William Larrabee

The Railroad Question - A historical and practical treatise on railroads, and - remedies for their abuses William Larrabee

William Larrabee's history of American railroads is intensely detailed yet accessible and lively, taking into account the social, economic and technological ramifications of the transportation.

A multifaceted and well-informed retrospective on one of the 19th century's most iconic technological advances, The Railroad Question commences with a brief but insightful history of transportation. Mankind is shown to have aspired to faster and better forms of transport for thousands of years; the Romans, with their superb walls, being the first to implement a national infrastructure.

Larrabee then moves onto a history of the locomotive; its origins in steam power and steam propulsion are explained, while the early prototypes of various engineers in England are mentioned. George Stephenson, the inventor of the first effective train - which he named 'The Rocket' - is duly given tribute as a leading figure. The author is quick to note the stunning profits from passenger rail transport; a British company expecting to earn £10,000 in a year instead made £100,000, with freight also outperforming all expectations.

The author considers the ramifications of having the railways become publicly owned infrastructure, and presents arguments for and against various privatized or part-privatized alternatives. His ideas are nuanced and imbued with expertise; working as a successful businessman and in public service, and a voracious reader to boot, Larrabee articulates such issues with care and accuracy.

A later chapter addresses the abuses - actual and potential - that railroad technology might carry. His solutions to the potential runaway monopolies that could arrive thanks to the nature of railway infrastructure consists of measures like competition by regulation. While Larrabee concedes that tariffs are a necessary part of the railway's future, abusively high tariffs on trains are something he stresses should be avoided, lest the promise and prosperity of the train be diminished.

William Larrabee was a politician based in Iowa, serving as a prominent member of the State Senate as a Republican. He was a popular and effective politician, who faced little opposition throughout his career, which ran from the late 1860s to the 1880s. He prominently supported the construction of infrastructure and improvements in education, famously declaring in one campaign that there should be a 'schoolhouse on every hill'.