The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-09
SAVANNAH GA. THURSDAY.

far-reaching onsequence-possibly put
ting a stop to the plans for the greatest
of railroad mergers, upsetting President
Hills audacious plan to have Northern
Pacific control Burlington's operations.
The policy of Kuhn. Loeb & Co, has
been essentially one of self-protection, and
being now in a dominant position, where
the balance of power in the Western
Railway situation, so rudely disturbed by
Mr.. Hits Burlington deal. has been re-
stored, they viii content themselves rath-
er than crea ting lasting hostiliies among
the great Western railroads. which would
follow the abandonment of the Burlington
deal This probably will now be made
triangular arrangement. with the Union
Pacific sharing the control as well as the
Northern Pacific and Great Northern, un-
der modification of the burden of the
guarantee. The conditions under which
Kuhn, Loeb & Co., were able 10 win their
advantage were that the Hill Morgan in
terests in Northern Pacific held about 4OO
eco shares of Northern Pacific as per
manent investment, which was partially
off the market. In addition, about 100000
shares were held abroad and a good deal
of this passed to the Union Pacific inter
ests. This left virtually but 100000 shares
of the 500 900 shares of committee stock
outstanding available in the New York
market. While there have been heavy
sales of Northern Pacific by insiders the
stock held for control has not been sold,
and it is not likely that insiders went
short of the market as has been intimat
ed. The corner In the stock was not
looked for ny the serious buyers of North
ern Pacific, who had practically accom-
pnshed their purchases before Monday
sharp rise The pyrotechnics' in the
shares are attributed to Mr.. Keene, who,
comprehending what was actually going
In, he ..ta1 a1ar tan the q hea
large short interest of spectators. went
into the market and effected the corner.
Mr.. Hill, 1t was authoritatively stated
to-day, has not sold any of his Northern
acquired last summer around so, when the
stock broke on the reduction of the com
mon dividend, and the seemingly poor
traffic prospects, resulting from the fall
ure of the spring wheat harvest. He said
to-day:
81 have not bought a share of North
ern Pacific in six months" and in refer
ence to the reported differences between
the Hartman syndicate and the Morgan
| Hill interests. he said:
" That has been magnifed a thousand
times
A Great Fight May BE on.
New York, May S-There was talk in
the street of a great fight for control be-
tween the Morgan-Hin interests on the
one side and the Hartman Kuhn-Loeb-
Standard Oil people on the other, but
nothing definite could be learned of 1t.
In some parts of the street the talk of
fight and of a great clash between
these powerful interests is credited. In
other parts it is redculed. One story has
it that over 100000 shares more than the
actual capital stock of the company
have been bought by the opposing syndi-
Gates, and that it is as yet uncertain
where control lies.
However, whatever the situation, sew
eral conferences were held to-day in re-
gard to the Northern Pacific stock sit
uation. which were participated in by
James Stillman, Kuhn, Loeb & Co, and
E. H. Hartman on the one side, and
! Daniel Lamont, James J. Hill and Mr..
Bacon of J. p. Morgan & Co., on the
other. 1t is also understood that
George F. Baker and some rep
! resentative of Vanderbilt interests
were also present during a portion of the
last conference.
Mr. Morgan Appealed to.
No decision ~as arrived at, but II is
| understood that Mr.. Morgan had been ap-
pealed to in cable dispatches, and that
matters were left in their present status
pending the receipt of a reply from MIR.
Morgan regarding these dispatches.
Later i'm the evening it was learned that
after conference between the represen-
tatives- of the different Northern Pacific
interests held at the Office of ]. Pierpont
Morgan & Co., another prolonged confer
ence was held at the Metropolitan Club.
This second conference was attended by
Messrs. Hartman, Hill and Henry w.
Cannon of the Chase National Bank. 1t
is understood that all efforts up to a late
hour tonight to arrive at an agreement
In Northern Pacific matters have failed.