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.One hasty story painted Fisk as a representativepostwar financier, coarse, noisy, boastful, ignorant, who had swindled thegovernment during the Civil War, saddling the American people with taxesthat would take years to free themselves from. From a background as asharp Yankee peddler, Fisk had risen rapidly to the head of a gigantic "e"" 1872corporation,.able, by an hour s e"ort, to.gather into his clutches a scoreof millions of other people s property, impoverish a thousand wealthy men, orderange the values and the traH"c of a vast empire. Fisk and Gould were allthat is dark and deceitful and held irresponsible authority, although they belonged to a low and degraded moral and social type. The book concludedthat a bold, bad man has come to a stop in his carreer [sic] by the hand of anassassin, and the honest people of New York, and of the entire country, willbreathe more freely now that he has gone. d"+"National focus on these unsavory railroad kings brought attention to theirenormous salaries and the scandalous ways they spent them. Into.thespectacles, the military regiments, the Long Branch parades, the steamboatsthe brass bands, and the long array of bedizened harlots whom he supported,went the earnings of the Erie road, complained the author of a sensationalbook about Fisk.Complaints tainted even reputable businessmen; in March1872, Harper s Weekly noted that Andrew Carnegie s mentor and good friend,railroad magnate Thomas A.Scott, had the highest salary in the UnitedStates, making $150,000 a year as the head of several great corporations. Apopular history of Washington, D.C., lamented that Pennsylvania Avenuewould never be as grand as its designers intended because the Gradgrindpoliticians of to-day have voted to dump down a railroad depot in its verycentre, because Mr.Thomas Scott wants it, and because they have free rail-road passes, and a few other little perquisites in their pockets. d"© Legislationin favor of Erie had come from Tweed s men in the New York legislature, andthe association with Tweed quickly made Erie fair game for reformers.TheNew York Times fervently and angrily anti-Tweed harped on the connec-tion between Tweed and Erie, making it a point to note that Tweed fur-tively came to view Fisk s body in the hotel room to pay his last respects tohis friend.e"`"Fisk was a flamboyant example of a profiteering businessman, but he wasalso emblematic of larger trends in industry.More respectable businessmenlike Carnegie were also making fortunes, taking the free labor principles ofproduction and protection of private property toward economies of scale andunbridled profit-making.By 1872, business was showing signs of overexpan-sion.Those who could manage it began to try to eliminate competition byforcing smaller enterprises out of business.Although virtually all businesseswere trying to consolidate through pools or elimination of competition, thepractice was associated most strongly with John D.Rockefeller, a pioneer inthe oil business, who was destroying his rivals in the Pennsylvania oil industry. [To view this image, refer tothe print version of this title.]Figure 7.Once Justice had destroyed the corrupt railroad barons, Thomas Nast s 1872cartoon suggested, the track would be clear for the development of the country.Courtesy HarpWeek. "e"" 1872Popular feeling about the public spirit of businessmen was not helped bythe way Congress decided to raise money.The Republican congresses thatimposed the nation s first income tax during the Civil War were very uneasyabout this inquisitorial tax because they did not want energetic capitalists tomove to other countries where their wealth would be safer.Republicansinsisted that the income tax was solely a war measure.To guarantee that itwould not become a permanent feature of American life, in the same law thatimposed the tax they provided for its automatic expiration in 1870, which waslater extended to 1872.In a revenue bill of that year, congressmen in favor ofprotecting business concluded to fund the operations of the governmentthrough continued high tari"s rather than an extension of the progressiveincome tax.This meant that the money to repay the debt held largely by thewealthier members of society would come from regressive tari"s and liquorand tobacco taxes collected primarily from average workers.There was littleagitation for the continuation of the tax, but the fact that Congress turnedautomatically to a revenue system that benefited the wealthy to the detrimentof the poor indicated the general sense that Congress worked for business.e" "The Erie scandal and the growing sense that business was taking overgovernment fueled the Liberal Republican campaign.If only Liberal Re-publicans could tie a dramatic scandal directly to the Republican Party itself,they could hammer home the idea that stalwart Republicans were destroyingthe nation by catering to African Americans and selling out to business.Schurz had tried to implicate Grant in War Department scandals but hadsucceeded only in weakening his own credibility.Then, in September 1872,Liberal Republicans found the goods.The New York Sun broke the story thata number of important Republican congressmen as well as the current vicepresident, Schuyler Colfax, had been bribed by railroad men constructing theUnion Pacific Railroad.Greeley s New York Daily Tribune instantly picked upthe cry.e"d"The story of the Credit Mobilier scandal was complicated.During thewar, Congress had permitted the Union Pacific Railroad Company to issuebonds up to a certain amount per mile of railroad constructed to finance theconstruction of the road [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.One hasty story painted Fisk as a representativepostwar financier, coarse, noisy, boastful, ignorant, who had swindled thegovernment during the Civil War, saddling the American people with taxesthat would take years to free themselves from. From a background as asharp Yankee peddler, Fisk had risen rapidly to the head of a gigantic "e"" 1872corporation,.able, by an hour s e"ort, to.gather into his clutches a scoreof millions of other people s property, impoverish a thousand wealthy men, orderange the values and the traH"c of a vast empire. Fisk and Gould were allthat is dark and deceitful and held irresponsible authority, although they belonged to a low and degraded moral and social type. The book concludedthat a bold, bad man has come to a stop in his carreer [sic] by the hand of anassassin, and the honest people of New York, and of the entire country, willbreathe more freely now that he has gone. d"+"National focus on these unsavory railroad kings brought attention to theirenormous salaries and the scandalous ways they spent them. Into.thespectacles, the military regiments, the Long Branch parades, the steamboatsthe brass bands, and the long array of bedizened harlots whom he supported,went the earnings of the Erie road, complained the author of a sensationalbook about Fisk.Complaints tainted even reputable businessmen; in March1872, Harper s Weekly noted that Andrew Carnegie s mentor and good friend,railroad magnate Thomas A.Scott, had the highest salary in the UnitedStates, making $150,000 a year as the head of several great corporations. Apopular history of Washington, D.C., lamented that Pennsylvania Avenuewould never be as grand as its designers intended because the Gradgrindpoliticians of to-day have voted to dump down a railroad depot in its verycentre, because Mr.Thomas Scott wants it, and because they have free rail-road passes, and a few other little perquisites in their pockets. d"© Legislationin favor of Erie had come from Tweed s men in the New York legislature, andthe association with Tweed quickly made Erie fair game for reformers.TheNew York Times fervently and angrily anti-Tweed harped on the connec-tion between Tweed and Erie, making it a point to note that Tweed fur-tively came to view Fisk s body in the hotel room to pay his last respects tohis friend.e"`"Fisk was a flamboyant example of a profiteering businessman, but he wasalso emblematic of larger trends in industry.More respectable businessmenlike Carnegie were also making fortunes, taking the free labor principles ofproduction and protection of private property toward economies of scale andunbridled profit-making.By 1872, business was showing signs of overexpan-sion.Those who could manage it began to try to eliminate competition byforcing smaller enterprises out of business.Although virtually all businesseswere trying to consolidate through pools or elimination of competition, thepractice was associated most strongly with John D.Rockefeller, a pioneer inthe oil business, who was destroying his rivals in the Pennsylvania oil industry. [To view this image, refer tothe print version of this title.]Figure 7.Once Justice had destroyed the corrupt railroad barons, Thomas Nast s 1872cartoon suggested, the track would be clear for the development of the country.Courtesy HarpWeek. "e"" 1872Popular feeling about the public spirit of businessmen was not helped bythe way Congress decided to raise money.The Republican congresses thatimposed the nation s first income tax during the Civil War were very uneasyabout this inquisitorial tax because they did not want energetic capitalists tomove to other countries where their wealth would be safer.Republicansinsisted that the income tax was solely a war measure.To guarantee that itwould not become a permanent feature of American life, in the same law thatimposed the tax they provided for its automatic expiration in 1870, which waslater extended to 1872.In a revenue bill of that year, congressmen in favor ofprotecting business concluded to fund the operations of the governmentthrough continued high tari"s rather than an extension of the progressiveincome tax.This meant that the money to repay the debt held largely by thewealthier members of society would come from regressive tari"s and liquorand tobacco taxes collected primarily from average workers.There was littleagitation for the continuation of the tax, but the fact that Congress turnedautomatically to a revenue system that benefited the wealthy to the detrimentof the poor indicated the general sense that Congress worked for business.e" "The Erie scandal and the growing sense that business was taking overgovernment fueled the Liberal Republican campaign.If only Liberal Re-publicans could tie a dramatic scandal directly to the Republican Party itself,they could hammer home the idea that stalwart Republicans were destroyingthe nation by catering to African Americans and selling out to business.Schurz had tried to implicate Grant in War Department scandals but hadsucceeded only in weakening his own credibility.Then, in September 1872,Liberal Republicans found the goods.The New York Sun broke the story thata number of important Republican congressmen as well as the current vicepresident, Schuyler Colfax, had been bribed by railroad men constructing theUnion Pacific Railroad.Greeley s New York Daily Tribune instantly picked upthe cry.e"d"The story of the Credit Mobilier scandal was complicated.During thewar, Congress had permitted the Union Pacific Railroad Company to issuebonds up to a certain amount per mile of railroad constructed to finance theconstruction of the road [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]