ABSTRACT
On railways alone it is estimated that not less than £400,000,000 had been expended since 1867, of wbich nearly one-half was represented by mortgage bonds. It was these mortgage bonds at low prices, with sometimes an accompanying bonus in the shares of the company, which tempted the European investors to invest in America again, as they realised their profits on the United States loans bought back at high prices by the Americans themselves. All this marvellous well-being for the many and fortune for the few was duly reported to their friends and relatives at home by the ten millions or more Germans who were now settled in the United States. For the Germans had benefited even more than the English or the Irish by the settlement of the great West. Small thrifty farmers or tradesmen at home, they went out to the United States with a little capital, prepared to rough it, and to devote many years of their life to building up a. happy home for themselves and a moderate competence for their chiltlren.
