Excerpt from The Life and Services of Shelby M. Cullom The nation, the states and the smaller subdivisions of government all vied one with another in aiding and encouraging the building of railroads. Rights of way, vast tracts of land, and large sums of money were donated to the railroad builder. The credit of states and counties was pledged to promote this industry and vast issues of bonds were voted to carry on the good work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.