Congressional Grants Of Land In Aid Of Railways

Excerpt from Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways In the library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin have been found most of the materials from which this mono graph has been prepared, and I wish to express my appreciation of the unfailing courtesy of the officers of that society and of the members of the library staff. Some additional materials were found in the Chicago Public Library, The Newbury Li brary and the library of the Chicago Historical Society. During my work on this monograph I have been under con stant obligation to Professor F. J. Turner, who has given not only advice but actual assistance at every point in my investiga tion and in the preparation of my work for the press. Profes sor C. H. Haskins has read the proofs and made many valuable suggestions, while Professor W. H. Hobbs has also given assist ance in the proof-reading. 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.

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Railroads and Land Grant Policy: A Study in Government Intervention attempts to replace a major part of the railroad land grant legend (according to which the granting of federal and state land to private railroad firms benefitted these firms more than it contributed to society as a whole) with some real numbers and analysis. An attempt is made to put the income and wealth distribution impact of the railroad land grants in perspective, but thorough analysis of this issue is not undertaken. The primary question this study does try to illuminate is that of the effect of the railroad land grants on economic efficiency. This emphasis was chosen because it seems clear that improvement of economic efficiency was the major goal that Congress and various state legislatures sought to attain, and thus the examination of economic efficiency questions is fundamental to evaluation of railroad land grant policy. This study will not completely replace the railroad land grant legend (because much is not covered here), but it does represent a considerable diminution of that legend.

Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin No. 211 Economics and Political Science Series, Vol. 3, No. 2. pp. 167-439