“Damn…public!” With this infamous exclamation, William Vanderbilt, eldest son of Cornelius Varnebilt, expressed his indignation in front of astonished journalists.
The diary read October 9, 1882, when he held a press conference in Chicago about the merciless price war that had broken out between his own New York Central and the Pennsylvania Line.
He admitted his business could not profit from the $15 New York-Chicago fare, but said there was no other choice. “We must fight Pennsylvania or give up. We will fight until the end for our market share.”
“But don’t you run the railroad for the common good?” asked reporter John Dickinson Sherman. Vanderbilt replied: “Pretty common? Damn…public! I work for the stockholders!” an important service that benefits humanity, but the goal is to earn dividends.”
Who was William (Billy) Vanderbilt
He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on May 8, 1821, the son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and Sophia Johnson.
A shy and apparently unambitious young man, William did not feel accepted by his energetic father, who considered him incapable of running the family business. The two had a complete disagreement over William’s decision to marry at age 19, and Cornelius sent his son to Staten Island, where he had a farm. To his father’s surprise, William turned the failing farm into a profitable business.
While Cornelius was still focused on steamship lines, William became interested in railroads. In 1857, he convinced his father to make him manager of the bankrupt Staten Island Railroad, and a few years later he restored the line to a solid financial position. In 1864, William became vice president of the New York and Harlem Railroad and assumed the same position with the Hudson River Railroad in 1865. Both lines were owned by his father.
It was only after his father’s death in 1877 that William was able to fully demonstrate his financial and administrative genius. It greatly expanded the New York core network and expanded into many other areas. He fought railroad regulation by engaging in price wars and granting special rates to favored shippers.
Additionally, he established the Vanderbilt family name in philanthropy. He donated generously to Vanderbilt University, the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, and other educational organizations. He built a mansion on Fifth Avenue and filled it with the finest private collection of paintings and sculptures in the world. In his will, he distributed his assets more equally than his father and left substantial bequests to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the YMCA, and several churches and hospitals.
Vanderbilt inherited nearly $100 million from his father in 1877. His fortune more than doubled when he died about 8 years later in 1885. He was the richest man in America at the time.