary of the state of Iowa east of and opposite to the east line of Section Ten in Township fifteen, north of range thirteen, east of the sixth principal Meridian in the territory of Nebraska."
"Done at the city of Washington this 7th day of March in the year of our Lord 1864.