Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-28

he interested himself In the young man.
During the course of the lessons that
Mackey gave Widener in things ponueai.
the latter also Cleaned from his teacher
some interesting data about the profitable-
ness Of the street railway business.
Decides to Buy RailYay Stock.
Some years later Mr.. Widener became
treasurer of Philadelphia. At that time the
Office paid it's holder, besides a liberal salary,
about $4,000 a year in fees. When Mr.
Widener began receiving this money he
cast about for a way to invest it, and then
It was that he recalled Robert Mackey's
statement that good street car line was
equal to big vein gold mine for returns.
Mr.. Widener decided to BUY strest raiiMa c,
stock but when he went into the market
he found that the Peoples Company CON
trolled nearly all the paying lines, and that
SO gfIt-edged was their spaper that no one
wanted to part with his holdings.
The Peoples properties were in the center
and up portions Of the city. Surround
ing them were other lines, all operated IN
dependently and all near oankruptcy .or
the same reason - scarcity OF popuiation
along their routes Thwarted in his attempt
to get into Peoples, Mr.. Widener began
careful investigation of these railways, with
the result that he became convinced tnat
several of them would be good investments
in a few years when the city had grown
more AS his treasurer's fees were velvet
to him, his business bringing him in an in
come SuffCienI TO i've Oh, lie uSCiuSo " 6S@
control, If possible. of the most promising
of these outlying lines. This proved to be
the old Union whose terminals were in the
open country to the north and south.
Form Their Partnership.
In figuring up the situation Mr.. Widener
discovered that If the amount OF his sur
plus capital were doubled by some one else,
the road could be secured. Right here he
thought of his friend, William L. Elkins.
At that time Mr.. Elkins was prosperous
oil dealer in that part Of the town through
which the Union line ran, and on which ne
used to get to his business. On that route
also Mr.. Widener had his most important
butcher shop, and 1t CHANGED that frequent
ly the two men met in the cars. This led to
a nodding acquaintance after a while to
speaking acquaintance, and gradually into
friendship, so that when Mr. Widener was
thinking of going into street railways the
intimacy had become marked and warm
1t did not take Mr.. Widener long to con-
vince Mr.. Elkins that the Union line would
be a good investment in a few years. They
pooled their capital and experienced no
difficulty in securing controlling interest.
for the stockholders were only too willing
to sell what they considered hopeless prop
erty. Two years later, owing to economics
and the spread Of population. dividends
were declared.
This more than hoped for success encour-
aged Mr.. Widener and Mr.. Elkins to branch
out, and they bought up a connecting line,
TWO miles In length, whose equipment was
exactly four cars and eight horses, and
which penetrated still farther into the coun-
try to the south. And pretty soon that
paid, too.
How They Worked Their First Merger.
Then It was that the plan was conceived
Of getting hold of all the Independent lines
surrounding the Peoples system, which
gridironed the business section Of the city.
The partners. keeping in the background,
quietly set to work and. whenever an OPP
portunity offered, bought blocks Of stock.
no matter how large or small, through
agents. This thing kept up for several
years. until even the strong and important
Continental line had been largely absorbed.
Widener and E1kins, in the meantime, not
showing their hands and manipulating
everything SO unostentatiously that the
public did not dream of what was going on.
Neither did that powerful corporation, the
Peoples, until one day its members awak-
ened to the fact that some unknown par
ties had got hold Of their connecting lines
seemingly over night and were covertly
threatening to parallel some Of their best
dividepd-paying properties. Here was
pretty how-de-do, and the Peoples, fearing
that the threat might be carried out, pro-
claimed to the agents of their opponents,
who had limited at such move that it was
willing to consider a proposition for the
merging of the two interests for their mu-
tual benefit. Then Mr.. Widener and Mr..