The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-09
AMONG RAILROAD MEN
No One Took Advantage of the
California Rates.
THE WESTERN UNION SUIT
1t May Revolutionize the TELEGRAPH
Business Throughout the Coun-
try If the Great North
ern Wins 1t.


in effect yesterday, offered no attractions
to the people of Butte, for no one took
| advantage of it. People who are going
away on pleasure trips just now find
greater inducements to travel Eastward,
and those who expect to go to California
are waiting the cheaper rates which the
roads will probably make next month on
account of the National Teachers asso-
citation meeting at Los Angeles.
A great issue hinges upon the Great
| Northern-W Western Union suit, which will
be watched with more interest by rail-
road and telegraph people than any other
| suit in a long time. If the Great North
ern wins there are many other railroads.
some of them pretty large systems. who
will at the earliest opportunity take ad-
! vantage of the decision and engage in the
telegraph business. Many believe that a
decision favoring the railroad would ulti-
mately result in revolutionizing the tele-
graph business. 1t is even limited that
/ realization of the magnitude of the issue
| involved in this suit had something to
/ do with the recent decline in Western
/ Union stocks.
| Western Union people pretend that this
| matter is not of vital Importance, and as
sumo that before going to much trouble
and expense James J. Hill will compro
| mise the matter and MAKE new contract
with them. There is scarcely any chance
that this will happen. Mr.. Hill never
| steps down from the position he has tax
| en-, and is intensely in earnest in develop
| ing the policy of concentrating work per-
| formed by railroads in the railroad Off
| Gals hands. The Canadian Pacific does
| all its own telegraph business and abso-
| lutely controls all the wires, for which it
| furnished all the material and labor 1t
fosters it's telegraph department, finding
it about as profitable as the passenger
department. In this country the Ann Ar
| Dor railroad and a few other small lines
own their telegraph wires and transact
| business quite successfully.
| The Great Northern suit involves sew
| eral questions of secondary Importance
| that present quite a tangle, but Mr.. Hill
| is not going to let this interfere with
| settlement of the main issue of whether it
can compel the Western Union to sell out,
| since it's contract has expired. Telegraph
| companies usually furnish the material
| and railroads the labor in constructing
| lines, and in this instance the Western
| Union will be compensa ted for its inter-
| ests in accordance with the equity of the
| case as determined by the courts. In
| some instances including the Northern
| Pacific. the government aided in the con-
| struction of the telegraph systems. In
| the case of the Union Pacific the govern
/ ment wants the railroad to do its own tel
| egraph business, but the railroad and the
| Western Union are trying to resist this
| desire by entering into a new contract,
| fl,n Sc. ir,tor in,
| both they may succeed in doing so.
The North American. or Postal Tele-
| graph company is deeply interested in
| this suit, because If the Great Northern
| won it would get part of the business, and
| it would try to get it all. The Postal
| people are not afraid, they say, of a de-
| csion favoring the railroads. They would
| like very much to see the railroad win,
| and the precedent established, even
| though at some future time they might
| suffer in the same way by having to sell
| out to railroad on the expiration of the
| contract. 1t will be impossible for the
| railroads to do the telegraph business of
| the country as whole. being situated in
| different sections. The telegraph COM
| pany acts a sort of clearing house and
| is as much interested in performing good
service in one section as in another. But
| the effect of a railroad owning it's own
| wires and doing it's own telegraph bust
| ness is to stimulate and increase the tele-
| graph business of the section in which
| it operates, and in this way it is a good
| thing for the telegraph companies
| When the Northern Pacific directors
| hold their monthly meeting in New York
next Wednesday President Mellen will
probably lay before them several import
ant matters pertaining to authorized and
proposed extensions and lines in Manitoba
and the Pacific coast country, and also
terminals and other improvements in
Seattle and other Pacific coast cities. Ter
minal improvements are needed not only
on general principles, but also on account
of such work by the Great Northern AS
regards the dividend matter, nothing will
likely be done until the July meeting or
later. The board declared one on COM
mon the first of the year for the six
months ending June so. Nothing less
than this will be done for the remainder
of the year, but probably no statement
will be made as to periodicity. Earnings
| the last week in May will show
siderable improvement over the rest of
| the month, but the May showing will fall
| considerably short of that of last year,
| though it will be UNNECESSARILY better
| than that of 1897. Last years volume was
| immense, and as one of the officers says:
| increases cannot go on forever" The
outlook for the immediate future is salts
| factory and the matter of crops is en-
| crossing the company's attention very
| largely. The crop situation is by no means
| satisfactory. This. however. has nothing
| to do with the dividend on common. con-
| corning which the company naturally
would take no action until 1t had
| closed its fiscal year and seen precisely
| how it stood. Nothing further than the
| present 4 per cent can be given preferred
until the common has reached per cent.
| when common and preferred will share
| alike.
The Northern Pacifics last crop report
has the following Montana observations:
Since last report seeding CT wheat has
been completed. Flowing for coarse
grains is well advanced and seeding is
being pushed as rapidly as possible Sew
eral good rains and a higher temperature
have produced a rapid growth of grain,