The San Francisco call., 1899-04-12
Secret of the Deal in Which CrOcker
Capitulated.
The Aged Manipulation Tricks His Young Rival Into
Submission and Obtains Power for Which lie
Fought in Vain for Years.

THE truth in reference to the re-
cent railroad deal in which H. E
Huntington was shOrn of his au-
L thority as the first assistant to
his uncle, c. P. Huntington, is
gradually becoming public property
Railroad people, local financiers and
men Of affairs see clearly that c. P.
Huntington. crafty and clever, has won
perhaps the most emphatic diplomatic
triumph in his long and brilliant career
as a finanCier. Instead Of jeopardizing
or sacrificing to the Crocker and Stan
ford factions in the Southern Pacific
Company any of his vast interests or
his coveted power Huntington has
tricked his bitter enemies in the COM
pany into a submission to his absolute
will. Through the ineXperience of
George Crocker the willy president of
the Southern Pacific has gained in a
single day what had been for years an
impOssibility. Crocker has abandoned
to the old man everything and has re-
ceived nothing in return. Huntington
has given to Crocker the pOmp of bogus
power and retained for himself the
substance of authority. More than
that the old railroad magnate has
wheedled into his hands that which no
struggle would. have gained for him.
He has destroyed the danger of the
Crocker and Stanford factions that
constantly menaced him and after
years of intense antagonisms and
shrewd manipulation he is now the
dominating spirit in the great corpora
ton of which before he was simply a
factor. He has given to George
Crocker the mantle of the second vice
president and has sneaked off with the
throne.
In this aspect the recent deal in the
railroad company is of exceptional pub
lie interest. For the first time in the
history of the families who projected
and built the Central Pacific and
Southern Pacific railroads Huntington
has complete control and he has re-
ceived it from the son Of his bitter
enemy. During his lifetime Charles F.
Crocker fought the ambition of Hunt
ington. AT his death Fred Crocker con-
tinued the battle. Leland Stanford had
also bitterly opposed the pretensions of
Huntington and Mrs. Stanford has fol-
lowed in her husbands footsteps. The
Stanford and Crocker factions were al
ways allies. George Crocker went into
the Southern Pacific Company to con-
tinue the battle which his father and
brother had fought and to hold over
the head of Huntington the firebrand
of opposition.
In this struggle, continuing through
years. Huntington was always more
powerful than his enemies, but in order
to win much he had to give some and
now, without giving anything, he has
won all. Shrewd men, who under
stand the situation, shrug their should
ers when they refer to George Crocker,
and declare knowingly and with a
smile, that wiser men in the field of
finance and diplomacy have discovered
to their cost that c. P. Huntington is
more than their match in that game
where something is obtained for moth
ing In other words, railroad men
have awakened to the interesting
knowledge that c. P Huntington has
sold George Crocker a gold brick and
did not even have the courtesy to allow
Crocker to test the filings.
This is why railroad men consider the