first edition Softcover
1871 · Philadelphia
by GOWEN, Franklin B.
Philadelphia: Leisenring Steam Printing House, 1871. Softcover. Very Good. First edition. 38 pp. 22.5 cm. Lacking wrappers, else near fine with light browning to the title page. Franklin Benjamin Gowen, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in the 1870s and 1880s, is best known today for his undercover infiltration and court prosecutions of the Molly Maguires, an alleged secret society of immigrant Irish Catholic mine workers, saloonkeepers and other workers. He wielded considerable political power, and made the Reading Railroad into one of the richest corporations in the world. He was an outspoken critic of organized labor, and played a (truncated)
(856) 456-8008
