bonds. The same Government of which his father had defrauded millions
of dollars now stood as a direct guarantee behind at least
$70,000,000 of his bonded wealth, and the whole population of the
United States was being taxed to pay interest on bonds, the purchase
of which was an outgrowth of the theft of public money committed by
Cornelius Vanderbilt.

In the years following his father's death, William H. Vanderbilt
found no difficulty in adding more extended railroad lines to his
properties, and in increasing his wealth by tens of millions of
dollars at a leap.


MORE RAILROADS ACQUIRED.

The impact of his vast fortune was well-nigh resistless. Commanding
both financial and political power, his money and resources were used
with destructive effect against almost every competitor standing in
his way. If he could not coerce the owners of a railroad, the
possession of which he sought, to sell to him at his own price, he at
once brought into action the wrecking tactics his father had so
successfully used.

The West Shore Railroad, a competing line running along the west bank
of the Hudson River, was bankrupted by him, and finally, in 1883,
bought in under foreclosure proceedings. By lowering his freight
rates he took away most of its business; through a series of years he
methodically caused it to be harrassed and burdened by the exercise
of his great political power; he thwarted its plans and secretly
hindered it in its application for money loans or other relief. Other