Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-01-02
INTERVIEWS AT LONG RANGE.

PRESIDENT j. j. Hill, or the Great
Northern railway, and of the recently
organized Northern Security COM
pany: / have been absent from Min
nesota for more than two months, and
during that time there has arisen a
wide discussion throughout the state
of what has been generally called a
consolidation or merger of the
Northern Pacific and the Great North
ern railways, and in this discussion
statements have been made which are
so widely different from the facts that
feel called upon to make conserva-
tive statement of just what has been
done in the past and what will be done
in the future.
When the Northern Pacific failed
and the banking house of ]. P. Morgan
& Co., reorganized it, myself and
friends were holders of large amount
of the company's securities. After the
reorganization was completed we
bought about S26,000,000 OF Northern
Pacific stock, both common and pre-
ferred. Some of this stock was af-
forwards sold, but large amount has
been held from that time to the pres
ent time.
! About year ago the Union Pacific
company bought the Huntington and
other interests in the Northern Pa
cific, and at the same time made
an effort to get control of the Chicago,
| Burlington & Quincy With these lines
| in the hands of the Union Pacific, the
! interests of both the Northern Pa
cific and Great Northern would be
largely shut out of the states of Ne
braska, Kansas, Missouri, South Da-
kota, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, ex-
cept by using other lines of railway,
some of which were in the market for
sale and could almost any time
pass under the control or be combin-
ed with the Union Pacific interests.
/ We then, with the Northern Pacific,
made proposals to the directors Of the
Burlington to buy their entire prop
lerty. When this transaction was
about to be closed the people who
represented the Union Pacific company
and who had previously tried to buy
the Burlington asked to be allowed to
share with us the purchase Of that
company. This proposal We refused
for the reason that it would defeat
our object in buying the Burlington
and further it was against the law of
several of the states in which the
:. longest mileage of the Burlington was
located.
At that time against the opposition
of the more southern lines both the
Northern Pacific and the Great North
ern had put into effect low colonial
tion rate and were carrying daily
thousands of people into the north
west, many of whom were coming
from Kansas and Nebraska, along the
lines of the Union Pacific. This
movement was at its height in the
month of April and after we had clos.
ed the purchase of the Burlington the
Union Pacific people undertook the
boldest efforts ever made in this coun-
try to buy over sixty millions of the
, stock of the Northern Pacific in the
! markets of Europe and the United
States. l was in New York at the
, time and after Messrs. Morgan and
company were aware Of the action OF
the Union Pacific people it was found
: that together We held about twenty.
six millions of the Northern Pacific
common stock and inasmuch as the
common stock by right of contract
, made with the preferred stockholders
when the company was reorganized
!, and the stock issued, had the privilege
{ of paying off the preferred stock al
: par on January l of any year unit
: 1917, Messrs. Morgan and company
! then bought in New York and London
about 100000 of the common stock
, of the Northern Pacific at the same
: time the Union Pacific interests, hav
y ing already made so large an invest
ment, bid the stock up until there was
-, ;. the largest corner ever known, the
common stock in three or four days
q going up to one thousand dollars pei
:. share. ! explained to my friends how
:. with the control of the Northern Pa
: cific the Union Pacific would contro
:. the entire northwest except for the
9 Great Northern. So great was the eff
= fort to get this control that one of my
= friends in London who owned two mil
= lions of Northern Pacific common of
= fered and refused fourteen million
g dollars for his stock. The result wa
y that Messers Morgan and compan.
= and ourselves owned AZ out Of 80 mil
= lions of the Northern Pacific commo,
y with the privilege of paying off tn
= rs millions of Northern Pacific pre-
ferred. The Union Pacific peopl
owned 81 million of the common an
= about AZ millions of the preferred
which was a clear majority of all tn
IS stock of the Northern Pacific, an
IS claimed the exclusive control of tn
e Northern Pacific railway and throug
Al that ownership a control of one-hal
r of the Burlington. When 1t wa
e. known that these preferred share
e could be and would be paid off an
d. before the annual election mutual NJ
le gotiations were entered into betwee
81 MIR. Morgan and representative G