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Charles Elliott Perkins
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Abstract
Conventional for the time in his basic economic thinking, Charles Elliott Perkins was nevertheless enough of an intellectual to discern flaws in the philosophies of natural law and free competition. Creative, literate, retiring, dedicated to enlightenment but realistic about the limitations of public education, Perkins was anything but the conventional business figure of his generation. The personal background here set forth brings into sharp focus the hitherto hazy image of one of America's great railroad leaders.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1957
References
1 Charles E. Perkins to a stockholder, Dec. 29, 1888, reprinted in Boston Daily Advertiser, Jan. 24, 1889.
2 Perkins, Memorandum, April 21, 1906, “R.C.O. Notebook” #15, p. 97. Cunningham-Overton Collection in possession of the writer, hereafter cited as C-O.
3 Charles Gates Dawes in The Saturday Evening Post, Sept. 20, 1902.
4 Bogart, Ernest L., “James Handasyd Perkins” in Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XIV (1934), pp. 474–475Google Scholar; Edith Cunningham, Perkins, Owl's Nest (Cambridge, 1907)Google Scholar, Genealogical Charts following pages 24 and 56; ibid., pp. 176, 219–220, 238–239.
5 Overton, Richard C., Burlington West (Cambridge, 1941), pp. 65–66, 111–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6 Cochran, Thomas C., Railroad Leaders, 1845–1890 (Cambridge, 1953), p. 427.Google Scholar
7 C.B.&Q., Annual Report for year ending Dec. 31, 1881, p. 12; ibid., Annual Report for year ending June 30, 1901, p. 13; Bogart, Ernest L., “Charles Elliott Perkins” in Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XIV (1934), pp. 465–466Google Scholar; Overton, R. C., Milepost 100 (Chicago, 1949), pp. 21–24, 49.Google Scholar
8 Jackson, Elizabeth Coleman and Curtis, Carolyn, Guide to the Burlington Archives in the Newberry Library, 1851–1901 (Chicago, 1949), pp. 11–14, 331–334.Google Scholar Latter reference lists Cunningham-Overton Collection.
9 Cochran, op. cit., pp. 1–5, 217, 233–501.
10 Kirkland, Edwin Chase, Dream and Thought in the Business Community, 1860–1900 (Ithaca, 1956), pp. viii, 2–3, 131–132.Google Scholar
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12 Cochran, op. cit., pp. 84–86, 91, 98, 173–174, 182, 197–198, 226; McMurry, Donald L., The Great Burlington Strike of 1888 (Cambridge, 1956), pp. 11–20.Google Scholar
13 McMurry, op. cit., p. 19.
14 Perkins to Henry B. Stone, Dec. 23, 1887, quoted in McMurry, op. cit., p. 18.
15 Overton, Burlington West, pp. 177–182; Cochran, op. cit., pp. 113–115; Grodinsky, Julius, The Iowa Pool, A Study in Railroad Competition, 1870–84 (Chicago, 1950), pp. 43–52Google Scholar; Grodinsky, , Jay Gould, His Business Career, 1867–1892 (Philadelphia, 1957), pp. 378–393.Google Scholar
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17 McMurry, op. cit., pp. 19–20; Perkins letters in possession of author, passim.
18 Perkins to J. M. Forbes, July 20, 1889, quoted in Cochran, op. cit., p. 139.
19 To see how typical of his generation were Perkins' beliefs, refer to Kirkland, op. cit., passim; he cites Perkins some 28 times — more often than any other individual as an exemplar of his group. As to what Perkins thought on specific subjects, see Cochran's excellent index in Railroad Leaders, and read through the 99 excerpts he gives from his letters and memoranda (Cochran, op. cit., pp. 427–449, 560–561). For a superb thumbnail sketch of Perkins' ideas on management and a detailed account of his view on labor, consult McMurry's The Great Burlington Strike of 1888, pp. 11–20 et seq. Finally, to see Perkins in vigorous action on the competitive battlefield, look in Grodinsky's The Iowa Fool, pp. 73–86 and passim, and his Jay Gould, pp. 378–393 and passim.
20 Redlich, Fritz, “The Business Leader as a ‘;Daimonic’; Figure” in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Jan., 1953), p. 166.Google Scholar
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23 United States, Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789–1945 (Washington, 1949), pp. 200, 202.Google Scholar
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25 United States, Federal Coordinator of Transportation, Public Aids to Transportation (Washington, 1938), Vol. II, pp. 105–117.Google Scholar For full-length studies of railroad land grants see: Gates, Paul W., The Illinois Central Railroad and Its Colonization Work (Cambridge, 1934)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Greever, William S., Arid Domain: The Santa Fe Railway and Its Western Land Grants (Stanford, 1954)Google Scholar; R. C. Over-ton, Burlington West, op. cit.
26 Ibid., pp. 120–159. For studies of specific instances see Goodrich, Carter, “Public Aid to Railroads in the Reconstruction South” in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. LXXI, No. 3 (Sept., 1956)Google Scholar; Hungerford, Edward, The Story of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (New York, 1928), Vol. I, pp. 30–31, 324Google Scholar; Pierce, Harry H., Railroads of New York: A Study of Government Aid, 1826–1875 (Cambridge, 1953)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Trottman, Nelson, History of the Union Pacific (New York, 1923), pp. 10–22.Google Scholar
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28 Haines, Henry S., Restrictive Railway Legislation (New York, 1905), pp. 21–27.Google Scholar See also Cumming, Mary G., Georgia Railroad and Banking Company (Augusta, 1945), pp. 24–26.Google Scholar
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31 Grodinsky, Iowa Pool, p. 77; Riegel, Robert E., The Story of the Western Railroads (New York, 1926), pp. 160–178.Google Scholar
32 Ibid.; Ralph, W. and Hidy, Muriel E., Pioneering in Big Business, 1882–1911 (New York, 1955), pp. 18, 118–121Google Scholar; Moody, John, The Railroad Builders (New Haven, 1921), pp. 230–231.Google Scholar
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34 Cunningham, op. cit., charts opposite pages 24 and 56; Pearson, op. cit., p. 1.
35 Bogart, “James Handasyd Perkins,” loc. cit.; Cunningham, op. cit., pp. 164–167, 172.
36 Bogart, “James Handasyd Perkins,” loc. cit.; Edith Cunningham to the writer, telephone conversations Dec. 13, 14, 22, 1956 (Memoranda in the writer's possession).
37 Cunningham, op. cit., pp. 220–223, 238; Cunningham, , C.E.P. and E.F.P., Family Letters, 1861–1869 (Boston, 1949), pp. 2–5.Google Scholar
38 Cunningham, Owl's Nest, op. cit., pp. 238–239; Cunningham, C.E.P. and E.F.P., op. cit., p. 6; Stephen Perkins to C. E. Perkins, July 18, 1858, “RCO #1 Loose-Leaf” (C-O 1, p. 4.6).
39 Cunningham, C.E.P. and E.F.P., op. cit., pp. 17–23.
40 Most of the official Forbes-Perkins correspondence is in Newberry Library; the unofficial correspondence is in possession of the writer. See Jackson and Curtis, op. cit., pp. 6, 11–14, 331–334.
41 Cunningham, C.E.P. and E.F.P., op. cit., passim; Cunningham, , Charles Elliott Perkins & Edith Forbes Perkins: Family Letters and Reminiscences, 1865–1907, 2 vols. (Portland, 1949), passimGoogle Scholar; Private and Personal Letter Books and Log Books of the Car 200 in possession of the writer.