The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1901-01-02
WAS BEATEN AT HIS OWN GAME.
How the Youngest President Got the Best of Morgan
Great New York Banker.

j. Pierpont Morgan, the great New
York banker and railroad magnate,
was recently for the first time in his
life beaten at his own game by man
young enough to be his son.
This young man is John SHELTON
Williams of Richmond, Va. the young
est railroad president in the world.
The story involves the consolidation OF
railroad system which already ex-
tends from Baltimore to Tampa, and
which continues to spread its branches
through the cotton fields of the sunny
south. Williams is president of this
system, which is known as the great
Seaboard Air Line, while Morgan is
almost sole owner of the Southern rail-
way, the largest system in the south,
running almost parallel to Williams
lines great part of the way through
Dixie.
Morgan organized the Southern rail-
way in 1894. When he had completed
the task he set about to cut off compe-
tition. The Seaboard Air Line, of
which Williams father was president,
was competitor for part of the way,
but no one dreamed that it would ever
be extended.
When the senior Williams retired
from business his son succeeded him
as president of the line, and the young
man set about to perfect plan OF ex-
tension which he had long contemplate
ed in secret. Working quietly through
confidential agents he secured options
on number of important links in the
chain he proposed to forge, and his
system was more than half organized
before Morgan and his agents awoke
to the situation.
Morgan was determined that the au-
dacious young man from the south
should not carry out his plans, while
Williams had confidence in himself
and never acknowledged the pOssibili-
ty of defeat.
The odds in favor of Morgan were
enormous, for the sinews of war were
money and the two cities, New York
and Richmond, were typical of the re-
sources of the two men.
Williams scheme was beautiful in
it's simplicity. The plan was to run
railroad from Richmond to Tampa by
the straightest route possible. With
Richmond as the northern terminus
good connection could be had with
Washington and the north. Tampa
would give the outlet to the gulf and
the trade of the West Indies. And then
behind all this was the talked-of canal
across Central America.
Men who heard it looked over the
railroad maps of the south and shook
their heads.
beautiful scheme, but" they said.
And in that "but" was world OF
meaning.
"Whos the promoter of this
scheme?" others asked.
"a man called Williams; Williams
of Richmond" would be the reply.
swell, who's Williams?"
There was the question. ''Who's
Williams"
Outside of Richmond, with the ex-
ception of few financial houses in
Baltimore, people didn't know. In
Richmond most people knew that Will
liarns was barely 30, the son of former
president of small bank and trust
com pany, and that he had succeeded
his father as president of the bank. He
was known as the author of the manual
on southern railroads, and this manual
was the standard authority on the sub
ject.
Very gradually Williams scheme
grew. He gathered around him fe"
moderate sized capitalists from Balti-
more and Richmond. Gradually the
directors of the roads which were tolbe
assembled into the system were
hrouoht around to believe in the FEAST