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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – As America nears its 250th birthday, I’m surprised that some of our largest companies are not doing more to mark the occasion. American freedom and the mighty American economy allows them to make millions. So where is the bold, outward display of American greatness?
Here are the 10 largest corporations in the United States: Cencora, a healthcare are pharmaceuticals conglomerate, Exxon-Mobil, McKesson, another healthcare behemoth, Berkshire-Hathaway, CVS, Google, Apple, United Health Group, Walmart, and Amazon.
Well? Walmart certainly has a lot of red, white, and blue up in its stores. Google will certainly have a patriotic doodle on its search page this weekend. Aside from that, these are behemoth companies – that somewhere, someplace in their corporate existence are probably proud to be American.
And then, there is the Union Pacific railroad.
Their corporate history is America’s history. They were one of the railroads that drove the golden spike in Promontory, Utah in 1881. Their headquarters are in the American heartland, Omaha. Today their territory is from Chicago over the Rockies to the West Coast, and south to Texas and the Mississippi Delta. Today their striking yellow engines all have the fluttering American flag painted on the side. And in 1941 they built the most powerful steam locomotive in the history of railroading: the giant, 135-foot long, 775,000-pound, 12 axel behemoth. Big Boy’s job, and there were 25 of them, was to carry increasingly long and heavy freight trains over the Rocky Mountains, at the Wasatch Range and at Sherman Hill. It is the largest total mechanical machine ever built.
Union Pacific keeps one of its Big Boys in operating condition, and to celebrate Independence Day this mighty machine has been sent on a nationwide tour. All around the country huge crowds have gathered trackside to awe at the locomotive as it rolls past, under steam, at speed.
The history of the railroads isn’t properly taught in America. These are the companies that stitched a young nation together from coast to coast. The agriculture of the American heartland could be brought to market. The manufactured goods of our industries would be available to everyone. The steel, coal, oil and chemicals of America could be sent to our ports and then around the world. Railroads – and later automobiles and airplanes – made America great.
Today I’m glad the one American corporation, the Union Pacific, boldly reminds us of our nation’s industrial heritage by sending a most-powerful machine across its iron rails.
Chris Conley
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