Daily Los Angeles herald., 1881-02-09
2as Auaeles Aerald.
GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN.


He Tells the New York "sunp Something
about Credit Mobilisr and the Union Pacific,
TO the Editor of the Sttn-
SIR:-Here are some more solld
facts about Credit Mobilier and
Union Pacific:
Dillon. Director, had one-quar-
ter Of the track-laying contract
with General Easement. Tony
Drexel declined to be Director
when I offered him the chance.
He was then busy buying the
Ledger for Childs. I put in Au-
gustus Kountze, the banker, in.
stead of Drexel, who later on
begged me with tears in his eyes to
make q place for him. 1t was too
late.
The day before Dix and Cisco
were chosen offered Moses Taylor
the Presidency of the Union Pa
citic, Having no Idea that held
the power, he declined. thea Of
fered it to A. A. Low. He, too,
failed to take In G.. F. Il. So by
vote of $50. 900, 900 out Of 1920, 000,-
600 my ticket killed Ogden. Ask
Tilden IL 1 didn't run the machine
at that meeting of two hundred
million capital.
At that time Jay Gould was buy
ing one hundred shares of stock
through his Tioga county friend
Bush, to whom l showed the list
of Pacific directors that would be
elected next day. And they were.
What astounding changes! I of.
fered the Cakes Ames contract to
Jay Cooke, Clews, Duncan, Sher-
man, Belmont, Jerome, Garrison,
Vanderbilt, Stewart, Garrett, Nor
gan, William B. Aston, and half
hundred other capitalists of my &C.
Quaintance. They all declined.
They all said 1t was the widest
scheme ever attempted by man.
VIM. H. Macy, of the Leather
Manufacturer Bank, whose son
Sylvanus was my groomsman in
1851; VIM. II. Guoin, who estab-
lished his Liverpool house when l
did mine in 1850; Glidden & Will.
liams, and Nickerson & Baker gave
me my hrst Credit Mobilier checks
VHOtVVV CnCus 4hCSc ucu SuOQ tu
have monuments for their great
Judgment, enterprise and faith in
q. F. T.
One special point I made In the
Act Of Congress was that the road
should be built of American iron.
So should our ships be built OF
American iron.
Huntington offered me 1000
shares of Central Pacific for my
Congressional work. 1 didn't con.
slider 1t worth accepting. Its pres
emit value is perhaps 100000.
gave Cyrus II. Mccormick and
Ben Holiday their 100000 inter-
est in Credit Mobiler. BY the way,
I worked on Durant in 1923 for
six months before got him into
the U. P.
On the day when Thad Stevens
and Garfield tried to kill the Union
Pacific bill in Congress-in order to
strike for more stamps for their
Ring Of forty Republicans-Wash-
burn gave me full credit for my
share in the enterprise. "Who is
in this great enterprise?" he asked.
"rhe capitalists of the land?" No.
"The railway kingsW No. Then,
looking at me as L sat in the gal
lery beside Durant aud Hunting
ton, "Tnis mammoth undertaking
IL in the hands of such adventures
as George Francis Train aud Sam.
uel Hallettw Loud applause from
the Radicals. Where 10 WASH
burn now? And where am !?
To show how little faith shrewd
business men had in my Pacific
Railway scheme in 1864, let me
mention that my father-in.law, as
trustee for his daughter, sold ST., 600
Credit Mobilier stock, which gave
her for Christmas present, for
eighty cents on the dollar. The
purchasers must have rec eived
$500, 900 in dividends.
/ discovered then that our rail-
way kings were as small as our
statesmen. Some of our men of
smallest brain are milliOnaires in
Wall street. Once ander way any
body can sign u check. After the
first million, Topsey "grows."
Compound interest does it.
I hawked $500. 600. 600 first mort.
gage bonds of the Union Pacific all
over Wall street to try to get capt.
talists to advance seventy per cent.
on them. No millionaire would
touch such security. The idea of
putting rails over the Rocky Noun
tains! Seth Hale was the only
man bold enough to lend me $780,
600 on the Union Pacific three
months note, with these first mort.
gage bonds as collateral, at sixty.
At the same time 1 lent Melliss,
financial editor Of the World, $780,
600 on telegraph stock to enable
Marble to buy the World shares of
Belmont and Cranston.
In order to boom the bonds we
paid Shsttuck $685. 900 salary to
spend half million in bribing the
prese; and SO we succeeded In get.
ting stamps enough to build the
road. 1t was curious to see how
anxious the Republican journals
that had been abusing US were to
he seduced.
saw Allen and the Boston set
pay over $30,000,000 in the front
Office as bogus subscription to get
control, and then saw them get the
money again at the back door.
Abraham Lincoln was offered
500, 900 to veto the Union Pacific
bill. But he was not that kind of
q man.
GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN.