selling bonds to foreigners, and the subsidies granted did not anything like defray the cost of constructing and equipping them.
A country as wealthy as the United States has been for many years was not able to finance the construction of her railroads. At one time, in addition to holding the major portion of the bond issues of our principal railroads, foreign investors, as shown by Wm. G. Ripley in his work on "Railroad Finance and Organization," in the period from 1890 to 1896 held the absolute majority of the stock issues in at least five of them; namely, Illinois Central, 65 per cent.; Pennsylvania, 52 per cent.; Louisville and Nashville, 75 per cent.; New York, Ontario and Western, 58 per cent.; Reading, 52 per cent. At the present time, on account of the great prosperity which the industry and thrift of the people of our country have produced, the foreign holdings of the stocks and bonds of American railroads have been almost entirely wiped out by the purchase of these securities by American investors.
The difference between this country and Mexico under her Latin-Mexican masters in their treatment of foreign investors is well illustrated in the matter of investments in railroads in the two countries. The Americans welcomed foreign capital in the development of great business enterprises and depended upon their own industry and thrift eventually to acquire the properties by purchasing
