e.g. the lines from El Paso and Laredo to Mexico City," refers to the Mexican Central Railroad which was built under a subsidy of $5,311 per mile granted by the law appearing as Appendix I. If, as stated in the foregoing quotation, "for every million dollars expended in actual construction, at least three million dollars was wasted in bribery and embezzlement," then the portion of the subsidy granted for the Mexican Central Railroad actually applied to its construction was $3,828 per mile. A little analysis will show how much credence this statement deserves.
If the line was laid with 75-pound steel rails, 132 tons per mile would have been required which at $28 a ton, the standard price for years, would have amounted to $3,696, f. o. b. the mills at Pittsburgh or Chicago. This would leave a balance of $132 to pay for such essentials as angle bars, bolts, spikes, and ties, not to mention such details as freight charges for all material for long distances, grading, track-laying, and equipping the line. It does seem doubtful that so much could be done for $132 a mile, even in Mexico.
As a matter of fact, the Mexican Central runs for several hundred miles through a desert in which construction was exceptionally expensive because, not merely all material, but food for the men, forage for the animals, and even drinking water for both had to be transported long distances at great
