and no par stock, watered stock is less of an issue these days. Examples In 1866–1868, during the so-called Erie War, Cornelius Vanderbilt was defrauded by James Fisk, Daniel Drew and Jay Gould, who sold $7,000,000 worth of watered stock to him in his attempt to acquire the Erie Railroad. In 1873, the Railway Commissioners of Illinois reported that the stock of the railway companies in the state was inflated to $75,000,000, bringing $6,000,000 in yearly profits. In particular, the investigation uncovered that 75% of the Central Pacific Company's assumed capital was fictitious. The last significant watered stock claim in American law occurred in 1956. In that case, the Minute Maid company (then part-owned by its pitchman, Bing Crosby) attempted to recover debts directly from the owner of a distribution business on the basis that he had never fully paid the $45,000 par value of his stock. Criticism The practice of watered stock was sharply criticized by members of the Social Gospel movement such as George D. Herron and Walter Rauschenbusch. For example, in 1898, Herron said "watered stock is a method of high treason by which corporations forcibly tax the nation for private profit, and by which they annually extort millions from American toilers and producers. It is... essentially a system of violence, spoil, and robbery." See also David Dodd Daniel Drew Counterfeiting References Equity securities