Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-05-14
WIN. Rockefeller.

lutte influence ceased, and they were in
a manner at the mercy of the western
roads. Then the genius of generalship
and combination possessed by Magician
Morgan was called into play, and he
discovered away for uniting his system
and that of the northwest, with ten
tative agreement pending with those of
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 and manipulation is
indisputable. He is popularity known as
Jim Hill He was born in Canada of
Scotch Irish parentage in 1888, but has
Lived in Minnesota since he was 49, He
was very poor when he went there to
grow up with the country and was
glad of any odd job by which to get an
honest living. There was not mile of
railroad in Minnesota, it is said, at the
time James J. Hill first went there. but
in 1862 this sagacious man got a grip on
the first ten miles constructed. and in
1890 the road which he had fostered for
wears 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 6St
feet long, 10 feet wide and to draw Ut
feet of water. They will dock at Seat
f,oa
feet in depth.
From the humblest beginnings jim
Hills Great Northern road has grown
to be vast system over 5000 miles il
extent 1t has recently accomplished
the feat of absorbing another equally
llong, the Northern Pacific, and yet more
recently of annexng the Chicago. Bur.
lington and Quincy system of some S,00(
miles, In all the Hill corporations in
clude a 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" Will
either Morgan or Vanderbilt. or both
for transcontinental line without ;
break. His election to the Erie director
ate seemed to foreshadow union will
that system, which would result to TIN
mutual benefit of all concerned.
Of the remaining three lines between
the Mississippi and the Pacific, two
the Union Pacific and Southern Pacifi
are securely held by another MAJ
n who as a railway organizer ranks wit
o Hill and as a financier with Morgan
h yet who has risen from obscurity t
IS fame within a few years. This man
x, Mr.. Il. H. Hartman, whose influence
g dominant in the Illinois Central, Chica
go and Alton and Oregon Short Line
'e besides being paramount In the tW
ri great systems already mentioned. A
S. the son of poor clergyman IN Ne'
& Jersey he inherited no fortune in lucr'
e; but became possessed by inheritance {
l. a pIenitude of brains. Choosing a bank
Y, er's profession and taking to stocks, h
as acquired controlling interest III the
lie linois Central some years ago. 1t wa
In managing the affairs of the Centri
a thar his senius as an organizer BEGAN
lie apparent. and he attracted the after
d, ton of Mr.. Hill, whose powerful inf,
y. ence he has received from the first. III
d. til now these two apparently domino
or the situation i'll the middle west al
southwest. The panic year of is
to found Jim Hill with the snug little su
lit of SS0000.000 saved up for just such 8
he emergency, and both Hill and Harrims
Ii tided over the hard times of that We;
re which sent so many roads and the
ed managers to ruin.
Is, 1t may be said that Harriman's gre