The Story of the Western Railroads

Robert Edgar Riegel. Macmillan. 1926.

The history of railroads and railroading has been a favorite, topic both for economists and historians, but most of the existing books on these two subjects have chronicled the achievements of all of our railroads taken together or recited solely the life story of eastern railroads. Consequently the author, a member of the Dartmouth teaching staff, has performed a real service, in giving us a detailed account of the western roads. By the term "western" Mr. Riegel means in general the area west of the Mississippi although he unavoidably has to bring into his volume some of the railroads connecting the Ohio River or the Great Lakes with the "Father of Waters" on whose banks the truly "western" roads have their eastern termini.

As is logical the author begins his book with a short summary of the early history of railroads in America which perforce leads him to recount the struggles of the first eastern roads. This background is necessary to understand the story of western railroads.

Having sketched the perspective of his picture Mr. Riegel turns immediately to his real task and draws a vivid delineation of the struggles inherent in building the first roads in the "vast open spaces." This story at once forces attention to that typically western railroad factor, government aid. The manner in which money, land, and securties were lavished upon the pioneer railroads by the federal government, the states, counties and smaller political divisions is retold in detail and at length.

The influence of the Civil War upon Western railroad construction and operation is considered in one chapter and then the story advances to that most romantic period of American railroading, the building of the trariscontinentals. This account involves the intense competition between contending transcontinentals and the intrigue, or speculation which grew out of the rivalries. Finally the pools, trusts, and combinations that were created to alleviate the bad effects of overcompetition call for treatment in the author's work. This leads to the story of government regulation.

While most writers would end their story at this point Mr. Riegel most fortunately goes on to give us information concerning railroad labor, and its organizations for betterment; railroad equipment at various periods; and the interaction between railroad construction and the settlement of the continent.

Mr. Riegel has chosen a logical outline for his story except the position of two chapters. It seems to the reviewer that the chapter (19) dealing with railway regulation and the one entitled the "Reign of Giants" (20) would be placed better after Chapter 14 than at the end of the book. This arrangement would enhance continuity and separate the auxiliary stories concerning labor, equipment and settlement from the main stem of the book.

Mistakes in fact are unusually easy to make in a work of this nature and the author is to be congratulated for his few counts of guilt in this respect. Yet no author is infallible and Mr. Riegel is no exception to the rule. He completely confuses the distinction between vertical and horizontal locomotive boilers; he at least infers that the Charleston and Hamburg R.R. was part of the original Baltimore and Ohio; he grossly exaggerates the extent to which railroads were constructed with the idea of private use (like toll turnpikes) ; he repeats the falsehood that New England soil is sterile when as a matter of fact it is only relatively infertile; he misuses the terms "labor unions" and "craft unions" and thereby says things that are untrue and he asserts that the telegraph was developed at the same time as the railroad, a claim that needs much modification to be in accord with facts.

For literary style the book falls far short of meriting praise and reveals continually the inexperience of the author as a writer.

Lest the criticisms of the reviewer give an erroneous impression of the real value of the book let it be stated that for a first work by a young writer upon a difficult subject this volume is exceptionally worth while and that it makes a real contribution to economic history.

MALCOLM KEIR.

The Boston Evening Transcript for May 8 contains an article by Prof. Eric P. Kelly 'O6, lecturer this past year in the University of Krakow, "Why Study in a Slav University?" Professor Kelly is also the author of a story, "The Lightening Stone," in the April number of St. Nicholas.

Professor Stuart A. Rice is the author of "Some Applications of Statistical Methods to Political Research." This article which appears in the American Political Science Review for May, 1926 was read at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in New York in December, 1925.

"Further Studies in Correlation of Shape and Stations of Fresh Water Mussels" by Professor N. M. Grier and J. F. Mueller of the University of Illinois, appears in the Bulletin of the Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia for May-June. Professor Grier is also the author of "The Master's Degree and Scientific Research" reprinted from the June 4, 1926 issue of Science; and "Device for Increasing the Capacity of Moist Chambers" reprinted from the April 1926 issue of Phytopathology.