The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-03-28

Fl or generation the New 1ofk
 Central railway has been con- trolled wholly by one or another of the Vanderbilts, although at no time since the death of the commodore, who created the system, has the absolute ownership been In the possession of the Vanderbllts. Last summer, upon information given by one whose word Is even better than his bond, if that were possible. some intimation was given in this correspondence of the early passing of the control of this sys- tenn from the Vanderbilts to others and. while 1t would probably be inaccurate to say that the day when the control passed had come, yet 1t must be near at hand. In fact this morning an announcement. emphatic though not detailed, Is publicly made in which it is said that the control, by satisfactory agreement is about to pass from MT. Vanderbilt to others some what vaguely identified as the Morgan Rockefeller group.
 If this transfer of authority should be made, there will then be left only one railway system in the United States with in the control of the family which organ
 
 called the Gould system.
 Nothing but the abdicaton of the au- thorty of that Vanderbilt who has been for six years the dominating and al- most the sole authority In this system would make it possible for others than he to become the responsible directors. For years 1t has been presumed that the intense pride of family and the conscious ness of the achievements of the founder of the family, together with peculiar and ever-present sensitiveness. would be sure so to influence each Vanderbilt gen. eration that was in control as to make 1t prepare for that time when the authority was to pass to the succeeding genera ton.
 liam H. Vanderbilt, and in fact during his authority, 1t was plain that there must be some division and perhaps some arrangement or diverting of ownership so that the system, while still a Wander bilt system, would be, nevertheless, of less concentrated ownership than had been the case in the Commodore's day.
 
 world of finance a few years after he as- stunned the presidency by marketing shares of New York Central stock valued at many millions. It was the first of the distinctive achievements of Pierpont Morgan. The manner in which he financed that great block of stock so that England took and MT. Vanderbilt fad Ina Rt,a oia z London and some in New York to give the first acknowledgment till then made of the ability of MT. Morgan. It also brought him Into the closest relations with the Vanderbilt family, an intimacy that was strengthened by the celerity and skill with which he captured the West Shore railroad and delivered 1t to the New York Central.
 One incident following this transfer of a large block of stock to London was al- ways regarded by financiers of New York as a hint of the nature of some of these secretive medltations which Will liam H. Vanderbilt often permitted him self For, with the millions which he re- ceived from England for his New York Central stock he bought the largest amount of United States bonds till that time ever purchased by one customer, and these he held as a permanent invest ment. So it was inferred that MT. Van derbilt, musing on the strange develop ments of fate and how impossible it Is for men situated as he then was surely to control destiny so that 1t should be In sympathy with ambition. determined to be secured for himself and for his heirs, and knew of no security better than government bonds.
 About that time MT. Vanderbilt got out of his chair as president, doing this of his own voltion, and called to 1t James H. Rutter, who had begun to earn his living by caring for a little desolate station on the Erie railroad. Rutter was man possessed of some of the fascin- ations which were so conspicuously char acteristic of Colonel Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania. But 1t was fascina- tion like Colonel Scotts which never impeded, but often assisted, the respon- sible work of the direction of a trunk line railway. MT. Vanderbilt, though he was not president, but the chairman, of the board was nevertheless as absolute an authority as though he held the office which typifies authority. Nevertheless. it was seen that the division of responsibil- ity, the specialization of the work of directing a great railroad, had begun, MT. Vanderbilt as chairman contemplat ing results, MT. Rutter as president ex- ecuting orders and directing the railroad in sympathy with the wishes of MT. Van derbilt.
 The death of William H. Vanderbilt brought into authority the elder son of the third generation. In temperament and in intellect the second Cornelius Wander bilt was unsuited for the direction of property of the character of the New York Central, at least at the opening of an era whose dawn was perceived about the time of the death of William H. Van derbilt. He had little or no experience with men. He was of a trusting. kindly nature. He had been trained as an ac- countant. and had never been able to un- derstand that a thousand and one details which a subordinate might properly per form should be left to that subordinate. He had, 1t is true, at his right hand a master in the art of persuasion and a past master in the science of legislative direction and political sympathy, Chaun- cey M. Depew and MT. Depew became president of the corporation, while Mir Vanderbilt sat in the place his father