The Industrial Revolution?

Perhaps it's time for Historians to revisit the "Industrial Revolution".

Who profited?

Consider this graphic "Anthracite Combination" and the relationship Banks had with Railroads through their Directorships.

For more information about the railroads and banks visit:

The Dictionary of American History; Railroads, The ERI (Executive Intelligence Review), and scan for "Director" in The History of The First National Bank of Scranton.

If this is a topic that interests you, search www.archive.org, and/or go directly to:

RAILROAD LEASES AND REORGANIZATION: I

 By JOHN F. MECK, JR.t and JOHN E. MASTENt 

 

THE decade which has just closed witnessed many trying years for railroads and their security holders. The unprecedented number of reorganization proceedings instituted in those ten years, together with various remedial proposals, tended to focus public attention on their problems.These problems necessarily involve the legal framework within which the railroad industry is carried on, an important segment of which is the long term lease. Railroad history has been such that in earlier periods of financial stress the mortgage device has played the conspicuous role,while the part of the lease has been relatively obscure. Between 1930 and 1940, however, with an increasing number of important lessee rail-roads in reorganization under Section 77 of the Bankruptcy Act' or inequity, the lease began to take on greater significance. As a consequence,today many lessees in financial difficulties are realizing that the far-reaching changes which have occurred in transportation may turn the long term lease into a snare and a delusion. Others, still solvent, are exercising greater care in making new leases, and seeking ways and means to modify existing ones. At the same time, holders of securities of lessor companies in many instances are experiencing the acute distress attendant upon the discovery that their securities, hitherto regarded as "gilt-edged," may be worth little more than the paper upon which they are printed.  Continue . . . . . . . .