News broke that members of Congress had been involved in rail industry corruption. The Union Pacific Railroad company had been hired to build part of the transcontinental railway. Instead of hiring outside contractors to complete the construction, however, Union Pacific vice president Thomas Durant and Union Pacific’s other largest stockholders organized their own construction company—Crédit Mobilier—and awarded the UP building contract to themselves. Durant and other Crédit Mobilier executives reaped major profits for themselves from the...