. The directors, believing that whatever
money was to be made out of the Union Pacific must be collected during
the construction period, organized a clever system for just this
purpose.

An extravagant sum was to be paid to the Credit Mobilier for the
construction work, thus securing for stockholders of the Union Pacific,
who now controlled the Credit Mobilier, the bonds loaned by the United
States Government.

The operations of the Credit Mobilier finally gave rise to one of the
most serious political scandals in the history of the United States
Congress.

The cost of all material was high, and it rose with leaps and bounds
until it was prodigious. Omaha had no railroad entering it from the
east, and so all the supplies, materials, engines, cars, machinery, and
laborers had to be transported from St. Louis up the swift Missouri
on boats. This in itself was a work calling for the limit of practical
management and energy. Out on the prairie-land, for hundreds of miles,
were to be found no trees, no wood, scarcely any brush. The prairie-land
was beautiful ground for buffalo, but it was a most barren desert for
the exigencies of railroad men. Moreover, not only did wood and fuel and
railroad-ties have to be brought from afar, but also stone for bridges
and abutments. Then thousands of men had to be employed, and those who
hired out for reasonable money soon learned that others were getting
more; having the company at their mercy, they demanded exorbitant wages
in their turn.

One of the peculiar features of the construction, a feature over which
Neale grew impotently furious, was the law that when a certain section
of so many miles had been laid and equipped the Government of the United
States would send out expert commissioners, who would go over the line
and pass judgment upon the finished work. No two groups of commissioners
seemed to agree. These experts, who had their part to play in the
bewildering and labyrinthine maze of men's contrary plans and plots,
reported that certain sections would have to be done over again.

The particular fault found with one of these sections was the alleged
steepness of the grade, and as Neale had been the surveyor in charge, he
soon heard of his poor work. He went over his figures and notes with the
result that he called on Henney and absolutely swore that the grade was
right. Henney swore too, in a different and more forcible way, but he
agreed with Neale and advised him to call