Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-05-11
WIN. Rockefeller.

but beyond the latter point their abso
lutte influence ceased and they were II
q manner at the mercy OF the western
roads. Then the genius of generalshlI
and combination possessed by magician
Morgan was called into play, and h,
discovered a way for uniting his system
and that of the northwest, with ten
tatiVe agreement pending with those O
the middle west when he sailed for Eu
rope.
Five great lines, the Great Northern
Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, Atchi
son, Topeka and Santa Fe and Southern
Pacific connect the Mississippi river
with the Pacific coast, In the north
west lives man whose genius for rail
road construction ard manipulation /.
indisputable. He is popularity known as
Jim Hill He was born In Canada OF
Scotch-lrish parentage in 1898, but has
lived In Minnesota since he was Is. HC
was very poor when he went there tC
grow up with the country" and was
| glad Of any odd job by which to get al
honest living There was not a mile OF
| railroad in Minnesota It Is said, at the
time James j. Hill first went there but
In 1862 this sagacious man got grip on
the first ten miles constructed and In
1890 the road which he had fostered for
| years finally reached the Pacific coast
Branching out still farther, Hill leaped
across the Pacific to Japan and China
and took over silver cotton, timber
| lumber and rails, to be exchanged for
| oriental products. At this moment he
has two big steamers building especial
ly for this trade, each one to be $50
feet long, rs feet wide and to draw SO
feet OF water They will dock at Seat
tie, where he has dredged channels 46
feet in depth.
From the humblest beginnings jim
HIS Great Northern road has grown
10 be vast system over 5000 miles IN
extent 1t has recently accomplished
the feat OF absorbing another equally
long, the Northern Pacific, and yet more
recently Of annexing the Chicago, Bur
lington and Quincy system Of some 5, 900
miles, In all the Hill corporations in
clude total of more than $4,000 miles
and extending from Chicago and the
great lakes into the Pacific northwest.
SO far as this vast territory is concern
ed, Mr.. Hill can make a trade" with
either Morgan or Vanderbilt, or both
for transcontlnental line without a
break His election to the Erie director
ate seemed to foreshadow a union with
that system, which would result to the
mutual benefit OF all concerned.
OF the remaining three lines between
the Mississippi and the Pacific, two
--are securely held by another man
who as a railway organizer ranks with
Hill and as inancier with Morgan,
yet who has risen from obscurity to
fame within a. few years. This man Is
Mr.. T.. H. Hartman. whose influence Is
dominant in the Illinois Central. Chlca-
go and Alton and oregon Short Line,
besides being paramount In the two
great systems already mentioned AS
the son Of a poor clergyman In New
Jersey he inherited no fortune in lucre,
but became possessed by inheritance Of
a plentude Of brains, Choosing bank
er's profession and taking TO stocks he
acquired a controlling interest In the IL
linois Contra! some years ago. II was
In managing the affairs q the Central
that his genius as an organizer became
apparent. and he attracted the atten-
ton OF Mr.. Hill, whose powerful infiu-
ence he has received from the first, un-
III row these two apparently dominate
the situation in the middle west and
southwest. The panic year OF 1893
found Jim Hill with the snug little sum
Of SSO00O.o 900 saved up for just such an
emergency, and both Hin and Hartman
tided over the hard times of that year