Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-01-03
RETIREMENT OF NORTHERN
PACIFIC PREFERRED

Speaking Of the retirement of the
preferred stock of the Northern Pacific
road, the st. Paul Pioneer Press says:
''The decision of the federal counts in
New York and Minneapolis, it may be
supposed, mark the end Of the attempts
of the Hartman crowd to capture the
control of the Northern Pacific. They
thought they had it when they secured
a large majority of the preferred stock
Of the Northern Pacific and sufficient
common TO constitute a majority of the
total stock. But they did not know
apparently that the common stock al
ried with it the power to retire the pre-
ferred stock at par. iMessrs. Hill,
Morgan and their friends were FORUM
ate enough to have rescued a majority
of the common just as it was Slipping
from their grasp under the enormous
prices offered by Hartman, and at
once took steps to retire the preferred
chiefly held by the Hartman interest.
This was done yesterday. For it could
only be done on any January 1 prior
then could not have been done
to 1917, and if it had not been done
until the expiration Of another year.
The temporary injunction sued out in
the Minneapolis district court at Min
neapolis or Monday last, with only one
day intervening before the retirement
took effect, was obviously for the pur-
pose Of tying it up so that the transac-
ton would be postponed for a year.
The prompt transfer of the case to the
federal court and the prompt action
of the court in dissolving this dilatory
Injunction defeated this attempt. The
people of the northwest generally,
whatever may be their views about the
so-called merger, will be glad to know
that the attempts Of the owners ofathe
Union Pacific to capture the Northern
Pacific have completely failed. A
local paper recently took the position
that it would have been a good thing
for the northwest If the owners of the
Union Pacific had succeeded in getting
control of the Northern Pacific. We
have before remarked that all they
wanted of the Northern Pacific was as
a clubsto force ]. J. Hill to release his
hold of the Burlington, which is one
of their best feeders, and that they
would have used their control Of the
Northern Pacific to divert traffic and
immigration as far as possible to the
Union and Southern Pacific roads,
which they control. But apart from
these considerations the people of the
northwest are mighty fortunate in Mr..
Hills success in rescuing the Northern
Pacific from the clutches of the Union
Pacific. For the freight rates on the
Union Pacific are much higher than on
the Northern Pacific or the Great
Northern. An inspection of the fin
ancial reports OF the Union Pacific for
1900 show that the average freight
rate per ton per mile on the Union Pa
cifc was LII mills per ton per mile
In excess OF the average freight rate of
the Great Northern, and that if the
Great Northern had applied the same
rates to it's traffic it's earnings would
have been Ss4,243,724 in excess of what
It actually earned on it's much lower
rates. That is to say, if the Harri-
man crowd had captured the Northern
Pacific and administered it as they do
the Union Pacific it would have cost
the people of the Northwest $4 ~ 7724
more than the service they are now
getting.
The Minneapolis Times now admits
that Jim Hill has done more for North