The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-01-11
A POINT IN Mr.. HILLS SPEECH

In his Fargo speech, Mr.. Hill says it
was wiser to buy the Burlington than to
parallel it with a new system.
But why do either? AS Mr.. Hill says,
the Burlington was already built, and its
lines furnished splendid facilities for
handling all traffic to the south and east
in connection with his own road and that
Of tho Northern Pacific. It's trains would
have run to. the same points, would have
carried the same amount of freight, and
at as low rates, in all probability, as
they will carry under Mr.. Hills control.
Why then buy the Burlington?
Because, as it appears to US, Mr.. Hill
wished to extend the scope of his opera
lions. He is a railroad eXpansionist. He
was not satisfied with domination of the
northwestern situation, but he must in
wade the western central and southwest
ern. And so he began to buy Burlington
stock until he had acquired control of it
for himself and associates. This was an
act of invasion of Union Pacific territory.
The Union Pacific naturally, in self-de-
Tense, struck back Then followed the
great fight for control of Northern Pacific.
MIR. Hill won the battle, but was obliged
to surrender equal influence in the control
OF the Burlington. So that he has prac-
tically gained nothing on the south, al
though he has frightened his hold of the
northwest. With the directorate of the
Burlington divided equally between Mr..
Hills people and Mr.. Harriman's, it is
difficult.to see how the situation has i'm
proved in any direction over what it was
before when the Burlington remained an
Independent property, ready ito serve the
northern roads as we'll as the Union
Pacific. 49,
But Mr.. Hill would have us understand
that his action was to defend the north
west from invasion by Union Pacific, and
from control of the Northern Pacific by
Union Pacific. We do not understand it so,
and 1t is not so understood in New York
Mr.. Henry Clews, who is we'll known as
one Of the best posted men in Wall street,
having spent twenty-eight years as a
prominent figure in that center of the
financial world, tells US in an article in
the Saturday Evening Post, in which he
expresses synlpath thy with Mr.. Hills plans,
that it was not until after Mr.. Hill had
acquired control Of the Burlington that
the Union Pacific people woke up to the
menace which such control meant to their
interests and came back at him with
their tremendous efforts to gain control
of the Northern Pacific. .
If this be true, and it is certainly the
understanding OF the order Of events in
Wall street, Mr.. Hill was the aggressor,
and his plea Of acting in de-
tense Of the northwest is not ac-
ceptable. If Mr.. Hill was the
agressor in that fight, then his ext en-
sive operations are accounted for, not
upon the ground of protecting northwest
ern interests, which he takes upon him
self, but were entered upon simply for
the sake of enlarging his own power in
the transportation world. And it there
fore appears that his so-called rescue OF
the Northern Pacific from control by the
Union Pacific, a service the value of which
to the northwest is a matter of consider
able doubt, to say the least, loses much
Of its interest. In other words if Mr.
Hill had let the Burlington alone, there
would have been no retaliatory raid on
the Northern Pacific; there would have
been no occasion for him to assume the
guardianship of northwestern interests
and control Of the Northern Pacific, and
furthermore, there is not apparent any
reason why Union Pacific control OF
Northern Pacific should be less favor.
able to the northwest than control of the
same line by the Great Northern.
The simple explanation of the whole
matter, as above indicated, is that Mr.
Hill Is a railroad expansionist. He
wants more railroads under his control
and he is furnishing us poor excuses ant
untenable explanations for doing that
which the state law forbids, and which