Why do you think the government is providing for the building of telegraph poles along the length of the railroad? The act is giving the railroad the right of way on public lands. In Section 3 the act provides the railroad with more land than what is needed to give it a right of way.

The government bonds have often been described as a subsidy or handout to the builders of both railroads, but they were in fact a loan that ultimately had to be repaid. Each company was, of course, responsible for paying interest on its own bonds.

Why did the US government need to provide subsidies to railroad companies? it is too risky for private companies to try and build railroads. if a railroad didn’t pass through or near a town the town would not grow and the townspeople would just pick up and leave.

Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific, former California governor and founder of Stanford University, told Congress in 1865, that the majority of the railroad labor force were Chinese.

For what reasons were farmers angry at railroad companies? Due wages and the abuse/circumstances they were living. In repose to these abuses by the railroads, the Granger laws help establish an important principle, the federal government’s right to regulate private industry to serve the public interest.

A monopoly refers to when a company and its product offerings dominate a sector or industry. The term monopoly is often used to describe an entity that has total or near-total control of a market.

Congress passed the law largely in response to public demand that railroad operations be regulated. The act also established a five-member enforcement board known as the Interstate Commerce Commission. In the years following the Civil War, railroads were privately owned and entirely unregulated.