The stock of the Credit Mobilier up to the assignment by Ames to the seven trustees, had not met with anything like a ready sale. For reasons of policy, some of this was assigned to members of Congress, Senators, and other public men. Some being paid for, others had it carried on their account. After the crisis had passed, the value of the stock rapidly appreciated and in the forthcoming political campaign the subornation of Congress in the interest of the Credit Mobilier by the use of this stock was made an issue and occasioned a great outcry. The accusation was thoroughly investigated by two committees during the next session and it was clearly proven to have been unfounded, so far as members of Congress having received the stock as bribes, it being demonstrated that the Company had no further favors to ask from Congress and that the members receiving it had paid the market value therefor. Notwithstanding, Oakes Ames was called to the bar of the House and severely censured for having sold it to them. The facts were, popular clamor demanded a scapegoat and Ames was selected. This, and the anxiety and strain of the load he had been carrying proved too much for him and he died May 8th, 1873. After his death the voice of calumny silenced, his work and character received the recognition it so well deserved. The cost of material used in the construction of the road was enormous, thus the ties brought from the East ran as high as two dollars and fifty cents laid down in Omaha. The rails for the first four hundred and forty miles one hundred and thirty-five dollars per ton. This was before railroad connection was established between Council Bluffs and the East. After that the price got down to ninety-seven dollars and fifty cents per ton. The pay of laborers ran from two dollars and twenty-five cents to three dollars and fifty cents per day. Train men two hundred dollars per month for conductors, one hundred and twenty-five dollars for brakemen, two hundred dollars to two hundred and fifty dollars for engineers, and one hundred and fifty dollars to one hundred and seventy-five dollars for firemen. Telegraph operators eighty dollars to a hundred dollars. At times the Company (Credit Mobilier) was paying as high as five hundred thousand dollars per month interest. And in fact it was claimed by several of the directors that the paramount reason for the haste displayed in building the road was not so much the competition with the Central Pacific as it was to get rid of the enormous interest charges they were paying and which they would cut off upon the road being accepted by the Government and the consequent receipt of Government Bonds. CHAPTER IV. _Commencement of the work._ Selection of Omaha as Eastern Terminus--Celebration Over Breaking Ground--Speech, George Francis Train--Commencement of Work--Conditions October, 1864--Routes Considered.