Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-08-09
by President Hill of the Great Northern,
gives his views of the matter. He says:

gives his views of the matter. He says:
A powerful western railroad president
and a syndicate of rich New York bankers
have been in conference in Wall street for
the past week trying to find a way of beat
ing the laws of four northwestern states
The statutes of Minnesota. North Dakota,
Montana and Washington declare in the
most positive terms that there shall be no
consolidation of railroad companies own
ing competing lines, and 10 stock control
by any one company of any other company
having a rival road. l did not know until
| went down into Wall street yesterday
how powerful is the combination of
moneyed interests engaged in the scheme
to capture the Northern Pacific, and place
it in the hands of J. ]. Hill, president of
the Great Northern. The combination en-
braces the strongest bank on the continent
of Europe, the Deutsche Bank OF Berlin,
certain heavy London interests, the great
New York house of Drexel, Morgan & Co.,
and a long list of allied banks and banking
concerns that:cluSter around that institu-
ton. 1t also embraces the various banking
interests IN New York, Montreal and
Europe which have always backed up Mr..
Hill in his bold financlering of the Great
Northern road. These various interests
actually subscribed and were ready to put
up in cash on a days notice the enormous
sum OF 100000 0 to carry out the deal.
What was the motive of these powerful
banking interests! Not the rescue of the
old Northern Pacific company from bank
ruptcy: not the interests of the people OF
the seven northwestern states where that
company operates lines Of railroad. Their
object was profit for themselves; there was
to be enormous division of spoil in the
shape of commissions for underwriting and
handling the new reorganization scheme.
| hear that these commissions would ag-
gregate Sl0.0O0,OO0. After the old debt had
been scaled down this was to be loaded
upon the Northern Pacific in the form of
new bonds. Now, what has blocked the
game? Not the receivers of the Northern
Pacific. One of them is cruising on his
yacht, another is summering on a Mime
sofa lake, and the third is somewhere in
the far west; not the old stockholders Or
ganization, under Brayton Ives. Mr.. Ives
has made a strong fight for the interests lie
represents, but what could he do against
the enormous aggregation of capital
pledged to the Hill scheme. The really,
powerful antagonist of the combination
was a certain Wall street lawyer, retained
by some of the very interests engaged in
the deal to look up the laws of the western
states on the matter of railway consolida.
ton. He has kept on assuring his clients,
against their wishes and his interests, that
they could. not beat the western statutes
by any direct methods, and that it would
be peril0us to try to circumvent them by
some tricky scheme of indirection. Some
of these great New York bankers are dis
covering. for the first time in their lives,
probably, that the peoples will, expressed
in statute books, is more powerful than
their money bags.
If the Northern Pacific should as
sumo al independent stand, says the
New York Tribune, in speaking of
the same matter, it would be a blow
to President Hill, who has built his
hopes upon a consolidation of the roads,
With the Great Northern as the absorb
ing medium. But upon this point the
laws of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North
Dakota, Montana and Washington are
discouragingly exact and lucid. The
legislatures of these states, as has been
frequently published of late, have clearly
determined that there shall be no future
destruction of competition by combina-
ton of parallel lines. It is not alone in
4 state, but in several states, that the
statute exists, and the attorneys have
about agreed that there are too many
nuts to crack with one hammer.