information about railroad reorganization must be gathered from a wide variety of sources. the most important are five in number. first, there are the annual reports of the railroads themselves. second, there are the files of financial and railroad papers. third, there are contemporaneous pamphlets. fourth, there are memoirs and biographies containing first-hand material. and fifth, there are government documents, which comprise (1) regular reports by and testimony before bodies like the state and national railway commissions; (2) reports by and testimony taken before occasional committees; (3) legislative records; (4) state and federal court proceedings.

of the five sources mentioned, the files of contemporary papers are the most useful. the commercial and financial chronicle, the railroad gazette, the railway age, the railway and engineering review, the railway times of london, the new york tribune, the new york journal of commerce, the wall street journal, and many others are generally accurate and trustworthy, though it should be noted as a limitation that they seldom have inside information, and that their comment is not always independent. these papers are supplemented by pamphlets and circulars. many reorganization plans are published in pamphlet form. opposition to them is not infrequently thrown into the same shape. reports of experts are printed in pamphlets. in general, the live literature of reorganization must be put out on short notice, and so is issued in this informal way. the official statistics of railroads are to be found in the reports of the railroad companies themselves, made to stockholders or to supervisory government bodies. these statistics, like the news items in the financial and railroad papers, must be used with care. they are sometimes incomplete, and they are sometimes purposely misleading. nevertheless, they are useful, and serious inaccuracies in any of them are usually exposed within a few years after their original publication. the material to be found in legislative records is not abundant. railroads almost invariably, however, appear before the courts in the course of their reorganizations, and in390 the decisions of these tribunals some facts of interest may be found. the records of the receivership of the union pacific have been published in fourteen volumes. the decision of the united states supreme court in pearsall vs. great northern729 blocked the first of the reorganization plans proposed for the northern pacific in 1895. an earlier decision730 enabled the union pacific to postpone the payment of interest upon the public debt until the principal should have fallen due. the erie has been at times almost continuously before the courts, and the same is true of the reading during its reorganizations, of the northern pacific, and of other roads. the student is most fortunate when he can uncover testimony before government committees, of men who have taken part in reorganization proceedings, or who are personally acquainted with developments which have led up to railroad failures. mr. blanchard, before the hepburn committee,731 and mr. fink, before the hepburn and the cullom committees,732 helped their hearers to understand the policy which finally resulted in the failure of the baltimore & ohio. the report of the poland committee disclosed the scandal of the crédit mobilier.733 the testimony of gould, adams, ames, holmes, and others before the united states pacific railroad commission of 1887–88734 made clear the iniquity of the union pacific reorganization of 1880. the statements of mr. pierce before the senate committee on pacific railroads in 1896735 explained the attitude of the union pacific towards the repayment of that company’s debt to the government. the testimony of messrs. mcleod, rice, harris, and others before the industrial commission of 1900 threw much light upon the reading bankruptcy of 1893. the arguments of counsel in the matter of export differentials, reprinted in the fifth volume of the elkins committee report,736 gave valuable information on the subject of trunk-line competition. many of the witnesses before these committees are frank in criticism of the railroads with which they have been connected. others are forced to admissions391 by the keen questioning to which they are exposed. the only similar material to be found elsewhere lies in memoirs, such as those of henry villard,737 or in biographies like oberholtzer’s life of jay cooke738 and pearson’s an american railroad builder739 which make use of private papers of men prominent in railroad finance. perhaps white’s book of daniel drew,740 depew’s retrospect of twenty-five years,741 and the life of isaac ingalls stevens by his son,742 should be included in this class.

this enumeration, while in no way exhaustive, indicates the principal sources from which material may be obtained. secondary works do not exist which treat solely of railroad reorganization. there is an article by e. s. meade in the annals of the american academy,743 articles by simon sterne in the forum,744 and an article by a. lansburgh in die bank,745 but no books of which the author is aware. mention may be made of an intelligent discussion of an industrial reorganization by a. s. dewing in the quarterly journal of economics.746 poor’s manual for 1900 contains the most convenient set of general statistics. on railroad receiverships, besides legal works, there is a monograph by h. h. swain,747 which has a brief bibliography, and articles in the forum, north american review, and other periodicals.

on the history of the great american railroad systems the literature is also quite inadequate. the union pacific has been written up frequently, because of its relations with the united states392 government. works by davis,748 von der leyen,749 bromley,750 dillon,751 crawford,752 hazard,753 and white754 treat various phases of the company’s development up to its final reorganization, an article by meyer755 describes the settlements between the pacific railroads and the government, and another article by mitchell in the quarterly journal of economics756 deals with union pacific finance since that time. there may also be mentioned an account by bailey,757 which covers the whole of the road’s history, but in a superficial way, and a vicious attack by robinson upon all the government-aided lines.758 the student of the erie has at his disposal the elaborate narrative by e. h. mott,759 the chapters by charles francis adams, jr.,760 and the sketch by crouch.761 milton reizenstein has dealt with the progress of the baltimore and ohio up to 1853,762 and for this road there is material to be found in smith’s book of the great railway celebrations of 1857,763 and in a compilation393 of the laws, ordinances, and documents relating to the baltimore and ohio railroad, published in 1840.764 for the northern pacific the history by smalley covers in popular style the period from 1864 to 1883,765 the careful history of the northern securities case, by b. h. meyer, treats of an interesting later development,766 chapters in von der leyen’s book contain acute and independent discussions of northern pacific as well as of union pacific finance,767 and there is a fifteen-page pamphlet by chapman entitled the northern pacific railroad.768 schlagintweit in 1884 described his travels on the santa fe and southern pacific.769 wilson has written two volumes upon the pennsylvania railroad,770 while worthington771 and bishop772 have described the internal improvements undertaken by the state of pennsylvania. ackerman is the author of a historical sketch of the illinois central railroad,773 and hollander774 and ferguson775 of works on the cincinnati southern. potts776 and briscoe777 have written on railroads in394 texas. the chicago & northwestern has published a volume called yesterday and to-day,778 which contains some information. hinsdale has worked up the history of the long island railroad.779 bishop has sketched the history of the st. paul & sioux city railroad.780 bliss is the author of a historical memoir of the western railroad.781 cary in 1893 described the organization and history of the chicago, milwaukee & st. paul railroad company.782 phillips discusses in excellent fashion the early history of a number of southern carriers.783 the autobiography of george francis train784 and smyth’s biography of henry bradley plant785 are serviceable. works like those of van oss,786 snyder,787 carter,788 and spearman,789 and brief descriptions which have appeared in the columns of the railway world and in moody’s magazine, treat of a number of railroads, but make no attempt at a scholarly examination of any one. some general works like ringwalt’s development of transportation systems,790 adams’ railroads: their origin and problems,791 hadley’s railroad transportation,792 kupka’s die verkehrsmittel in den vereinigten staaten von nordamerika,793 singer’s395 die amerikanischen bahnen,794 myers’ history of the great american fortunes,795 bancroft’s history of the pacific states,796 and chronicles of the builders,797 davidson and stuvé’s complete history of illinois,798 hollander’s financial history of baltimore,799 sanborn’s congressional grants of land in aid of railways,800 haney’s congressional history of railways,801 and million’s state aid to railways in missouri,802 contain incidental information about individual railroads.

these books are of service. their number is, however, small and their scope limited. it is surprising that a field so rich as that of the history of american railroad systems should have attracted so little attention from competent students. it is not too much to say that the history of the erie by mott is the only comprehensive work of the kind which our literature possesses, and that is already thirteen years old.