Omaha daily bee., 1901-02-08
COMING TO ITS OwN.
RecoIicctions of the Hattie Betweep
the Huntington and Gould Roads.

/
! the Huntington and Gould Roads.
! correspondent OF the Cincinnati Com
/ mercial Tribune. discussing the consolida-
tion OF the Union Pacific and Southern
! Pacific railroad interests. relates a Wall
! street story OF the battle royal for con
| troll waged in years past by COLTS T.. Hunt
| ington and Jay Gould as follows:
! The story of the battle between Hunt
| ington and his small but stalwart group OF
| fighters on the one side and the Gould
Ames combination on the other constitutes
the most extraordinary chapter in the
| romance of American railroad construction
! and finance. Neither Leland Stanford
| Crocker nor Hopkins. who, with Coils y.
Huntington. composed the California big
| Four" trusted the biggest of the quartet
| but he dominated the situation and held the
rcins to the finish. lie was indispensa bic,
and, while in constant rebellion against
him. his associates never had the heart to
throw him. lie was more necessary to them
than they were to him. lie knew this, and
he knew that they knew &C. Hence his
autocracy.
Long before the world had the slightest
| inkling of the irreconcilable character Of
the fight between the Central and Union
Pacific owners Huntington had organized
his campaign of ruin and reconstruction
ilt was manu- III BlONt Wlin lnt lulAn tdClUC
people, and was apparently on terms Of
closest friendship with theW. He was ac
qulescing in every proposition advanced
from the Boston and New York end. He
had been taken easy captive and was be-
ing exhibited as an object lesson OF the
superiority OF New England and Gotham
diplomacy. Huntington might be a pretty
good man for San Francisco, but he was
clearly outclassed in Wall street.
But what was the victim doing all this
time. He was simply making himself
solid with London, and while the Yankee
fnanciers were having fun with him at
home he was working the sublimest con-
fidence game Of modern times on the British
investors lie unloaded on the London
market almost the entire share capital Of
the Central Pacific around par. realizing
for himself and his associates in the
ncighborhood Of s5O,OOO,OOO. From par the
stock went 10 nothing. or practically moth
ing. The English gold brick buyers tried
many times afterward to recover some
OF the money they lost In the deal, but
without success. They even tried to per-
suade the government at Washington
that they had an equity in the proceeds
OF the bonds redeemed by the Huntington
people in the final settlement two years
ago On this plea they were laughed out
Of court.
A part OF the $50, 900, 900 kindly contrib
uted by English investors went into the
private accounts OF the individual mem
bers of the Big Four. The remainder was
the foundation OF the Southern Pacific.
That system was fed from the moment Of
Its beginning with traffic naturally belong
ing to the Central. and when the line had
been pushed through to Galveston and
New Orleans. It absorbed every pound OF
through business that could possibly be
diverted to the southern route. From
Sacramento to Ogden there was not enough
local traffic to keep train a day going at
profit.
That thousand miles Of track was moth
ing more than bridge and was so char
acterized by Mr.. Huntington. For the en-
tire distance the track became little more
than two streaks OF rust" The enormous
business the Union Pacific formerly OBJ
tanned from its western connection dwindled
TO nothing. In desperation n branch was
built by the Union Pacific from Ogden to
Portland, ore. That line recovered 10 the
parent company a small part Of the through
traffic 1t formerly had a monopoly of. but
the bulk of It continued to fnd It's way
east on the Southern route
Jay Gould was one OF the first to soc the
handwriting on the wall and appreciate the
Significance OF the Huntington move. He
saw the inevitable result and. as he had
no scruples against making money on the
down side OF the market, he proceeded to
realize on his foreknowledge. Mr.. Gould
has been accused OF wrecking the Union
Pacific. He did nothing OF the sort. Twenty
Jay Goulds could not have saved the system
from bankruptcy. He merely took advan-
tage of conditions he had no hand In Great
ing and which he could not change and
taxed the street. He played the game both
ways Being situated SO he could not help
seeing the cards In every players hand. he
would have been voted idiot for doing
otherwise. The game which Mr.. Hunting
ton organized could not have been beaten
by human power. II was an inexorable
proposition and while he lived he continued
master of the situation.
Possibly he died Just in time to save him
self the humiliation OF a defeat, for a new
order of things was finding favor a scheme
with which he could have nothing in SYM
pathy. Sweetness and light did not enter
into his philosophy. yet in the evolution of
railroading he might have been forced to
come into line. Embla1oned on the Hunt
ington banner was the beautiful sentiment:
DO others or they will do you And he
was too old to learn any other rule.
Mr.. Huntington did not transmit to his
widow his unrelenting purpose, however.
and she has seen At to stand aside and let
the chariot of progress roll along without
interruption from her. Her consent to a
sale Of her stock was obtained seven weeks
ago, only to be violently denied in all the
newspapers of the country. That option
obtained the rest was not difilcult Of ac-
complishment.
Which road will be the gamer by the
consummated deal? 1t will be noticed that
the purchasers are careful to say that the
properties will continue to be run sepa-
rately. IL is not natural that they will let
themselves get the worst OF It, II is also
fact that on an equable division OF
through traflc from the Pacific land pre-
sumably, too. from the Atlantic) the Union
Pacific would receive a very much larger
share than 1t is now or has been securing.
In the language Of Mr.. Flanagan OF Texas,
what are you here for?"