Book Reviews
343
The St. Louis-Sun Francisco Transcontinental Railroad: The
Thirty-fifth Parallel Project, 1853-1890. By H. Craig Miner.
(Lawrence: The University Press of Kansas, 1972. Pp. viii,
236. Illustrations, maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, index.
$8.50.)
Railfans observing the huge red and white diesel locomotives
pulling Frisco freight trains on the line from Memphis to Kansas
City are probably aware that these trains are part of a transcontinental network of railroads stretching from Florida to the Pacific
Northwest. The present transcontinental connections, however, are
not those envisioned by the promoters of the predecessor lines that
provided the nucleus for today’s Frisco. The original route was intended to make St. Louis a terminal where a “snow free” line along
the thirty-fifth parallel from the Pacific would connect with carriers
operating to the East. Though these plans are still reflected in the
corporate title, the Frisco as constructed became a regional carrier
that is part of a transcontinental system more by geographical accident than through the traffic patterns designed by its promoters.
The thirty-fifth parallel project was embodied in no less than
five corporations in the period from 1853-1890. In the process of
its evolution it enriched the purses of a few people at the expense
of many. Farmers, shopkeepers, widows, and various governmental
units were all in one way or another engaged in the financinginvolvements that often led t o the loss of savings and tax funds. The
only people who appeared to profit from the line were the attorneys
who defended the companies in court and lobbied for them in the
state legislatures. A t times the same lawyers were involved in the
bankruptcy proceedings of one predecessor road while simultaneously assisting in the organization of a corporation to take over the
defunct company’s operations.
The type and quality of railroad management varied considerably during the mania of expansion in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Some operators treated their rail lines as serious
business operations that could be used to expand and develop the
vast areas of the United States to the mutual advantage of its
citizens and its government. Others treated their railroads solely
as means of gaining an economic stranglehold on some unfortunate
group. The thirty-fifth parallel project experienced both types of
management as i t captured the attention of such leading speculators
of the period as Clovis P. Huntington and Jay Gould.
This book does a commendable job of analyzing corporate resources in detailing the financial and operational problems of the
various companies. The use of current periodicals of the era has
enriched the narrative with much local flavor. A unique aspect of
344
Indiana Magazine of History
Professor Miner’s treatment is his discussion of the opposition of
the Indians of the Indian Territory, who had been promised that the
land would be theirs until the waters ceased to flow and the moon
rose no more, to the granting of land for the railroad. Too few
authors have given recognition to the efforts minority groups have
made in their own behalf throughout American history.
Miner’s book provides a valuable insight into the early history
of a rail line that historians had previously ignored or discussed
with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Students of railroad and financial
history will find both value and enjoyment in it,
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls
LaVerne W. Andreessen
Teachers f o r the Prairie: The University of Illinois and the Schools,
1868-1945. By Henry C?. Johnson, Jr., and Erwin V. Johanningmeier. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972. Pp. xx,
508. Notes, tables, bibliography, index. $15.00.)
Few authors have been more successful in developing the institutional history of a particular aspect of American higher education than Professors Johnson and Johanningmeier, whose work is
a refinement and extension of their recent doctoral dissertations.
Teachers f o r the Prairie is a penetrating study of the development
of teacher education a t the University of Illinois to 1945. The description of the university’s involvement with teaching in the public
schools of Illinois and the campus rivalry between the old, established
disciplines and the upstart known as pedagogy is both dramatic
and insightful. Perhaps the authors’ most unique contribution is
their illuminating and largely successful attempt to place their subject within the context of the larger problem of education in American culture. Their efforts to relate the relevance of the subject t o
social trends and general cultural and intellectual movements of the,
time are commendable. The right questions are raised ; and plausible,
if not completely authoritative, answers are provided.
The authors’ essential conclusion is that throughout Illinois the
university’s relations with the public schools and its imperial attitude
toward other institutions of higher education, particularly the
normal schools, created a host of difficulties. In their words: “The
University, as the ‘apex’ of the state’s school system, did (and cared
to do) little to improve the ‘base.’ The schools were on the whole
more used than aided, let alone led” (p. 445). The university, they
conclude, must accept some blame for the fact that Illinois has
lagged behind other states in both the quantity and quality of public
education at all levels in spite of its quantitatively superior status
in wealth and numbers.