Competition made the price of flour and cloth and shoes equal and
reasonable; why should it make fares and freights unequal and
unreasonable? Few indeed were they who could be made to see that the
true cause of complaint was with an economical theory misapplied... The
system was, indeed, fairly honeycombed with jobbery and corruption.
-from "The Railroad Problem" In the middle to late 19th century, a
morass of civic and social concerns ensnared private corporations-the
railroads-that provided what was essentially a public service. The
"railroad problem" was only beginning to dramatically impact the United
States when, in 1878, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., an expert on railroad
management and the future president of the Union Pacific Railroad wrote
Railroads: Their Origin and Problems. Through an exploration of the
state of the industry in the U.S., Great Britain, and Europe, Adams
examines issues of free trade, corporate power, government support of a
public utility, and even social engineering: how do technology and the
government's power to tax and subsidize shape society? The great
railroads of the 19th century may have passed into history, but the
issues they raised continue to concern us today. American businessman
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR. (1835-1915), the grandson of John Quincy
Adams, was educated at Harvard and served in the Union Army during the
Civil War, achieving the rank of brigadier general.
