The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-12

gave the following intervi-w to tie Min
Northern Pacific fight:
''Ihis has beer terrible work. I cannot
ind words to express my opinion. There
are some men in this country tonight
who must settle with their consot- nces
and they are we'come to what they will
get. l want no money taken as money
was taken Thursday. There will be no
pocket In my shroud. There are men
who have come to believe that money
can do anything in tn country. II we
have reached that / oiat, then money
must lie shorn by law of its power to d.
harm. am willing to see money shorn
OF such power. have no wish to have
that kind Of power.
And In my opinion the events Of this
week will do much to bring about legis-
lation that Will make them impos sible in
the future. l am sorry for the victims
In Wall street but after all 1t must not
be forgotten that a man who sells what
he does not possess acts on his own re-
sponsibility and voluntarily places him
self in peril.
A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE.
AS for myself, I have not bought or
sold one share of Northern Pacific stock
since October. ] have simply stood with
my friends in defense of that property
and refused to sell the control Of the
Northern Pacific 70 it's rival. the Uni,n
Pacific. No matter how high the price
OF the stock rose no price tempted US
1t was not a matter of price. 1t was a
matter of ordinary principle. In Mr..
Morgans absence we would net allow tn,
railroad he reorganizcd to be seiZ "a by
It's competitor.
81 and my frlenis had $4,000 Of
Northern Pacific stock Thursday and o.
one man parted with shere The con
troll OF the Northern Pacific road Is safe
ly In the hands of Mr. Morgan That I,
the clear result Of the struggl-. The at
tempt OF the Union Pacific people to Sc
cure possession Of their great rival has
completely failed.
Now, this Is briefly q description OF
the situation. The Northern Pacific road
was reorGanized by J. p erront M ryan
ana brought up TO be a good, dividend
paying, substantial property. The re.
organization committee got q large block
OF stoct-about $So,ct0OOO. and my
friends took this stock from them sInca
then some or us have sold and some have
Kept what they had, and some have add
ed to their holdings. We di1 MT hav,
control Of the road but we had a lag
part of the stock.
THE BURLINGTON DEAL.
Then came the Burlington deal. The
burlington road was a peculiar property.
It's ownership has descended in New
England mainly from father to son. II
had $1,000 shareholders, and the average
stock owned by one person amounted
TO about seventy-fve shares. Nobody
could acquire possession of the road
through its directors In any open.
straightforward manner 1t became cvi-
dent that the ownership of the Burlington
system was necessary to the Northern
Pacific and Great Northern roads This
was a perfectly natural DEVELOPMENT.
growth that did not invalidate the con-
struction OF any more railways, and SIM
ply involved change in the ownership
of the Burlington.
"Al this talk about a transcontinenial
railway Is nonsense. IT is an absolute
impossibility. There are a hundred rea-
sons against It. The products Of the
Northwest are nearly all sold at Chicago,
Duluth, Minneapolis and st. Paul. At
these points the freight changes and the
! new owners ship over every line they
please The business that would natur-
ally go through from coast to coast would
amount to less than per cent OF the
whole traffic.
WHY AN ABSURDITY?
Besides, the conditions under which
road traffic Is carried on East and West
of Chicago, the necessarily different
freight rates depending on the differences
In the density Of traffic make the idea
| of transcontinental railroad an absur-
| dity. No one seriously thinks of such
a thing The necessity for an extension
of the Northern Pacific and Great Nor
| thern roads by the joint purchase of the
Burlington was obvious The growth
| Of our trade with Asia and the immense
| prospects of a stiH greater growth, the
| demand for transportation for cotton
and corn, flour and meats and provisions
! Of all sorts from the field covered by the
| Burlington to the fields OF the Pacific
coast and in Asia, fed by the Northern
! Pacific and the Great Northern and
the immense traffic in timber from the
! far Western forests to the treeless coun-
! try fed by the Burlington, these facts
brought about the deal between the Bur-
! lington and the Northeren Pacific and the
! Great Northern. With the Burllnston
| road Joined to the Northern Pacific,
the Union Pacific found itself paralleled
by vigorous and growing competitor
CAUSE OF THE RAID.
THAT brought on the raid The Union
Pacific men waited until Mr. Morgan had
gone abroad They did not dare to at
tack the road he had reorganized and
brought to prosperity while he was here.
knew him as the head OF a great and hon
ored house, as a man whose life has
been spent in saving properties and put
ting them upon honest footings They
knew that he would protect every man
who had invested dollar in Northern
Pacific stock on the strength OF his rep
utation The road had Just emerged
from his hands. Its stockholders had
barely resumed the power OF voting on
their stock. The property was stln un-
der Mr.. Morgan's protection-under the
protection Of his reputation, and under
the protection of his brains and infu-
ence
Now, what happened? The Union Pa
cifc interests led by Mr.. Hartman, Mr..
! Stillman, Kuhn, Loeb e. Co, and others,
made an attempt to buy control of the
! Northern Pacific. If I and my friends
had sold our stock they would have suc-
| ceeded. But how could VIC sell? How
could we sell at any price? We wers Ia
vestors. We were not SPECTATORS Did
/ the Union Pacific management want Ia