By the acts of congress granting and amending the charters of the Pacific railroad companies and branches, it is made the duty of the president of the United States to appoint five directors, "who shall be denominated directors on the part of the government," and these acts forbid such directors being stockholders in said Pacific railroad companies. It is made the duty of these government directors to exercise a general supervision of the Pacific road and branches, and to report its condition from time to time to the secretary of the interior. In contemplation of law they are to have no pecuniary interest in the companies or in the roads. The present government directors are B. F. Wade, of Ohio; Hiram Price, and J. F. Wilson, of Iowa; J. C. S. Harrison, of Indiana; and D. S. Ruddock, of Connecticut. By act of congress of June 2d, 1864, the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River railroad was authorized to connect with the Iowa branch of the Union Pacific road, and sections fifteen and sixteen of the acts of July 2d, 1864, place all roads connecting with the Union Pacific on an equality as to charges for freights and passengers, and permits them to consolidate if they elect so to do. The Cedar Rapids & Missouri River company has leased its road to the Chicago & Northwestern company, and it is operated in connection with the Union Pacific, uniting with it at Council Bluffs, and it virtually becomes a branch of the Union Pacific road. The reader can look over the list of directors, as shown in the _Railroad Manual_ before referred to, and learn if any of the government directors of the Union Pacific are directors in the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River company. The reports made of the cost, condition, and other matters connected with Pacific railroad enterprises, disclose such utter disregard of the rights and interests of the people, and such a gross betrayal of the public good for the benefit of a ring (in part a congressional ring) as to leave it without precedent. The fact that the men who formed this ring have become a powerful moneyed aristocracy, able by their votes and influence in congress to convert the public lands and money to their own use, and are now boldly taxing the people with the interest on the money appropriated to build up these oppressive monopolies, should arouse the country to a sense of its imminent peril. CHAPTER IV. HOW CONGRESS BETRAYED THE PEOPLE.