Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-16

600, are preserved in the reports of the
Government investigation. Having mllked
that property dry and finally reached the
point where it was necessary for him to re-
store the corporation to some share of public
confidence, Mr.. Gould conceived the idea of
putting Mr.. Charles Francis Adams in
charge OF the road and to advertise himself
as having undergone a change of heart.
The result of Mr.. Adams management,
which, while far from ideal, was at least
free from the feature Of undisguisedly rob-
bing the stockholders, was such as to re-
store the stock to standing which enabled
Mr.. Gould to close out all his holdings, and
after other pleasant little deals, to stand
ready to repeat the operation once more.
1t is interesting to learn from the reported
Gould interview that "Mr. Adams has
been managing the property after fashion
which sets business control wholly at
naught" 1t is true that Mr. Adams man.
agement has not been of the fashion ex-
emplifed by the famous Kansas Pacific
deal of Messrs. Gould, Dillon and Sage.
His policy, while it has been unable to
throw off all the idiosyncrasies of railroad
management, has been to increase the earn
ing power of the stockholders property in
stead of plundering it for the benefit OF the
managers. That Mr.. Gould should be un-
able to forgive such a departure from his
principles-especially when he can make
good thing out OF administering the punish
ment-is quite credible. His system makes
this practicable in double way. In the
first place he is the apostle of the great
project of a railroad combination which
shall force the people of the Northwest to
pay dividends on the watered stock that he
has been so successful in infusing into the
system. For the purpose of forcing that
combination he has first pushed the trans
continental lines into rate war, and then
forcing the decline caused by that contest
into an absolute stock panic, he, with his
colleagues, buys up the property at less
than value, and hopes to force with one
hand the public to pay rates which will
make fictitious capital valuable, while with
the other he will repeat his old operation of
milking the corporation for his own private
advantage.
The report whether true or not, presents
a marked illustration of the fatal vice of
our present railroad system in the advantage
which it gives to the inscriptions and dis
honest over the honest element in railway
management For whether Mr.. Gould has
actually got control of the Union Pacific or
not and is going to turn Mr.. Adams out,
the fact remains that Mr.. Adams would be
unable to prevent him from doing so, if he
should regard the Union Pacific as prom
Using field for second campaign. Mr..
Adams has not enriched himself at the cost
of the stockholders or the public. Mr..
Gould by twenty years adherence to that
policy has gained the financial power which
enables him to crush out the honest element
in railway management wherever 1t is OBJ
noxious to him. He has control Of compet-
ing lines by which he can plunge tine line
into a rate war; he has the power in the
stock market to create stock panic; and
finally he and his kindred spirits have the
wealth gained by similar operations in the
past to buy up the stock at a deprecated
price, kick out the more scrupulous mana
gers and resume their old line of operations
so long as the property will stand any more
plundering.
1t is one of the most ominous features of
all our corporate abuses, that the successful
freebooters in the great corporations must
by the nature of the case triumph over and
extinguish those who cling to the principles
of business integrity.