The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-26 00:00:00

and Dayton Road to Cincinnati. This lease is
made nominally to the Atlantic and Great Western
—the latter being leased to the Erie for twelve
years, from December 12th, 1868—and includes
either as part of the line, or as feeders, the Ha-
milton and Eaton, the Dayton and Michigan, and
the Cincinnati, Richmond, and Chicago Roads.
The Pennsylvania Central, with the connections
it now has, is the most extensive Railroad Cor-
poration in the world. The Pan Handle line
reaches from Pittsburgh to Columbus, and from
Columbus it gets to Cincinnati by the Little Ali,
ami, which has leased the Columbus and Xe-
nia Railroad, with the understanding that both
roads shall be leased to the Pennsylvania. The
Ben Smith Roads carry it to Chicago and St.
Louis, and furnish it, besides, with very important
feeders, among which are the Toledo, Peoria, and
Warsaw Railroad, the section between Logansport
and the Illinois line being owned by the Columbus,
Chicago, and Indian Central. This feeder may
soon receive another branch from Peoria- to Rock
Island, and will surely have one to Burlington. The
Pennsylvania Central and Ben Smith are also the
principal owners of the Indianapolis and Vincennes
and the Cairo and Vincennes Roads, which form
the most direct line to Cairo. The work on these
roads is nearly completed, and they will soon be
in Lrunning order. The Pennsylvania Central is
also negotiating for the Cincinnati, Indianapolis,
and Lafayette Road, but what will come of this,
remains to be seen ; while it is said the Erie is
now ready to fight out the battle for the possession
of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Road."
The object of the struggle he thus describes :
" Who shall control a through line from New York
to Omaha? Who have the shortest and best con-
nection with the Union Pacific Railroad? Who
hold the two ends of the continent in his grasp,
and feel that the girdle is his which binds the
Western World? JAY GOULD says, 'lt is mine,'
and clasps hands with VANDERBILT to exclude a
powerful rival from any share in its enjoyment.
Immediately there are heavy purchases, and a con-
sequent advance in the shares of the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi and other railroad connections with the
Erie in the West. If all his purposes had been
consummated a further rise for speculative pur-
poses at least would have been secured in other
roads, and the Erie would have been complete
master of the situation. But while the Erie ma-
nagers sought to exclude the Pennsylvania Cen-
tral from the entire North-west, the managers of
the latter company aimed at controlling the
-entire trade of both the North-west and South-
west. The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago
Road was the natural route in the one direc-
tion, and the Pan Handle (Pittsburgh, Colum-
bus, and St. Louis), the Columbus and Xenia, and
the Little Miami Roads in the other. Not content
with acquiring all these, it endeavoured to secure
:even the broad-gauge route, which had been the
pride and the boastof the Erie. If the Pennsylvania
interest had obtained the Ohio and Mississippi in
addition to these, it would have had a monopoly of
the: trade of the entire South and West, but the
broad-gauge alliance proved too strong for this,
and the movement failed." It is difficult for
Europeans who have no personal knowledge of the
States to trace out the complications in the railway
iaetwork, but though they see the map crossed in
every direction there are but few trunk lines which
bear the produce and persons of the Western far-
mers to the Atlantic, and the great power of these
lines is in the fact that each of them controls
.the Government of the State through which it
reaches the sea. Those who glance at the map will
perceive the strength of the corporation which claims
Pennsylvania as its own ground. Not only has it
this artificial control, but it has a natural strength
in the fact that its grand trunk line penetrates
the huge barrier of the Alleghany Mountains, and
'the possession of Pennsylvania is the possession of
a territory, which is the chief manufactory of the
States, containing three times as much coal as United
Great Britain, and more than the whole of Europe.
The New York Central is a northern line reaching
Chicago by the Lake Shore, and supposing that
Commodore VANDERBILT beat the Pennsylvanian
in monopolizing through Chicago the traffic of the
-Union Pacific Railroad the Pennsylvania could push
to completion the Eastern Division by the contem-
plated route through New Mexico, Arizona, and
Southern California to the Pacific. Indeed, it has stea-
dily kept that in view as the best route,which would
secure to it, beyond peradventure, the overland traf-
fic, much in this way, that a man who is'in Trafalgar-
square does not go by Oxford-street to the City.
Those who are north will keep to the northern line,
while those who are south would not cross the
southern to proceed by the northern. At this
moment the Union Pacific Railway is blocked with
snow, and the Pacific steamships carry the California
mails by the Isthmus of Panama. This is, and
always has been, considered the drawback to the
Omaha route, which could have no existence in the
southern line, and that this road will eventually be
constructed is beyond doubt. Whatever then may
be the immediate result of the Railway war, in the
end the Pennsylvania will assuredly have something
very like a monopoly, not only of the traffic of some
of the most productive of the Western States, but
of the through route to the Pacific, and with such a
future it is no exaggeration to speak of the Pennsyl-
vania Company as the greatest corporation in the
world. The shareholders in the company who
may have regarded the continuous increase from
year to year in the capital stock and bonded debt
of this company with anxiety, by a careful exami-
nation of the annual reports will readily perceive
that, each increase has produced as great a direct
pecuniary return on such new capital as before, while
the politic results, aimed at and secured by the
expenditure, have been well worth the outlay, even
had they been unattended with the resulting profit.