Reading Commager and Morison’s Growth of the American Republic (highly recommended) I am reminded of how the automobile and the truck struck the shackles from the American people. A simple blog post can hardly describe how the railroads, by 1910, had enslaved and impoverished the American people.
The Southern Pacific, for example, literally owned the political process of California. SP employees were told by the railroad to run for county and state offices, knowing their faithful service to the railroad in those offices was a step up the corporate ladder.
The details can be fascinating and horrifying to read. A Chapter in the Erie, by Charles Francis Adams, for example, includes details of how the Fisk-Gould interests owned and used courts and judges, and is, additionally, a wonderful romp through some high-flying financial antics of the time. Any story of how the widespread adoption of the Janney safety coupler was delayed for thirty years, and the maiming and killing of tens of thousands of railroaders every year, will be less fun to read.
By 1910 the American people had had enough. No less a Republican than Theodore Roosevelt “hinted that unless the railroads behaved themselves the government might eventually be forced into a policy of public ownership”.
My grandfather loved the car, and the department stores he worked for loved the truck- for the freedom it gave them. My father and mother loved the car- they didn’t want to raise their children in the race-hatred of the cities, and my dad worked for Boeing. I love the car, probably not enough to own one if I didn’t have to, but certainly enough to love the one I need today.
That’s a pretty big installed base of love for the car, and a cautionary tale of bad behavior by railroads and trolley lines when they had the power. It’s a collective memory, and one that any policy of future transportation must take into account.
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