Railroads: Their Origins and Problems

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 provid...