The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-03-28
OF CONTROL OF
 THE VANDERBILT SYSTEM

ity. There had been 8 memorable even ing upon the deck of a yacht off New port, a glorious summer night when all the temptation of sky and breeze and the fairyland vista of the harbor and of Newport was away from the consideration of serious important things. when Cor nelius Vanderbilt made his last and sue cessful appeal to his brother.
 The brother consented only upon one condition, which was that there should be no complaint if he commanded re- organization throughout the higher of fees of the operating department. He wanted man trained from childhood and by the severest discipline under the most accomplished and hardest though just teachers of railway operation to as- sume the responsibility for the operation of the system, and when the feeble, anx- ious brother, who was longing for ab- dication, pleaded that the old and tried and faithful servants of the company should not by this arrangement be driven out of doors, the younger brother prom ised that no harsh treatment of that kind should be done. But he wanted men in whose ability as practical operators he could rely, and it was his wish that some younger blood be infused into the sys- tenn.
 Reluctantly he took his brothers place and he had been in authority only few months when it was perceived that one who has something of the genius of the old commodore, an imperious man, with a great capacity to do things, with an in- difference to traditions, and a thorough understanding that subordinates are for details was in authority. Whether it was at his inspiration that the first object lesson teaching true community of inter- est was given or whether the Pennsyl- vania management conceived and per- fected that modern method only MT. Van derbilt and MT. Cassatt know. It Is of little moment, and yet if it was the Penn sylvania to whom this first community of interest Is due, the proof of it would surprise none of the great minds here, since the intellect dominant in the Penn sylvania has been carrying railway de- velopment many steps farther toward the ultimate and as yet unperceived perfec- tion than any other group of railway thinkers has done.
 To MT. Vanderbilt, however, must be granted whatever recognition may be worth while for one startling and at the time stupendous piece oG financing.
 Sometimes it has been said that the en- thusiastic and yet self-contained Banker speyer, meditating one night upon the financial vista, suddenly caught a vision that fascinated him, and that he went at once to MT. Vanderbilt to tell him of it. He saw that by reason of the great but new excess of exports over imports, by reason, too, of the mighty stimulus that had been given to commerce through the passage of the bill which placed our cur rency system upon the gold basis, and by reason of the pending import of gold which was to be In amount in excess of the sum taken in any recent year from the gold mines of the United States, there was an immediate opportunity for the financing of the Lake Shore and the Mich igan Central into the absolute possession of the New York Central, and the finane- ing of the Lake Shores indebtedness at a rate as low as S1a per cent interest.
 Whether MT. Speyer really was the first to have that inspiration or whether MT Vanderbilt himself, without any hint from another, saw the opportunity, 1t Is cer- tain that MT. Vanderbilt delayed not in seizing 1t.
 MT. Vanderbilt's more intimate friends have not hesitated at least within the past five or six months to say that they felt certain that he wearied somewhat of the incessant strain, the constant watchfulness, the measuring of strength with others who possessed great strength, and the keeping step with the march of events so that there should be no lag ging on the part of the Vanderbilt prop critics.
 Within his immediate business circles are the Rockefellers, whose ambitions seem to keep pace with their years. Mir. Morgan has no aspiration to be known as a great railway manager. He still maintains upon all occasions that his vocation is that of banker or finan- cier, and there is really no reservation in this statement. He has not, however, been so closely identified with the Rock efeller interests as with some other finan- ciaI groups of New York. In fact his chief association with the Rockefellers is through their common interests in the New York Central and the New York and New Haven.
 The abdication of Mir. Vanderbilt and the passing of authority directly to the Morgan Rockefeller interests. and, in- directly to the Pennsylvania, are prob- ably the most momentou5 of recent rail- way devepolment east of the great lakes.
 HOLLAND.
 Ham for Children.