I got this inquiry this afternoon - this teacher is having problems accessing the site to post. Does anybody have some information to help her out?daveTo Whom It May Concern:My students are researching the “power of the railroad”. We know the judges, lawyers, and government officials were often “bought” by the railroad because they gave these people free passes in exchange for things to go in the railroads favor. Do you have any information about this? There is a story about a newspaper editor in O’Neill, Nebraska who printed something in the local paper that the railroad didn’t like. It’s very interesting, but we need more information. Thank you for helping us.Sincerely,Jennifer Selting BauerO’Neill Public Schools

I would suggest two sources, both should be available in a library or through interlibrary loan.James Ely, Railroads and American Law. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001.Thomas, William G. Lawyering for the Railroad: Business, Law, and Power in the New South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999.The book by Thomas gives a good account of how railroads used the free pass system before the Hepburn act as ways in which to lobby with local officials, attorneys, judges, etc. Ely's book gives a good account of the legal-political world of the railroads in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Here's a short bibliography.Association of American Railroads, Bureau of Railway Economics Library. Public relations of the railroad industry in the United States: a bibliography, 1808-1955. Compiled by Helen R. Richardson. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Railroads, 1956.Association of American Railroads, Railroad Committee for the Study of Transportation. Report on public relations of the railroad industry, principles, organization and program. [Washington, D.C.], 1944. Deverell, William. Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.McCabe, James Dabney. History of the Grange movement; or, The farmer's war against monopolies. Philadelphia: National Pub. Co., 1873; reprint, New York, A. M. Kelley, 1969.[Contents: Railroad monopolies; coal monopoly; the farmers' wrongs.]Mickelson, Sig. The Northern Pacific Railroad and the selling of the West: a nineteenth-century public relations venture. Sioux Falls, SD: Center for Western Studies, 1993.Morgret, Charles O. “The railroad industry’s cooperative public relations program, June, 1946–June, 1956.” M.A. thesis, American University (Washington, D.C.), 1958.Railroads and their relations to the public: A colloquy between a farmer, a government official and a railroad superintendent. Chicago: J. J. Spalding, 1875.Thomas, William. Lawyering for the Railroad: Business, Law, and Power in the South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999. [Contents: Building the interstate railroads : right-of-way and construction -- The making of the railroad legal department -- The consequences of growth -- The consequences of monopoly power -- Personal injuries and corporate defenses -- Progressive reform and the railroads -- The road to uniform regulation -- Liability and federal regulation -- The changed law business -- Conclusion : law and power.]

I wrote a Master's Thesis on the relationship between railroads and Kentucky politics. Evidently, the University of Louisville saw fit to scan it and make it publicly available. Here's the link. Enjoy. If anything, the bibliography would be useful. http://etd.louisville.edu/view-etd.php?ID=28

An additional source that addresses the role of the Central Pacific and Virginia & Truckee in Nevada' Comstock politics:Russell R. Elliott, History of Nevada, 2nd ed., revised, with the assitance of William D. Rowley (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), 157-166.