CREDIT MOBILIER OF AMERICA

a joint stock company whose operations in building the Union Pacific Railroad in the sixti¢és of the nineteenth century produced a legislative scandal that has been viewed as the worst in American history. The company obtained a charter from the government to build the line, and received considerable government aid for doing so, both in loans and land grants. It was recorded that the building of the line had cost the Credit Mobilier $50,720,958, while the $94,650,287, leaving a profit of $43,929,- 328. The cost of the line was thus not much more than half of what the government paid, and the huge profit was all gained in two years. The Credit Mobilier stock, almost worthle , rose to several hundred points and paid enormous dividends, reaching to more than 500 per cent. To quiet suspicions in Congre and in official circles that the government had been thoroughly bled in aiding the construction, Credit Mobilier stock was sold to representatives and government officials and they reaped the benefit of the swollen dividends. The scandal figured in the presidential campaign of 1872, and a long investigation of the whole affair was undertaken by the Senate House. It was clear that the Mobilier stock had been freely in some cases refused, in others —as bribes. to influence legislators’ votes, but the enquiry did not result any action. market town, near junction of and Exe, Devons hire, England; has old cruciform church; traditional place of St. Boniface, apostle of many; boots and shoes. Pop. 4,000.