The Savannah morning news., 1902-04-18
A NAPOLEON OF FINANCE.
His Generalship in Capturing Con-
troll of l.. and N.

troll OF L.. ana ".
New York Letter in Philadelphia Press.
If success is the criterion, then 1t
must be admitted that John w. Gates
has demonstrated his right to be num-
bered among those capable. not only of
supreme audacity. but of instant and
intuitive judgment, of swiftly marshall
ing great resources and of concentrate
ing them as Napoleon did his army
upon the weakest point of his adver-
sary's line. We still hear criticism
and some cynicism respecting Mr..
Gates, but If the ethics of Wall street
transactions be overlooked or approved,
then it must be said that Mr.. Gates in
his transaction so far at least has
shown a generalship which, though 1t
may have been matched, has never
been surpassed. Who would have
dreamt a little less than twenty years
ago that the proprietor of little hard
ware store at Harvey Junction, some
eighty miles out of Chicago, on the
Northwestern Railroad, who then
used to envy the railway officer who
passed over that road upon his private
car, and whose whole horizon up to
that time was that of the prairie where
he made his home, would some day adj
vance even upon the Rothschilds with
sudden, impetuous and superb daring
and capture one of their chief remain
ing American strongholds. That ap-
pears to be what Mr.. Gates has done.
He seems to have company of bril-
liant and courageous men around him,
whose standards of speculative moral.
ity are exactly like the standards of
all who speculate upon great scale.
He must have been sure of his re-
sources, for 1t would require the better
part of $4,000, 900 for him to have oper-
ated as he has apparently done SO as
| to secure control of the Louisville &
| Nashville stock.
just one contingency may be devel-
oped not at all to the liking of Mr..
Gates. For 1t may be that the Illi-
nois Central will not care to buy the
control at Mr.. Gates figures, or 1t may
be that the Belmont party viii not
listen to any compromise, will get out
and retire permanently from all asso-
citation with American railway con-
troll. In that case Mr.. Gates and his
party would find themselves in pos
session of the railroad whose control
they have bought at considerably more
than its real value. They will be OBJ
liged then to take their railroad and
and run it, But those who have been
able to descend like the Goths and,
as some say, like the vandals Of a sud-
den, and capture one of tie important
railway systems of the United States
are not to be presumed destitute of the
ability or the resources so to handle
this property as to make it source of
profit to them.
The whole situation is by far the
most interesting OF any that has been
developed since the desperate battle
for the control of the Northern Pacific.
1t is the chief topic. Many fear that
out of 1t will grow complications that
may have disturbing effect; many
fear that there may soon come cur
tailment of loans. the taking in of
sails in expectation of a storm. Some
assert that Mr.. Gates victory in this
exciting contest will inspire him to
something like rashness. attempting
to enter into battle with some of those
who have thus far maintained them
selves without defeat, although in one
instance last Spring they were obliged
to respect a flag of truce and acknow-
ledge that the battle was drawn.