, 1890-09-04
A NEW WESTERN LINE.
The Chicago, Milwaukee g.
st. Paul Short Route.
RAILROAD CIRCLES TORN UP
A Powerful Competing Line In OPP
position to the Union Pacific
-Northwestern Combine.

For nearly year the Pacific Short
Line railway, In course of construc-
tion from Sioux City to Ogden,
Utah, has been mystery In West
ern railroad circles The road is be-
ing built on almost an air line be-
tween the points named, says tho
Chicago Herald, nearly 200 miles
shorter than the Union Pacific
route from Council Bluffs to Ogden.
On August the line was opened
from Sioux City to O'Neill, Neb., n
distance Of 100 miles. With relent-
less energy the work on the road has
been prosecuted since the articles of
incorporation were filed naming a
number of Sioux City merchants as
the hackers of the enterprise. Now,
while these merchants are sound
citizens. they are not able to
undertake the gigantic task
Of building u thousand miles
OF new road through an
unsettled country across the great
Rocky mountain range. Contractors
were at first afraid to work for the
corporation; tie contractors called
for references and the great steel
companies wanted pay in advance
for the rails. To all these demands
the Pacific short line people made
one reply: "The money is in bank
in Sioux City to pay your bills, and
silver certificates talk better
than references" This was
found to lie true, and bills were
promptly met, but no man could
say from where the money came
Now the veil is to be lifted. 1t was
originally a scheme of certain In.
siders la the Union Pacific who
desired to build the road. connect 1t
with the auxiliary line of the Union
Pacific, over which the federal gov
ernment has no control, and then
turn over the subsidized lines of the
Union Pacific to the general gov
eminent rather than pay the enor-
NOUS Indebtedness under which
they stagger. The subsidized lines
are the main line from Council
Bluffs to Ogden city and the old
Kansas Pacific from Kansas
City to Cheyenne via Dem
yer. West Of the Rocky mountains
the auxiliary lines of the Union
Pacific are organized under the
name of the Oregon Short Line 4
Utah Northern Railway, while east
of the mountains the auxiliary lines
have been divorced from the Union
Pacific and are separate corpora
tions, although operated in har-
tnony. The scheme of surrendering
the Subsidized lines to the govern
ment has, temporarily at least, fall
en- through. The Union Pacific
people, who gave birth to the Pacific
Short Line Idea, intrusted the exc
cullon of the scheme to the Man
huttan Trust Company, of New
York. II now appears that the
Manhattan Trust Company sees
more money In building the road on
its own responsibility and perhaps
selling IL to some outside party In
need of trans-Mlssourl line.
Within the past month the Man
haitian Trust Company has arranged
for the money to complete the Pacl-
fic Short Line on to Ogden, and
contracts have been let calling for its
within eighteen months.
When the Chicago Il Northwest
ern and the Union Pacific formed
the famous alliance which upset all
the Western railroad agreements 1t |
shut out all competitors from par
ticipation in the traffic from the
Union Pacific system, which ex-
tends from the Missouri river to the
Pacific Northwest at Portland and |
Puget Sound, and TO San Francisco |
by means OF connection with the |
Southern Pacific company at Ogden
city. The Rock Island, Burlington |
and Missouri Pacific lines extend to |
Denver. and at once the work of
building broad-gauge line out of
the narrow-gauge Rio Grande line
from Denver to Ogden was COM
menced, thereby affording these |
roads "A connection with the South
ern Pacific, which will be available |
In few weeks. The Atchison
reaches the Pacific ON its own
tracks. The Chicago, Milwaukee
d st. Paul, of all the
great Western roads, was left |
with no western connections, Shut
out at Omaha and Sioux City from
the Union Pacific traffic by the Chi
cago d Northwestern-U Union Pacific
alliance, and again frozen out at st.
Paul from the Northern Pacific by
that company's purchase Of the
Wisconsin Central, the road was re-
to its own local trade. And
this is the road that needs the Pacific
Short Line Railway, and needs 1t
badly. And, too, there is every
prospect that the Chicago, Milwau.
kee 4 St Paul will get the Pacific
Short Line. President Roswell
Miller, of the st. Paul, Is now in
New York negotiating with the
Manhattan Trust Company for the
control of the new road. In this he |
is meeting with considerable oppo-
sition.
An effort is being made by the |
Union Pacific people to get the
Short Line, and another offer to
buy the road has been made by par
ties known to be acting i'm the in
terests of the Great Northern Line.
Again, the Manhattan Trust
Company is seriously consider
ing the matter of operating this line
independently, thereby afiordlng a
connecting between the Southern
Pacific ComPany's line from Ogden
to San Francisco and the Illinois
Central, Chicago, Milwaukee d ST.
Paul, and Rock Island lines from
Sioux City to Chicago. As an
independent line, the Pacific Short
Line railway would also find a
Nr.ll IL lln G1.odor In tho L.oaA Ara.Al.