Evening journal., 1901-06-07
AMERICANS NOW In CONTROL OF
LONDON UNDERGROUND RAILWAY
United States Capitalists Will Throw Out AntQuated
Cars Now in Use and Substitute Those Of
Modern American Design
Will Follow SyStem in Use
in Chicago
WORK WILL OCCUPY TWO YEARS
announcement That WidCRer- EIkin
Group Is Interested Said to bc
False

London. June IA special meeting
Of the District railway yesterday sane.
toned Charles T. YerlKes' plan for the
Introduction Of electricity as the mo.
tive power of tho road. ]. S. Forbes.
the president said the work would oc.
cupy two years. He had full conf
dencc in the ability of Mr.. Yerkes and
his associates. who had already guar
anteed their good faith In buying up
half the common stock. The Amer-
cans undertook 10 find the necessary
money TO do the work themselves. The
president thought such a simple propo.
sition did not need much argument 10
recommend itself to the stockholders.
The agreement with Mr.. Yerkes pro
ylded for the formation of an electric
traction company. to electrify the road.
Mr.. Yerkes, who represented l6 Of the
most influential firms. bankers and
capitalists. was ready to stake G1.000,.
600 TO help the railroad retrieve it's po-
sitlon. The syndicate had already
bought shares to the value of $780,
600, and was ready to buy as many
more.
Yes" said Mr. Yerles, when inter.
viewed last night by press represents
ative. eve have practically got con
troll OF the London Underground rail-
way. That is what Il amounts to. My
syndicate is composed of both British
and American fnanciers, although far
the largest proportion of the capital
comes from the United States. We
hope to begin work in a few months.
as soon as the necessary consent Of
parliament has been obtained.
THE system we intend to instill is
almost exactly similar to that in use
on the elevated lines In Chicago. We
viii sell the present antiquated cars
and substitute those of an American
pattern. We intend to rebuild the sta
tions, TO install arc lights and to make
the roal equal to any rapid transit line
in the world.
YES, we must have American engi-
neers to do the work. They know
nothing about that sort of thing here.
/ tell you what. the trouble with the
English concerns is that they don't
know the value of a scrap heap.
"As TO the agitation about the United
States buying up England, 1t is alb
surd. Years ago British capital con-
trolled the bulk OF the American rail
roads. Since then Great Britain has
been on the decline and the United
States have progressed. As a natural
result the circumstances are now re-
vcrscd
when first proposed to take over
the Underground railway the English
company raised all sorts Of objections,
but gradually they came around. and
they now appear to be perfectly salts
fed with the bargain.
mo, / cannot say who are In with
me. However. l wish to assert dis
tinctly that the report that the Wild
ener-Elkins group is in any way con-
nected with the syndicate is absolute
ly untrue"
After declining to say whether he
contemplated buying up other roads,
Mr. Yerkes concluded with a declara-
tion that the remodeled underground
railway would be far superior to the
existing London tube" 'The people
who built that" said he, knew moth
ing except how to dig holes. Every
thing else is wrong. Chicago is ahead
OF the rest of the world in electric
traction. If they had studied the Chi
cago system they might have given
London something better"