The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-11-29
How 1t win Affect New York.

Mr.. Vanderbilt's large sale of Central
stock would attract universal notice by the
mere magnitude of the transaction, even if
it implied nothing beyond change of
ownership in SO vast an amount of prop
erty. 1t is understood that the transferred
shares are to be put upon the London mar
ket, and if they should be purchased there
to any considerable amount they will
increase the growing balance in favor of
the United States and create a necessity
for still larger shipments of gold to this
country. This, however, is but minor
feature of the stupendous transaction,
which is to be estimated not by its mere
bulk, but by the Importance of its expected
consequences
What chiefly deserves attention in this
transaction is it's tendency to strengthen
the Western connections of our principal
New York road and secure for it greater
amount of tributary business. There
can be be no doubt that this is the
controlling motive which has governed
Mr.. Vanderbilt's decision. He has sold SO
large portion of his stock in the expecta-
ton of increasing the value of the remain
der 1t is the most gigantic stride which
has ever been made by any trunk line for
extending its connections in the West,
which has been leading object in the pol
10y of all of them for the last twenty years.
The Pennsylvania road, for example, is
operating more than three thousand miles
of tributary roads west of Pittsburg, and all
the trunk lines have, in like manner,
though not to 30 great ON extent,
reached forth grasping arms into the
Western States to lay hold on traffic which
would otherwise be diverted to their rivals.
It was this motive which induced the late
Commodore Vanderbilt to secure con-
troll of the Lake Shore road, that most
valuable of all these channels of Western
communication. The present Mr.. Wander
bilt has taken step which passes beyond
everything of the kind which has ever been
accomplished. Quite proportion of the
lines heretofore leased in the West have been
weak and crippled roads. whose whole value
consists in making them feeders to the
trunk lines which have obtained control of
them, and none of them extends beyond the
tened his grapnel upon all the trans
Mississippi business and secured connec-
ton which extends to the Pacific coast.
The directors of the Union Pacific have
acquired such ON interest in the Wabash
road as will make it the principal
intermediate channel of the trans
continental trade, and the new arrange
WI. Al. ~
York Central in the East, as it has
already been bound with the Pacific roads
in the distant West. This advantage,
seized at this early day, will cause the main
stream of Western traffic to flow in this con-
nected channel, and, like river, which
deepens its bed with the increasing volume
of water, an established line is likely to
remain fixed. At any rate there is little
chance of its changing until after the new
Pacific roads are constructed.
The confidence felt by the public in this
| new Western connection rests on the esti-
mate which has been formed Of the bust
ness sagacity Of MI. Vanderbilt. OF course
he has done nothing against his sense
of interest, and his main interest, since this
sale as before, lies in the prosperity of the
great New York road. If he has not mis-
calculated the new arrangement will
strengthen the hold of the New York Gen.
trail on the tributary business of the
West; and the traffic of that road
debouches into New York harbor. All the
freights which move on the New York trunk
lines are destined for this city, and what
ever strengthens and consolidates the
Western connections of either OF them
tends to build up the prosperity of this
metropolis. Most of the purchasers have
large interests here and none in tho sea-
board cities which are fed by the rival
trunk lines which lie outside of the State.
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