Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1902-10-30

~, absolutely owned any railroad mileage
put that 1t operated somewhere from five
to six thousand miles of road under
portion of the stock OF the old Manitoba
road and some other corporations.
,,he also testified relative to the Iedus-
ern :ince the purchase Of the Burling.
Northern. he said t was a matter of
conference between the officers and him
s Sn lie sad the reduction Of rates on
but was quite frequent and had been for
q number Of years: He said the reduc-
10 70 cent 10 FER w ssn seaSg
mat from all places or, the, Great North
s spnS which ,i We're grain singing points ana
the Northern Pacific, but was not abso-
l nt I;o informed al.sd on that point He dis
changes in the traffic rates Of freight but
when WI nth they We're mater of great moment
the matter He did not think that the
rates had been reduced on lumber, pig
abnormally lower before and much lower
than were charged by the Eastern roads.
ern pei, ton per mile We're stated to be
::s59 AND the average of IT. the railroads Of
the United States ties was ~ lie thought
ppoSa5 in she ee Saa fn 81
the Atchison 1t was :9ss. Mr.. Hill said
higher than on the Great Northern " and
Northern PACIFIC. and thought that If
they charged the average. rate OF the
5000. 900. ''
Referring to the purchase of large
said the Northern Securities e Company pam aid
S suit suit saa at He % ade 'e ehi5 pt ex
Coal supply.
Witness: l do not want to be misunder.
stood. and from the questions l think
have been. The Great Northern Railway
company and the Northern Pacific Rail-
way company have an interest in this
country and the people living here. and.
n ,a;s1a ; as our winters are cold, it
| without fuel. and it is very serious mat
railways. We don't know now that We
would be able to run our trains to the
first day of February, with the lack of
supply of coal. without bringing coal
from Illinois. and We don't know but we
would have ma TO give up portion Of our
by any means to the anthracite strike.
and ! tried to make it plain yesterday
ability Of the railroads between Lake
PENNSYLVANIA and Ohio to move the coal.
|
Lake Erie ports. and we are unable TO
get supply. At this time we have not
been able to get one-half of our purchase
for the year, and navigation will close
| some time next month. That is the i'm
to the coal mines of Illinois, which are
and the importance OF that will be appa-
rent more and more as time goes on.
Mr. Hill further testified that when the
the. Burlington road Mr.. Hartman came
to him while they were negotiating and
wanted wanted to take half interest, but the
Of the Northern Pacific by the Union Pa.
cifc he said would have left the Great
Northern in helpless condition because
orally responsible for two hundred mil
lions. that being the purchase price of the
Burlington stock, and if the Northern
Of that amount, but if the Northern Pa.
cifc was in the hands of rival trans.
continental line with Its interest in sar
Platte Valley to San Francisco they coult
influence the Burlington to help theil
poson to tha nd budn be IN
Ing the DEVELOPMENT of the Northwes
that the Great Northern had worked sc
| long and hard to establish.
The gist of Mr.. Hills testimony durnf
the two days he was on the stand wa:
that that. the organization Of the Northern Sc
| cu.ltleS company was IN no sense a re
striction to trade. That the Great North
ern and Northern Pacific and Burlington
were operated separately and independ
emily, That there was no actual merger
| bur that their working together was O
vital interest to the Northwest. Tina
rates had been reduced as the result o
this cooperation. and could and woult
be still further reduced as tariff Increases
That the whole proposition was within tn
law, in every respect. That the ,purchas
of the stock of the Northern Securite.
company was open to any one who hae
the money to pay for it and could agre'
with the owners as to the price. Tha
there was no combina ton or agreemen
expressed or implied, but that the cor
poration was simply a holding company
really for. the, purpose of making tn
and not likely to be purchased by parties
to use to destroy other property; in fact
that the whole movement would prov
most advantageous to the Northwest. Cos
Of the railroad and equipment havin,
been incurred. the great increase of ton
mage and business growing out of tn
Burlington purchase and protecting /
against adverse interests would increas
| earnings. make lower rates possible ant
thus induce settlement of the country
and tn building up of commercial manu-
featuring and agricultural interests.