Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-07-13
AMONG THE RAILROADS
THREE LINES
PROJECTED BY WALL STREET.
The Vanderbilts to Control a Line to
Portland-The Pennsylvania to
Consolidate With Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe.

NEW YORK. July Zone of the GER
tainties Of the not distant future, in the
opinion Of. Wall street, is the establish
ment of a transcontinental railway line uu-
der Vanderbilt control. The Boston & AL
bany, the New York Central and the West
Shore are the Vanderbilt lines linking New
York and Boston, the great cities of the
Eastern seaboard, with Buffalo, and Buff
falo Is Joined to Chicago by the Lake
Shore, the Michigan Central and the Nickel
Plate.
The Chicago & Northwestern, which Is
practically a Vanderbilt road, stretches
| westward from Chicago to Omaha, where 1t
| meets the Union Pacific, controlling in
| terest in which also the Vanderbilts are
credited with holding. The western term
| ini of the Union Pacific are Granger, Wyo.,
| and Ogden, u, at both points the road
connects with the Oregon Short Line. From
Granger the Short Line runs northwest
ward to Huntington, Ore, where it con-
| meets with the Oregon Railroad and Nayi-
cation line, extending to the Pacific coast
| at Portland: and from Ogden branch OF
the Short Line goes southwark to Milford,
u, from which place the Utah & Pacific
| is being built into California, it is reported,
with a view to enabling the Union Pacific
| to gain entrance to San Francisco.
As already said. the Vanderbilts are COM
monty understood to control both the
Northwestern and the Union Pacific.
But the Union Pacific in turn controls the
Oregon Short Line. owning s26023,70o of its
| 100 capital stock. and the Oregon
| Short Line virtually controls the Oregon
more than 100000 Of the sA,ooO,oco COM
mon stock, a controlling interest In the
s11, 100000 preferred stock, however, being
held by the Union Pacific, Northern Pacific
and Great Northern. The voting power of
the Oregon Railway and Navigation Com
pany stock, it should be said, is lodged
| with the Central Trust Company, of New
York, the preferred stock having the right
to nominate ten directors and the COM
mon five. With these several controls
within controls. Wall street argues, 1t will
Vanderbilt to realize the ambition which
he Is everywhere believed to cherish Of
| coaiescing these connecting lines into
vast system from ocean to ocean.
While 1t Is well understood that cordial
understanding exists between the New
meTk C. GenS W under k hs erSaf and the
Pennsylvania, under the guidance Of Its
new president, A. ]. Cassatt, this under.
standing extending to the development OF
plans for division of territory In New
| England and to an agreement to act to-
| gether in the maintenance Of rates, no one
| now believes, II indeed anyone ever has
great systems, occupying such an impor,,
| tant part of the field east of Chicago, would
| be effected. As these natural rivals In bus
mess are working in harmony east of Chi
cago, so they may by and by be found
| competing on a basis of good faith and
| mutual regard in the Western country.
for rumors are beginning to be heard with
increasing persistency that the Pennsyl-
vania, like the New York Central. is con-
templating an extension of its lines to the
Pacific. The Atchison. Topeka & Santa
be combined with the Pennsylvania to form
the secbnd great transcontinental system.
The Atchison is in itself an enormous sys-
tenn, With its 1000 miles Of length and its
capital stock of s23S. 900. 600. and bonds out.
standing to the amount of $l26 LOCO but
this is an era of colossal combinations,
and 1t is well within the bounds of possi.
bility that the two systems may coalesce
| The Atchison has clear line all the way
| from Chicago to Mojave. In Southern Cal
ifornia. It uses the Southern Paciflc's
| tracks for the sixty-eight miles between
! Mojave and Bakersfield, from the latter
place reaching San Francisco by the line
acquired by 1t last year, the San Francisco
& San Joaquin Valley road. Recently the
buying Of the Atchison has been for the
| account of substantial interests. The Rock
efellers are heavy owners of Atchison Sc
curities, and it is significant fact that
the Rockefellers have. within the last
month, been active buyers of Pennsylvania
| stock A third transcontinental line. 1t is
| believed by not few observers of the
trend of railway ownership and affiliations
will some day be formed by the consolida.
ton of the Baltimore & Ohio, the Grea,
| Northern and the Northern Pacific, bu,
this combination is thought to be further
away than either of the other two.