Dale L. Flesher
University of Mississippi
Gary John Previts
Case Western Reserve University
William D. Samson
The University of Alabama
Abstract: The 1850s annual reports of the Illinois Central Railroad (IC) provide early evidence of public interest reporting. This study of the earliest annual reports to shareholders of the IC, Americas first land-grant railroad, supports a conclusion that the statements, as to form and content, were developed to serve the needs of two classes of investors, and to inform the general community of the activities of the company. In addition to the model of reporting to shareholders and creditors, which is familiar to modern annual report users, the IC also issued reports that would fulfill its public interest obligation. The need to report to the public on the success of the company in its social contract to develop the state required the inclusion of details of transactions of a demographic nature. Operating details, on a station-by-station basis, also served as evidence of the impact of the railroads service in areas which had heretofore been wilderness. Such disclosure was a way for the IC management to show how the railroad had met the responsibilities accompanying public investment in the venture.
Back to Program
