New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-11-11
RAILWAY COMBINATION.
COLONEL JOHN J. McCOOK EXPLAINS rHn
. PRESENT STATUS OF THE PLAN
HE THINKS THE PEOPLE NEED TO BE TAUGHT
THAT UNION OF THE VARIOUS LINES IsA

HE THINKS THE PEOPLE NEED TO BE TAUGHT
THAT UNION OF THE VARIOUS LINES HA
NECESSARY MEASURE OF ECONOMY.
Chicago Nov. 10 epeciaD. Colonel John J. No.
Cook, OF New-York, the wellknown legal ady.ser
of prominent railroad spectators who has originated
or helped to frame nearly every plan yet devised
for the formation Of railway trusts or combinstons
| is in Chicago. He gave interesting expana.oo
of the steps thus far taken by the Eastern bankers
and railway magnates 10 secure the formation Of
trust and consolidation of large railway systems.
He said that shortly after the Interstate Commercs
law went into effect the Eastern capitalists interested
in Western railroads came TO the conclusion thai
an amalgamaton of railway interests would be nece-
sary to counteract the evil effects Of the law TO
maintain uniform through rates, TO prevent Local
rates from becoming unproitably low, and also
prevent the indlsc inmate construction OF new line,
In a territory where there were already enough
roads TO handle all the business for years to
The Could clearing house plan the first device,
but that soon gave way to the INVESTOR
Railway UniOn,' which. in turn. was
abandoned for the "Gentlemen's Agreement All
this time Mr.. Huntington had been urging .
plan of his own, which he insisted the only
true remedy. HIS plan provided for the Formation
of company under a Connecticut charter, which
should issue its own stock, 10 be exchanged for he
stock Of the railroads coming into the combination
Up TO this time, however, the railroad magnaes had
never considered the situation ripe for such an or.
rangement. Lately the conclusion reached thai,
In order to bring about a uniicaton of the numerous
railway systems in the country and stop the disastrous
competition among them, the first step 10 be taken
would be the consolidation Of all these various sys
TENS into half dozen less large systems, and then
1t would become easy task to unite those few con-,
sodated systems by arrangement similar to tho
)ne proposed by Mr.. Huntington,
The consolidation Of the different railway lines into
as few systems possible has since then made good
there will be few competing systems to compete
combination the original plan was lately
revised to meet the views Of Mr. Huntington ana
Others This revised plan Is 10 be submitted 30 te
meeting of the railway presidents in Newfork ne1t
the so-called Gentlemen's Agreement Copies wen
lately submitted 70 the presidents OF number OF
WESTERN roads for their considerstion ,,,,,., A..
Cook did not think 1t would go through. He had no
hand in the framing of the revised agreement: Ths
revision, he understand, was made by Mr.. Anams,
Is subject to the same objections the original
PLAN namely, attempt - conceal the real object,
which Is the formation of trust, by adopting an
alluring name for 1t. He likes to see nnss calici
the Peoples Transportation Company would make h
no moro popular than II IL was called the RAILWAY
Investors Union,' original. proposed by him lie
would have the people educated to the tact mat a
combination OF the numerous railway Interests In tho
country is necessary to prevent the fanrOSls nom
ruin and that it not the object OF such comoins-
ton 10 maintain high and unreasonable rates, put
TO bring about the maintenance OF fair and rasonaoo
rates The reduction in expenses made possible oy
uniting the railroads would enable them to mako
fair and reasonable rates.