Existing comment:
In the late 19th century, the Central Pacific, renamed the Southern Pacific, was California's largest business and landowner, controlling land, the wheat trade, and transportation.
To protect their advantages, its owners, the "Big Four," employed armies of lawyers and lobbyists.
The railroad brought great benefits to the state, but many Californians increasingly blamed the company for many of their economic and social problems. Anti-monopoly reformers finally came together in 1910, when the state government instituted the initiative, referendum, and recall to give "the people" more direct access to power. |