Excerpt from The Railroad Situation in the United States The purpose of this article is to show why such new security issues are necessary, and whether or not they are to the disadvantage of the shareholder. The reports published by the various railroad companies contain the expression Miles of road operated and then proceed to show the gross earn ings and net earnings per mile. This expression is very misleading, as it refers usually to the length of the road and makes no allowance for the miles of second, third or fourth track, sidings or terminal facilities which are just as necessary for the opera tion of the road as the original track. At the same time, the construction of such additional tracks is made necessary to handle the equipment required for the business moving over the line, and securities, either stock or bonds, must, from time to time, be issued to provide funds for the construction of the same. In order to properly analyze a railroad report and make comparisons, it is necessary to consider the entire mileage of the railroad - whether it be main track, second track, sidings or what not - and figure the earnings per mile of track, as the entire mileage is covered by the Capital account upon which earnings are expected to pay interest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Perhaps no other industrial technology changed the course of Mexican history in the United States--and Mexico--than did the coming of the railroads. Tens of thousands of Mexicans worked for the railroads in the United States, especially in the Southwest and Midwest. Construction crews soon became railroad workers proper, along with maintenance crews later. Extensive Mexican American settlements appeared throughout the lower and upper Midwest as the result of the railroad. The substantial Mexican American populations in these regions today are largely attributable to 19th- and 20th-century railroad work. Only agricultural work surpassed railroad work in terms of employment of Mexicans. The full history of Mexican American railroad labor and settlement in the United States had not been told, however, until Jeffrey Marcos Garcílazo's groundbreaking research in Traqueros. Garcílazo mined numerous archives and other sources to provide the first and only comprehensive history of Mexican railroad workers across the United States, with particular attention to the Midwest. He first explores the origins and process of Mexican labor recruitment and immigration and then describes the areas of work performed. He reconstructs the workers' daily lives and explores not only what the workers did on the job but also what they did at home and how they accommodated and/or resisted Americanization. Boxcar communities, strike organizations, and "traquero culture" finally receive historical acknowledgment. Integral to his study is the importance of family settlement in shaping working class communities and consciousness throughout the Midwest.

Charles Francis Adams II (May 27, 1835 - May 20, 1915) was a member of the prominent Adams family. He served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he was a railroad regulator and executive, president, successively, of the Union Pacific Railroad, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the American Historical Association. His writings and addresses both on problems of railway management and on historical subjects frequently gave rise to widespread controversy.In this work, first published in 1886, Adams writes with impressive expertise and clarity on the origins of and problems with the railroads in Europe and America. The section on origins is devoted mostly to some of the more entertaining and naively charming first-hand accounts of the opening ceremonies for, and early excursions on the first primitive railroads in Britain, South Carolina and Massachusetts. In the section on problems he describes the approaches taken by various countries to construct, operate, and regulate their railroad systems, especially in the United States where unbridled competition was the rule.At the time he wrote this work, American railroads were almost entirely unregulated and were engaged in ruthlessly self-destructive warfare with each other at great cost to the nation. He applies his considerable expertise to the problems associated with railroad services, regulations, competition, monopolies, associations, and responsibilities, and he offers well-considered opinions on how these problems needed to be solved taking into consideration the peculiar character of America and Americans.Railroads, written by a significant historian with considerable practical as well as academic experience, is both an important and an enjoyable read for any student of American history and business.