The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-13
NORTHWES1'S FIGHT
James j. Hill on the Side of the
Low Freight Rate.

NEW YORK, April 12-In its latest is
sue the Wall Street Journal, which was
not in sympathy with the Northern Securi-
ties company'S plan, has a remarkable ar
tlcle on the attempt of the Hartman in
terests to obtain control Of the Northern
Pacific. The article is as follows:
IT is quite generally forgotten that 7. T.
t5lll is on record under oath, as saying that
the inevitable result Of q Hartman CON
troll, tfol OF Northern Pacific would be Har-
rl nan control Of Great Northern.
. we quote as follows from the sworn tes-
tlm0ny Of Mr. HILL
The Great Northern had a very direct
interest IN knowing that the control of
the Northern Pacific was not going TO be
vested IN the friends of the Union Pacific
because. If that was the case, the North
troll OF Burlington, with the control OF
NO Nor n Pacific in the hands of the I'm
ION racine the Great Northern would have
Pacific. = ZIG oi4ioii
1T was question whether we con-
Iol!eQ our property or whether the Union
racing controlled it through Burlington
ana Northern Pacific. If that stock had
not been redeemed, and if the Union Pa
ENC controlled the Northern Pacific and
NAN OF the Burlington, they would very
soon nave controlled the Great Northern %
me erect OF Union Pacific control. as
MI. f1lll sees it, is still further eIucidated
| by Mr.. Hill as follows:
D Ihe value of the property Northern
Pacific would be destroyed. It's growth
[
trolled in the interests of another prop
SIly or Dody Tor the reason that it would
De restricted, or might be restricted, so as
| other property renember one
| reason why they wanted to get a joint in
! terest in the Burlington. They said We
| were getting too strong for them; we were
| going down into their country and taking
| people from there"
PRESIDENT George F. Baker. Of the First
Natlonal bank brings out the same idea
| more bluntly:
When Union Pacific was trying to get
noId or our property, as we thought and
! west to California well. we felt
we did not want to have the Northern
racine TO go into the hands of parties ad-
verse to our interests"
These remarks. from headquarters. are
the Das1s OF all the calamity talk in
the Northwest just now. Many of the
Whlch year. ago bitterly attacked the
merger, are now ranging themselves on
MI. HIS side. The cheap freight line''
established by Mr.. Hill, which drew the
export cotton tonnage, for instance to the
north, looks likely to be destroyed
without reserve the Northwest is taxi
ing MI. Hill at his word and is becoming
excited over the prospect of losing, by the
/ glorious victory over Mr. Hill the
traffic that has made the Northwest rich,
prosperous and great
The natural question is perhaps. wheth-
| er period of such anxiety in the North
| west would not be most efficaciOus pact
VI IuC CuuCdlIOu OF Cnat country. 1t
may may, be doubted that the strong 'anti-
| Hill sentiment of year ago could long
survive strain like that. On the face Of
1t. taking Mr. Hills evidence as truth.
victory for Mr. Hill in this suit means
triumph 4l for the Northwest, and defeat for
west
Under these circumstances, again TAX
ing Mr.. Hills sworn testimony to be the
truth, Mr.. Hill faces. in the Hartman
suit, contingency that may compel him
to sell Great Northern and go out of bust
ness as a railroad man.
NO one who knows anything about the
situation believes that Mr. Hill is facing
any such crisis. The inference is that Mr.
Hill knows perfectly well who is going to
control Northern Pacific in the future