The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-07

Yesterday, at the dinner hour,
telegram significant in its i'm
port but provokingly meager in
its details reached the Butte Office of
the Standard. 1t read Report deemed
trustworthy here is to the effect that
the Montana Union has been sold to the
Northern Pacific" Instantly the Stand
ards New York correspondent was in
structed to find out if the report was
true. 1t was Sunday. The part of
Greater New York where railroads are
bought and sold without ado and where.
on week days million-dollar transac-
tions are deemed hardly worth mention
ing, was deserted-the only way to get
this news, of highest significance to all
Montana, was to scurry among uptown
sources of information for it,
While this work was going on in New
York, Standard reporters made vain at
tempts to learn something at this end
of the line in regard to the impending
fate of the Montana Union. Perhaps
General Manager Burns knew at 10
O'Clock last night all the Montana
Union news that is printed in the stan
dard this morning. If he did he is a
star performer-he left the reporter un-
der the impression that if there is one
man among these mountains who knew
not one jot of news about the proposed
sale, that man is General Manager
Burns; and, in fact, he apparently had
not heard of the sale. But the quest
in New York was rewarded. Late in
the night word reached the Standard
office that the sale of the Montana
Union was an accomplished fact. Fol-
lowing is the dispatch:
New York. Feb. 6.-The question of
selling the Montana Union. which has
been the connecting link between the
Union Pacific terminus at Silver Bow,
Montana, and the Northern Pacific main
line at Garrison, in the same state, has
been held under advisement for some
time by the management of the reorgan-
lied Union Pacific, with the result that
the Union Pacific directors have taken
formal action and fully decided to sell
the road to the Northern Pacific. which
will thus be able to make its main line
continuous by way of the city of Butte.
The Standards correspondent met this
evening man whose relations are close
with Daniel $. Lamont of the Northern
anu WHO, W0eI ne
was asked for information, said that. so
far as he was aware, there was no pri-
yacy about the Northern Pacific's side
of the case, that it stood ready to buy,
that negotia tions have been progress
ing. that the terms of sale were practi-
cally arranged and that If the whole
matter is not settled 1t will be in less
than five days. The Standards cores
pondent tried to get information from
+. Eilery Anderson, of the Union Pa
cific board of directors. lie is in town,
but it was impossible to reach him to-
night, but it can be positively asserted
as coming from Mr. Anderson, although
indirectly. that the sale of the Montana
Onion to the Northern Pacific has ac-
tually been made, that every detail in
the transaction Is closed, that nothing
remains except the formal transfer of
the property together with certain pa
pers held in the West. and that the
transaction will be completed before
Feb. Is.
Bit of Local History.
1t has been apparent to those who
have kept track of recent changes in
volring the transcontinental railroads
that the aim of the new men in the
management of the Union Pacific was
to bunch their hits on their main line
which normally belongs in their terri
tory. without undertaking to invade the
field covered by the lines of their two
rivals which cross Montana from end
to end and from east 10 west. On the
other hand the new men in control Of
the Northern Pacific, following all cn-
iightened policy, have resolved to bring
their railroad properties up to the high
est mark of efficiency. Toward that
end they intend 10 depart from inaIy
of the traditions that are a part of the
history Of this long mismanaged ra..-
road and bring The line to rights ct
points where in the past things were
radically wrong. except as those @yno
were in the ring that sI,eeded tn road
to bankruptcy, were the beneficiAI ,es
In point of traffic Butte is actually the
most important pace on the Northern
Pacific line between Minneapolis and
the state of Washington. The marvel
is that. all these years the Northern
Pacific has mad no road of its own maxi
ing its line continuous westward Tor