St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-18

the the great Wall street reorganizer
of bankrupt railroads did not care a
copper about Hills great reputation
out on the prairieS of the Northwest.
nat he was after was to make as
!iucn money as possible for the bank
ing mouse of j. p. Morgan 81 Co.
AT thls Juncture Col. Clough brought
forward a new scheme to beat the
dili-consondatton laws. He proposed
d reorganization of the Northern Pa
CHIC IN the interest of the Great North-
erh' out with separate president and
board of directors; the Northern Pa
cine to make traffic contract with the
Great Northern, which would give the
latter full control of its rates and
policy; majority of the stock of the
Northern Pacific to be deposited with a
trustee as security for the contract.
Mr.. Morgan did not like this plan.
Some OF the lawyers thought it would
work and some didn't. The objection
urged was that the parties to the
tra1nc control might be brought into
court and compelled to admit that the
opJect OF the contract was to place the
Northern Pacific under the control of
the Great Northern, and thus DESTROY
the competition in railway service
! which the state had endeayered to
maintain and protect by statutory and
constitutional enactments. A great
deal of costly litigation might follow.
with injunctions and suits of all sorts.
in Minnesota, North Dakota. Montana.
Idaho, Washington and Manitoba. In
the course of this litigation the North
ern Pacific system might. be broken in
pieces, charters for branch lines an
nulled, the land grant attacked and no
end of mischief DONE At the same
time various bonuses of money and
landed property given to the Northern
Pacific and Great Northern by certain
towns to secure competition in rail-
way service might be successfully re-
claimed. The questions involved are
very complex and the lawyers could
not agree on the Clough plan as a safe
one
so MATTERS STOOD
ten days ago. When Mr.. Hill returned
to st. Paul, Mr.. Morgan sailed for
Newport on his yacht, and Coz.
seacoast. Since then there has been
two consultations held at Morgan's
request, in which Mr.. Adams, Mr..
Hills New York lawyer and Mr..
Morgan's principal associates in the
bank have participated. At these
meetings nothing was decided The
dog-days are now here. New York
has been Internally hot for the past
week. Rich men will not stay in the
city, and the great consolidation.
scheme is hung up to wait for cooler
weather.
Let me say in conclusion that Mr..
Hill cannot justly be criticised for the
positive assertions made by some par
ties in st. Paul on his return from Eu-
rope, that he had the Northern Pacific
in his pocket. With the Adams re-
organization committee fully COM
mftted to him, with the powerful
Deutsche bank and certain very
strong London interests enlisted
to back him up, and with much
encouragement from that potent re-
organizer and banker, Mr.. j. Pier
pont Morgan, he had every reason to
believe that he could carry out the
plan which he matured as long ago as
last January, and then sent over to
Europe through the agency of his New
York brokers. The weak spot in the
plan was its failure to take account OF
what might be found in the laws or
the Northwestern states on the SUBJ
ject OF railway consolidation.
Where the interests of the people OF
a large portion of five states are in~
volved, as in the matter of consolidate
ing the Northern Pacific with the
Great Northern, the question rises far
above the reach of railroad lawyers
and managers. There can be no
doubt that the business interests of all
the communities along the Northern
Pacific lines would be seriously i'm
periled if those lines should pass into
one control. With ali possible good
intentions to treat those communities
fairly, a man would not be human if he
did not first consider the interests OF
the towns, country, factories, mills.
smelters, mines and numbering enter
prises along his own lines. He would
naturally direct capital. Immigration
nd nric firct n the Great North
ern country. Instead of the promoter
and benefactor OF the Northern Pa
cific country, as the old Northern Pa
cific company has always been, an
alien and hitherto rival control might
become it's oppressor and destroyer;
z. V. SMALLEY.