The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-07-26

tenn has accomplished. and its chief
rival for many years, the Boston, Hart
ford d Eric, as IL was later known
the New England, was at last cap
tured and brought into the New Haven
family.
when the Erie was constructed IL
was expected that 1t would make to
ordered two great cities. Just as after
ward {. y. Huntington did make a city
of Newport News after having nut his
finger upon the map at that point and
said, Here I will build a city" 1t was
with confident expectation. not only
or the Eric owners and incorporate tors
but also of the state of New York
mat at Dunkirk. on Lake Erie, and
at Piedmont on the Hudson would be
| through the influence of the Erie rail
road, created two cities that would be
second only to Now York itself. But
the situation of Buffalo the concentra-
tion there of so many trunk lines and
above all, the brilliant operations of
Commodore Vanderbilt, through which
new trunk line was created through
the consolidation of various short lines,
put an end to the hope of Dunkirk and
compelled the Erie itself to build into
Buffalo, and also to extend it's system
in southwcsterly direction, reaching
out for the traffic that was initiated at
Chicago, or at Cincinnati.
Il
Piedmont-on-th Hudson was a dis
NAL failure from the start Its piers
were never occupied, it was impossible
| to persuade passengers to favor a route
| that required forty-mle sail on the
| Hudson river before the railroad could
| be taken, and today the only reason
| for the maintenance of the single pas
senger train that plies between Pied
mont and that line is the preservation
| of the charter.
1t is within less than two years that
| the Erie corporation has been advanced
| to position of pre-eminence. 1t owes
some of its prosperity to the success of
| the very difficult reorganization plan
| worked out by Mr.. Morgan and his as
SoclatcS, ana 1t was after that plan
| was accepted and put into operation
that James J. Hill, looking for an east
ern INK in the transcontnental system
| he had in mind, bought heavily into
| the Erie, expecting with 1t and with
the ST. Paul. with which it connects at
Chicago. to complete his transcontinen-
| tai system. The collapse of the st, Paul
| deal, bringing with it the tremendous
! consequences that have been at last
| determined through the organization of
| what is spoken of here as the most OK =
| traordinary railroad tribunal ever or
| ganiZed, would, ii was thought, some
what affect the promise of great pros
| perity which the owners of the Erie
system discovered in Mr. Hilrs asso-
citation with the corporation.
ECONOMY THAT COSTS.
But the Erie achieved a greater thing
| than even complete identification with
| Mr.. HITS transcontinental system
would have been. Suddenly, before
anyone who were not parties to the ne
| Eotiation had the slightest idea of
| what was under way, ii was announced
| that the Erie syndicate had mastered a
| situation, although at great cost, so
| that hereafter it is the leader. the di-
| rector, the owner of one of the most
| prohtable and important traffic oppor-
| tunities, that associated with proper
| ties heretofore owned by the Pennsyl-
| vania coal corporation
| 1t was one of those strokes of mas
| terly economy which cost an enormous
| amount of money, but it has put the
| Erie not only through the brlliancy of
| the achievement and through the den-
! tiflcation with the property of the most
resourceful of our bankers, but also
| through its command of the coal traf-
fic formerly controlled by the Pennsyl-
Nania Coal company into a position
| from which it cannot, apparently. be
| driven. SO that ii is now said this divi-
| dend, representing honest earnings.
| may be reasonably assumed certain of
continuing, and that with a little CAPT.
| tai used in perfecting the plant, just
| as the Baltimore and Ohios plant has
| been improved, there is no reason why
| this once dCspiscd corporation, with its
most difficult problems now worked out
| may not take equal rank after fifty
| years of NicisSitude with the other
| great trunk lines east of the Mississ
| ippi. Holland.