Benjamin Franklin Yoakum was an American visionary railroad executive of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Background
Yoakum was born on August 20, 1859 in Tehuacana, Texas. His father, Franklin Yoakum, was a country physician and later a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. His mother was Narcissa (Teague) Yoakum. A brother, Charles Henderson Yoakum (1849-1909), was a Texas state legislator and United States Congressman. Another brother, Finis E. Yoakum (1851-1920), was a faith healer and social reformer.
Career
When about twenty, Yoakum became a rod man and chain bearer in a railroad surveying gang. He was promoted to boss of a gang and surveyed new railroad routes in many parts of the West. He became a land boomer and immigration agent for Gould's lines. Later he applied his experience to his own railroads by drilling artesian wells and by bringing European peasants from New York to cultivate the Trans-Mississippi and Rio Grande valleys.
At the age of twenty-five, he became traffic manager of the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway. During the next twenty years, he became general manager, vice-president, and president of a number of other railroads. The most important of these was the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad (the "Frisco"), which became allied with the Rock Island Company in 1903. He became chairman of the executive committees and was a dominant figure of both companies. He brought under his control some 17, 000 miles of old and newly constructed railroad into the "Yoakum Lines. "
In December 1909, however, the Rock Island sold its interests in the "Frisco" to a group headed by Yoakum and Edwin Hawley. They were also said to control the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and four minor lines, while Yoakum was also a director of the Seaboard Air Line Railway. The "Frisco" and affiliated lines went into the hands of receivers during the financial stringency of 1913 and were broken down into their component lines. The Interstate Commerce Commission attributed the failure to the purchase of unprofitable mileage in the Southwest, the payment of extravagant commissions to banks and bankers, and to the unjustified payment of dividends upon preferred stock issues at a time when standards of maintenance of the road and of equipment were being reduced. Investigation showed, among other things, that most of the new mileage of the "Frisco" was built by construction companies in which the directors and prominent officials of the "Frisco" - especially Yoakum - were heavily interested. After these new lines were built, they were sold to the "Frisco" at greatly enhanced values. Nine of these roads were sold to the "Frisco" for over $26, 500, 000 at a profit of almost $8, 500, 000.
In the construction of one of these lines, in which Yoakum was particularly interested, a profit of 75% on investment was obtained. He justified these transactions on the grounds that it was difficult to finance pioneering enterprises, and that public opinion had changed concerning what are proper corporate acts. While carrying on these manipulations, Yoakum set himself up as an authority on railway problems. He wrote articles for popular magazines and lectured about railways before clubs and labor unions. He thought the Hepburn Act of 1906 was not burdensome, but he wanted a fixed government policy - and no further railway regulation. He protested that the agitation against railways and capital in general, in addition to the threat of new legislation, made investors hesitant. He spoke of the supreme importance of Wall Street to the country especially for the building and extension of railroads.
He continued as a director of several of the "Frisco" lines even after the receivership, and apparently his enthusiasm for making profits from building new lines was not greatly dampened. His great ambition was to extend his lines through Mexico, connecting the Mississippi Valley with the Panama Canal. He was therefore greatly disturbed by the practical cessation of railway building following the depression of 1913 and 1914. He rationalized his desire for credit for additional construction into a theory for bringing the country out of a depression, by building more railroads, settling part of the unemployed on the public domain, increasing the food supply, and stimulating manufacturing for railways.
In his later years, he became greatly interested in the farm problem. He had long realized that the earnings of his railroads were largely dependent upon the crops and incomes of farmers. However, he first became interested in the farm debt situation after a chance conversation with a mortgage-ridden onion farmer. He thought the solution lay in cutting the interest burden through the organization of agricultural cooperative banking, and by reducing the spread between farmer and consumer and stabilizing farm prices through farm marketing cooperatives. He wanted farmers to strengthen themselves financially by operating their own "trusts"; but not through fighting railways and other "trusts". Yoakum died at his home in New York on November 28, 1929, at age 70.
Achievements
Connections
Yoakum married Elizabeth Bennett, the daughter of a pioneer Southwestern banker. They removed to New York City in 1907.