Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/159

 associates for branch lines and other investments which were worthless, and which were unloaded upon the Union Pacific because of the faithlessness of the management of the company. The gross mismanagement of the Union Pacific and the other Pacific railroads has injured the credit of foreign investors to such an extent that hundreds of millions of dollars, which otherwise would have been sent here for investment and aided in the development of the country, have been locked up abroad."

Every line of this indictment is directed at Gould. Yet Charles Francis Adams, the author of "A Chapter in Erie," and who became president of the Union Pacific about the time Gould retired, told the commission that he believed from careful scrutiny that Mr. Gould had always been more than fair to the company. But the commission, with all the facts before it, rejected his view of the case.

When Mr. Gould secured possession of the Union Pacific, Sidney Dillon was president of it, and they with other large stockholders agreed upon a plan to fund the floating debt in bonds, of which Mr. Gould took $1,000,000. Mr. Gould remained in practical control of the property until about 1880, when public opinion clamored for a change, and as Mr. Gould said to one of the numerous investigating committees before which he was called upon during his busy life to testify: "I bowed to public opinion. I let outside parties in and soon, instead of thirty or forty stockholders, there were 6,000 or 7,000." Mr. Charles Francis Adams succeeded Sidney Dillon as presi