The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-02
REPORT THAT CARNEGIE MAY
BUILD INDEPENDENT RAIL
ROAD FAILS CREDENCE
HELEN GoULD's AMBITION
Wants to See Grand TranscOn4i-
lentaI System of Railroads Con-
trOHed by Members of
Her Family
By w. G.. NichoIas3


that Mr.. Carnegie is prepared to lend
substantial support TO any tangible pro
position for the construction of an indie
pendent line Of "a broad from Pittsburg
10 the scaboard. Although Mr.. Carnegie
owes much TO the friendship Of the
Pennsylvania railroad and its officials he
did not a ways find that mighty corpora
ticn a pleasant tcdfellow. In his business
carer ne not infrequently ran against its
fiinty trent and chafed at his inability to
find competing outlets for his vast traf-
fic. Friendly as h s relations apparently
were with the Pennsylvania, Mr.. Car
negie finally discovered that the COM
Tanys Wall street ties were stronger
than these which bound it to him.
The time came when the great iron
master found he could not get cars when
he had reason to believe that but for
covert hostility they might have been Sc
cured for him. He had seen that move
made so many times against competitors
that he knew what it meant and realiz ID
that st last he was up against stone
wall, Re Rad seen hundreds and thousands
of others beat their heads uPon hopeless
j. and helplessly. He r. allied that it was
a move inspired against him by the
hitherto 'nvincible powers Of Wall street
against which he was SpaTrinS in MS
announced campaign for the expansion of
his iron ard steel business and ore carry
ing arrangements. 1t chilled him to the
marrow to be brought face to face with
the stern reality that il his old age he
wonld be obliged to make the supreme
fight of his life if ne persisted in going
ahead vita his plans.
a few days later when the man who
had laid the iron hand lightly upon the
wonderful old Scctchman made MIN a
magnificent offer for his properties, as
as a price for quitting. he quit. If he
had been ten years younger he might
have made a fight. While the price paid
him was acceptable no promise went
from nim that he would kiss and bless
the rowers that had forced his caDitIla-
ton. People who know Mr.. Carnegie inti-
mately do not find it hard to believe the
story that he viii subscribe heavily in
support of an honest project for building
a new railroad from Pittsburg to the
AtIantic seaboard It il the Wall street
conviction that If Messrs. Gould and
Rockefeller do not succeed in obtaining
control Of Erie or Delaware & Lacl<a-
wanna. at an early date, such a line viii
he built and that ir any event Pt5tsburs
viii be given another independent road
way torthe sea.
Close friends Of the family say that
Miss Helen Gould is the tllspiratior be-
hind the comprehensive plans for the
creation OF the transcontineEta railroad
scheme upon which her brother George
Gould is working. They say that for
years she has exerted a powerful infu-
ence in shaping the family policy, her
purpose being the urbuildiug of q mag
nifcent property as a monument to her
fathers genius The daughter looks with
reverence upon her fathers memory
and with unbounded respect on every
thing with which mis- name was identified.
She knew him only as loving and de-
voted father and was closer to him than
any member of his family. She saw
most Of him during tire years when he
was devoting himself to conserving the
vast fortune which a wicked world |
charged he had made largely through !
railroad wreckings. She only knows him /
as a builder and trustee of the fortune
erected for his children and she hopes |
fervently to live long enough to see his |
conceptions carried out in their fUllness
and symmetry. A grand transcontinental
system of railroad controlled and largely
owned by the Gould family would satisfy
her ideal as to what should be done in
honor of ner father. She would like to
see N lIded in such a railroad system all
the lines with which the elder Gould had
been Identified or as many of them as
could be nodded into the creation.
.
The panic, incident to the Northern Pa
cifc corner, not only caused widespread |
financial disaster but left countless
nervous wrecks in its train. Several sui |
cidts have been traceable directly to that
panic and among the brokers' who passed
through the terrible ordeal of that black
Thursday there nave been many break
downs. One day this week Broker Hedge
went to his last account as Il direct re-
suit of the excitement and strain. His
dying words We're Northern Pacific,
Northern Pacific" The dying wall of the
stricken broker YVES repeated the next
day on the stock exchange and as 1t
Tassed from mouth to mouth a general
shudder swept through the room To
some it sounded almost like a knell and
recalled to them their own nerve shat
tered condition.
w. 3. Leeds. one of the newly risen
IRON kings, is building himself 100000
steam yacht and is planning for cruise
around the world The Leeds yacht VIII
be one CT the most luxuriantly appointed
palaces ahOat. A crew of fifty-two per-
sons will be required to man it, and it
VIII have accommodations for two score
more guests. Mr.. Leeds halls from
Richmond, Ind, and four years ago was
an obscure individual in that little
HoOsier manufacturing community. He
was assoc ated with d. G. Reid, and to-
gether with the Moore brothers and
Dick Quay a son of Senator Quay, OF
carried and floated American Tin Plate
company, otherwise known as the tin
plate trust. He Kept on with MI. He'd
and Moores and profited enormously in
che promotion of the other Moore prop
critics and by their final absorption into
United States Steel. lie is sad to tie
worth between $2O0O),0O) and $25,0O0,0O).
He is recognized by his associates as i
man of signal ability, and is held by his
intimates as the equal in audacity> and
courage of any man in Wall street. The
choice of position in the directory of
the big steel company lay between him
and his friend Mr. Reid Each was
willing to give way to the other, but Mr.
Leeds finally prevailed upon his chum to
take the place. Both Leeds and Reid
are young men, neither being forty years
OF age. They are Of stalwart proper
tons being over six feet tall broad
shouldered, active in movement and eacn
tipping the scales at about 225 pounds
The report comes back from London
that the first thing Col. John w Gates
did on arriving there was to try to buy
into Mr. Charles T. Yerkes' scheme for
Yankeeizing the transportation lines of
the old world metropolis. He is said to
have expressed an entire willingness to
take anywhere up to s100 100000 share in
the Yerlles enterprises. The report stop
ped short of the interesting fact whether
Mr.. Yerkes accepted the proposal or
not. TrOtting in double harness Col
Gates and Mr.. Yerkes would make
team that would startle London out Of
It's stagnatiOn and turn the old place up
side down. Mr. Yerkes has taken about
$27OOO,COO of American money with him
over to London and expects to more than
double 1t in three or four years. He will