Arizona republican., 1899-01-03
THE ALTON ROAD
The Transferred Property Has Held
 Unique Position.

Chicago, Jan. 2-The controlling in
 terest of the Chicago and Alton rail
 road has passed to eastern men. The negotiations which have been pending for the last two months are authOrita- lively asserted to have been concluded. The capitalists who come in possession
 of the magnificent paying property of
 the Chicago and Alton are supposed to
 be those who are interested in the Van
 derbilt lines and the Union Pacific.
 E. H. Hartman of New York is the
 ostensible purchaser of the stock of
 Chicago holders. He is identified with the financial interests of the Union Pa
 cific and the Illinois Central and a close friend of the Vanderbilts.
 Coupled with the announcement of the closing of the deal, it is said that the Alton will be conducted as in the past, an independent line. It is today one of the most independent of the country Its traffic has been purely To- cal. It has had no entanglement with any of the east or west trunk lines. Its local trade will be fostered as in the past under the same policy, but it's tracks will furnish another link for the through traffic from the east to Uhe'west "a traffic that will not interfere wiLn the local business and which will be convenient to direct the immense trade that now originates along the Alton line.
 John J. Mitchell, president of the Illi- nois Trust and Savings bank, who rep resents a big block of the Alton stock, is in New York, and his visit there, it is said, was to complete the negOtia- tions which are now announced to have been concluded. President Blackstone of the Alton declines to talk about the deal, and those who are near him say that he has refused to sell his stock or tie it up in any way at the direction of the purchasers.
 President Burt of the Union Pacific professes to be ignorant of tne deal. Chicago railroad men accept the an nouncement as a Iact and have bsen predicting such an outcome for the past three weeks.
 With the sale Of the Alton passes not only one of the soundest financial cor pOrations in the world but one of the most skillfully managed railroads in the country. It has occupied 3 peculiar position among the great railways. It is one of the oldest lines west of the AIleghanies, one of the shortest in mileage and one of the biggest in point of earnings to the mile. It is one of the few roads entering this city owned almost entirely by local capitalists, 65 per cent of it's stock having been held by Chicagoans.
 No other road can be compared with the Alton in any way. It has had a field to itself and it's officers have guarded that field as lioness guards its young. Probably no other decent sized road in the country has been managed by so few officials. The en- tire system practically has been run by two men-Vice President Chappell and General Passenger Agent Charlton. It has been the policy of the owners of the corporation not to allow the road to be- come top-heavy with officials, men with small heads and long titles. This prin- ciple of concentrating the governing force in few persons has been as much a factor as anything else in the success of the system. The course of operation pursued by Mir Chappel1 has put the road in a position where it's | can be wound up Monday | morning and it will run lfuntil Sat | urday night.
 The Alton was the first road in the world to use sleeping, dining and chair | cars.
 While the road is short on track and | officers it is long on business. Instead | of following the willo'- -the-wisps and | its lines to every barren, boom district of the west the Alton has confined itself to it's original right of way and bent all it's efforts to building up a big profitable local business. In this it has had great success. Its $50 miles of track are dotted with hundreds of towns and cities ranging in popuIa- ton from 10000 to 75,00O
 This rich local territory has maGo the Alton the wealthiest of it's size in the world It's local traffic is so heavy that it is often said that it can make up and deliver a train of freight every ten miles. And it is the local business that ills a railroad company's treasury. The Alton could almost afford to entirely abandon it's through trains and lose little by the move, so numerous and profitable are it's short hauIs.
 But it is the personnel of the official staff of this company that is the more A majority of the present officers of this road have been with it rom twenty to forty years. They have