The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-15
ANACONDA NEWS.
vANDERB|LTS ARE IN IT
Now Have Railway System
From Ocean to Ocean.
SECURE THE O. R. & N. LINE
1t Closes the Gap and Gives Them q
Complete Line Will Probably
Mean Fight for the Bush
ness OF the West.

The Vanderbilt interests have achieved
their ambition and now control railway
system extending from coast to coast.
The news is tod in the following dis
patch:
"New York, July 14-The Oregon Rail-
way & Navigation company directors this
afternoon decided to dissolve the voting
trust SO the property passes to the con-
troll of the Oregon Short Line, which is
controlled by the Union Pacific. Until
now the Northern Pacific and the Great
Northern have controlled the Oregon
Railway & Navigation company"
This means that the o. R. & N passes
to Vanderbilt control and gives those in
terests power, practically exclusive, over
lines clear to Portland. Ore, with for
midable array of coast feeders that come
directly into competition with the Great
Northern and Northern Pacific railways.
1t makes a new factor in the fight Tor
transcontinental traffic.
In other words, the Vanderbilts are
strengthening their position for a bitter
contest with the j. Pierpont Morgan and
James ]. Hill interests, those that control
the Northern Pacific and Great Northern
and operate them in harmony.
To make the matter clear: The Wander
bits are generally known to have con-
trolled the Union Pacific ever since that
road passed out of the receivership. The
Union Pacific controls the Oregon Short
Line. owning s26,023, 700 of its s27,46O, 100
capital stock. Then in turn the Oregon
Short Line owns more than 900 of
the $4,000, 900 common stock of the o. r.
& NJ, thus having big share in that COM
pany. although not the control.
The o. r. & N. was formerly under In
ion Pacific control. but when it and all
Union Pacific lines went into receivers
hands the o. r. & N. was the first to get
out of the courts and reorganize. 1t began
its career July 4, 1895, as a separate line.
IN the reorganization however, the Union
Pacific, Northern Pacific and Great North
ern secured the control of the preferred
stock voting trust was formed in the
Central Trust company of New York.
The preferred stock holders were given
the right to name 10 directors and the
common stock holders five. This trust was
to run until the o. r. & N. paid 2 per cent.
on common stock.
Under the voting trust the Union Pa
cific, Northern Pacific and Great Northern
have had equal representation on the
board of directors. There has, however,
been some little friction, it being thought
on one side that the Union Pacific was get
ting the better share of business from the
o. R. & N, while on another side it has
been thought that Jim Hill and the Great
Northern was having too much of finger
in the o. r. & N. pie. In addition to all
this the Northern Pacific has harbored a
suspicion that Jim Hill and the Union Pa
cific were standing in together and giving
aid and comfort to President Mohler of
the o. r. & N. in his fight against the
Northern Pacific in the Clearwater coun-
try.
1t will thus be seen that yesterdays
dispatch, quoted above, is hardly correct
in stating that the o. r. & N. control has
been in the Northern Pacific and Great
Northern. .l.s,
Heretofore the fact that the Union Pa
cifc had no outlet to the northern coast
save over the o. R. a. N, which has been
"A neutral road, has acted as bar to any
severe fighting in that territory. But the
Vanderbilt interests are opposed to the
Northern Pacific and Great Northern and
w. X. Vanderbilt has long cherished an
ambition of controlling vast system
from ocean to ocean.
will use his new power no one doubts. A
war Is expected.
And now as to the manner in which he
will use the o. r. & N In the first place.
the o. r. & N. has but recently started to
build into the Clearwater country, in open
defiance of the Northern Pacific. AS stated
several days ago in the Standard, there is
a possibility the o. r. & N. may build up
the Clearwater. when it has once tapped
that rich region, and across the Bitter
Roots into Montana. 1t was stated that a
connection might be made in this state
with the Burlington. The passing OF the
o. R. & N to Vanderbilt control makes
more remote the possibility of a Burling-
ton connection, but rather increases the
possibility of more building on the part
of the o. r. & n.
The Oregon Short Line now reaches
Montana points at one angle of a TRAN
gle and Portland at another, Pocatelo be-
ing the third angle. Only a portion of the
third side of the angle-that from Port
land to Montana-remans open and when
the o. r. q N. has reached the Clearwater
basin in Central Idaho that opening will
be still smaller. The construction of a
line across that gap would work great adj
vantage in the way of traffic and would
give Montana a new and direct outlet to
the coast. 1t would take large traffic
from the Great Northern and Northern
racine, anu ludt - tNlueHlly what MIR, |
Vanderbilt wants.
One of the Results.
The fact that the Vanderbilt interests |
have suddenly grown to such proportions |
in the transcontintntal situation has led |
to the report that the Northern Pacific |
and Great Northern have formed defen- |
sivc alliance. This report was strength |
ened by the fact that j. F. Kennedy a |
Great Northern director, has just been |
elected to the directory of the Northern |
Pacific. The report is denied, however, in |
the following special dispatch to the
Standard:
New York, July 14-Talk of a North
ern Pacific Great Northern alliance is ri
diculous The election of Kennedy to the
formers directory is nothing remarkable;
other competing lines have the same di-
rectors.