The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-22
HILL ANSWERS
 GOV. VAN SAINT Says No Law Will Be
 Violated. NO MERGER IS PLANNED Northern and Union PacificS
 Not to Be United.' The Northern Securities Company Will Assist in the Upbuilding
 of the States Traversed by Its Lines

St. Paul. Dec. 21.- President J. J. Hill of the Great Northern Railway and of the recently organized Northern Securi- ties Company this afternoon gave the following statement to the Associated Press:
 When the Northern Pacific failed and the banking house ot J. P. Morgan & Co. reorganized it, myself and friends were holders of a large amount of that company's securities. Aftep the reor- ganization was completed we bought about $26o0O.O0O Northern Pacific stock. both common and preferred. Some of this stock was afterwards sold, but a large amount has been held from that time to the present.
 About a year ago the Union Pacific bought the Huntington and other in- terests in the Northern Pacific and at the same time made ,an effort to get control of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. With these lines in the hands of the Union Pacific interests, both the North ern Pacific and Great Northern would be largely shut out of the States of Nebras- ka, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin except by using other lines of railway. We then, with the Northern Pacific, made pro- posals to the directors of the Burlington to buy their entire property. When this transaction was about being closed the people who represented the Union Pacific company and who had previously tried to buy the Burlington asked to be allowed to share with us In the purchase of that company; this proposal we re- fused for the reason that it would defeat our object in buying the Burlington and further 1t was against the laws of several of the States in which the longest mileage of the Burlington was located.
 After we had closed the purchase or the Burlington, the Union Pacific people undertook the boldest effort that ever was made in this country and bought over Se0 000 QUO of the stock of the Norrh-f ern Pacific In the markets of Europe and the United States. l was Tn New York at the time and after Messrs Nor gan & Co.,, were aWart or the acton or the Union Pacific peGple it was found that together we helA about $26,000'OOO of Northern Pacific common stock and in asmuch as the common stock, by right of contract made with the preferred stockholders, when the company was le- organized and the stock issued had the privilege of paying of the preferred stock at par on the nrst day or January ol any year until 1917.
 Messrs Morgan and Company then bought in London and New York about SIS 0O0, 900 of the common stock or the Northern Pacific; at the same tune the Union Pacific interests, having already so large an investment, bid the stock up until this was the largest stock corner ever known; the common stock in three or four days went up to one thousand dollars per share.
 explained to my friends how that, with control of the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific would control the entire northwest and of the west from Mexlco to the Canadian line except for the Great Northern. One of my friends in London who owned two millions Of Northern Pacific common was offered and refused fourteen million dollars for his stock. The result was that Messrs Morgan & Co.,, and ourselves owned forty-two mil lions of the Northern Pacific common out of eighty millions, with the privilege Of paying off the seventy-five millions Of Northern Pacific preferred.
 The Union Pacific people owned thirty seven millions of the common and about forty-two millions of the preferred whlch was a clear majority of all the stock or the Northern Pacific. and claimed the exclusive control of the Northern Paci- fc Railway and through that ownership a. control of one-half the Burlington. When 1t was known that these preferred shares could and would be paid on ana before the annual election mutual nego- tiation resulted in Morgan giving them A representative of the Northern Pacific on the boards At the same time was selected "a member of the Northern Pacific board. When I was advised of my election, notified them that l could not legally act as a director of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern At the same time, and resigned after the first meeting of the board. Several Of the gentlemen who have long been ln- teersted in the Great Northern Railway, but not the holders of the majority of it's stock have desired to combine their ln- diyidual holdings in corporate form and in that way secured permanent protec- ton for their interests and continual ton of the past policy and management. Out of this desire has grown the North ern securities company.
 The Northern Securities Company is or ganized to deal in high class securities; to hold the same for the benefit of it's shareholders and to advance the interests of the corporations whose securities 1t owns It's powers do not include the op- eration of railways. banking. mining nor the buying or selling ot securities or properties for others on commission. It is purely an investment company and the object of it's creation was simply to enable those who hold it's stock to con tinue their respective interests in asso- citation together and to prevent such in- terests from being scattered by death or otherwise: to provide against such attack as has been made upon the Northern Pa cifc by a rival and competing interest whose main investment was hundreds of miles from the Northwest and whose only object in buying control of the Northern Pacific was to benefit their Southern properties by restraining the growth of the country between Lake Su- perior and Puget Sound and by turn ing away from the Northern lines the enormous Oriental traffic which must fellow, placing on the Pacific Ocean of the largest ships in the world.
 Bid the Union Pacific people, with their