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Show 137 which modern techniques for the management of complex enterprises were first worked out, though for the telegraph in what was eventually monopolistic circumstances" (p. 2). Carey is of course speaking about how Western Union eventually monopolized the entire telegraph grid, but is talking more broadly about how the telegraph dramatically altered the forms of communication mediated by language. The three-way alliance between the railroad, coal, and the telegraph cables created "a coherent empire" of communication that paved the way for rapid accumulations of wealth, especially for four men known as "The Big Four." "The Big Four" built the Central Pacific Railroad, which extended from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Their names were Leland Stanford, Collis Potter Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker. Known for their "disreputable methods and disdain [for] the public welfare," (Orsi, 2005, p. 13) the Big Four were commonly referred to as "railway tycoons," or "railway barons" for their tendency to employ crude tactics for securing their tremendous amounts of wealth. After voting to keep over $62 billion in excess subsidies paid in bonds, stocks and cash to help build the Central Pacific (Tutorow, 1971), the Big Four prospered during the Civil War after agreeing to help President Lincoln and the Union States outpace and outfox Confederacy supply routes. They also regularly escaped auditors by hiding their accounts. In the end, their fortunes were colossal. Hopkins was worth at least $19 billion when he died in 1878, and by 1889, Crocker's was $24 million, Stanford's was estimated around $30 million, and Huntington's over $40 million (Solnit, 2004, pp. 68-69). The success of the Central Pacific, which acquired the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1865, not only helped the Big Four secure political relations with the Republican Party |
