David Rothman cited Wallace's voted for regulating western railroads as how little ideology mattered. It is better seen as how much Tom Scott mattered. Regulating the Central Pacific and Union Pacific served Tom Scott. Similarly, Senator Gordon, a friend of the Central Pacific whom Rothman cites as an example of the in efficacy of corruption because he took money from Scott but voted against him can just as easily be an example of its efficacy. Gordon also negotiated for favors from Huntington.
Testimony of CPH, PRC, 1:38.
Towne to CPH, April 19, 1871, CPH Papers, ser. 1, r. 3.
Towne to CPH, Oct. 29, 1877, CPH Papers, ser. 1, r. 13.
William Z. Ripley, Railway Problems (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1907), 123-44.
Gerald D. Berk, Louis D. Brandeis and the Making of Regulated Competition, 1900-1932 (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009), 74-78.
Klein, Union Pacific, 289-90.
Chicago Daily Tribune, Jan. 30, 1880, p. 8, Feb. 1, 1880.
Frank Norris, The Octopus (New York: Bantam, 1958), 47.