The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-12-26
THE VANDERnILTS.
New York Post.l

New York Post.
 The life of the late William H. Wander bilt was for the most part a struggle to preserve the colossal fortune heaped up by his father-to prevent it from cvapo- rating, as all property except lands tends everywhere to evapora.e. The time is coming. if it has not already come, when greater skill will be required to keep large estates together than was needed to accumulate them, aud this for the very simple reason tha, 1t is in the nature oi capital to wear out, the most permanent forms requiring incessant care and re- newal Even such fixtures as the New York Central railroad are exposed to kill ing competition, and we have seen the shares of this remarkable property, once reckoned the most desirable form of in- vestment next to government bonds, re duced to a non. dividend basis by par allel road laid alongside of it within the short space of three years. an event which would have seemed utterly incredible to the elder Vanderbilt. A late president of the Erie railway, now deceased, on the occasion of a conference with the com. modore, in which modus vivendi was patched up between them, said Now, commodore. nothing can hurt the New York Central until somebody builds a nairow-gauge road on the other side of the Mohawk" The idea of a new dou- ble-,rack steel railway paralleling the Central was beyond the conception of either of the conterees. The commodore reflected for a moment and then ex. claimed: "lt is i'm possible; such road will never be built" Eight years had not passed after this conversation took place when the West Shore road was in full operation, and i, may be affirmed that the old commodore never had task of such difficulty set before him as that which his son grappled when the West Shore problem confronted him.
 Mir. Vanderbilt's business career was checkered with like problems from the day when he inhed the bulk of his fathers wealth to the day of his own death. The very last hour and minute of his own life were absorbed by the ceaseless struggle to hold on to property which was always slipping from him. The be, investment he ever made was his large purchase of United States bonds. This required no care, no conferences with Garrett, or Gould. or Roberts, no surrender to the Nickel Platers, no fight ing with the West Shore crowd. But United States bonds come to an end eventually, and the interiors of the Van derbiit wealth will have to struggle as he struggled, and as less wealthy persons struggle, to keep together the accumula- tions of the old commodore. They will probably not be able to do so. The chances are largely against the preserva- ton of the estate in lump beyond one mere generation, although its bulk is sui 6cient ts endow many rich families. The Jumping of such masses of wealth by the process of settling all but traction en one member of family will not preven, its eventual dissipation under the grind ing power of competition and the cease the forces of nature work as they do to dissipate large fortunes, since such accu mutations as the Vanderbilt estate are the never failing text for communist spouters and the starting point of almost all attacks upon social order.
 How far the late William Fl. Wander bilt succeeded with the task beque taed to him by his father the public will not be likely to find out. Not eyen bis execu- tors will be able to answer tEe questi on for long time to come, since death overlook him at crisis in railway affairs If he b ad died a few months earlier the West Shore settlement would in all prob ability have failed, and with it would have failed the Pennsylvania settlement whatever th # may be. The absence of a commanding bulk, capable of drawing lesser things to itself by sheer gravisation, would have lett multitude of conflicting forces in play to shatter themselves by useless collision. Whether all the wreck age hps been collected together and pre- perly stowed no man is vie enough to say, The man who could do most to make peace as well as to make war among railroad interests has passed away. The richest man in the world Tuesday, to-day nothing but name, and as to this the most that an be said is ,ba, it was a fairly good name. Mir. Vanderbilt's beu- efaciions were great, but were not re- markable as measured by his wealth. He was virtuous, unostentauous, and kind hearted, a good husband and father, a careful trustee of the interests committed to Lis charge He made no bad uses of his great wealth, nor did he ever exhibit the grasping, fighting, and crushing traits which marred the fame of the old com msdore. He endo we'd one great institu- ton in New York with pnncely estate, and he may have left other bequests in his will which shall preserve to him some thing better than the title of the richest man of his generation.
 
 "A genuine patriot," said an election orafor recenslv "muxt at all times be