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- Title
The Crédit Mobilier Scandal and the Supreme Court: Corporate Power, Corporate Person, and Government Control in the Mid-nineteenth Century.
- Authors
KENS, PAUL
- Abstract
In 1867, Francis Train, a powerful director of the Union Pacific Railroad, devised a surefire way to make some money. Train established a trust company, Crédit Mobilier of America, which was completely owned by a small group of directors of the Union Pacific. The group soon became known as the Pacific Railroad Ring. Because they controlled the board of directors of the Union Pacific, the ring was able to award building contracts to Crédit Mobilier, giving wildly favorable terms and paying exorbitant prices for the work. They used this scheme to siphon money out of the Union Pacific and into the coffers of their own company. In actuality, the primary function of the Crédit Mobilier Company was to shift money—money that came from the U.S. Treasury and the pockets of the Union Pacific's minor shareholders. As railroad reformer Charles Frances Adams Jr. put it, “They receive money into one hand as a corporation, and pay it out into the other as a contractor.” The profit they kept for themselves. 1
- Subjects
UNITED States; CREDIT Mobilier of America; SCANDALS; UNION Pacific Railroad Co. Inc.; ANTITRUST law; CORRUPTION in the railroad industry; RAILROAD holding companies; ACTIONS &; defenses (Law); CORPORATE profits; COMMERCIAL trusts
- Publication
Journal of Supreme Court History, 2009, Vol 34, Issue 2, p170
- ISSN
1059-4329
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1353/sch.2009.0011