The trouble with Vanderbilt was, he had an idea that the law is the highest power in the land. He now saw his mistake. He never stopped to think that law is no such wonderful thing after all. Law is like a cobweb; it's made for flies and the smaller kind of insects, so to speak, but lets the big bumblebees break through. I showed him in this affair that I was the bumblebee. Where technicalities of the law stood in my way, I have always been able to brush them aside easy as anything. In this Erie war we had judges from New York, Binghamton, Albany and Brooklyn issuing contrary injunctions. It has been called, "The darkest scene in the history of American jurisprudence." I don't know anything as to that. When you're in business you can't split hairs, or bother over technicalities.
This book was presented to me as history. I'm growing suspicious that it may be a brilliantly executed work of historical fiction. Mr. Drew appears to be more of a charicature of a Gilded Age Robber Baron than a real human could be.
Let's see... The Library of Congress number indicates that it belongs to the History of New York. OK.
Bouck White was the "editor" of the book. Who was he?
Hmm. That makes me consider the validity of ad hominem arguments. Follow the ideology?
One thing I find very interesting in this book is the portrayal of Cornelius Vanderbilt as the prototype for Dagny Taggart's grandfather in Atlas Shrugged. [I said that wrong, but I shovelled too damn much snow today to want to mess with it now. I'll figure it out tomorrow.]
Update: Agh! Good enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment