The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-22

egg is characterized by its blunt can
dor There are roads that jealousy
mold up their cards, that assume a nyS-
ferrous air and negotiate from behind
a mask. The Santa FEES tactics are as
open as its strength. 1t throws down
It's cards frankly: Here is what we
nave; what have you? Business may
be done with such a road if one talks
ccncisely ard to the point; but when it
knows its own strength and has a
pretty shrewd idea of all that is out
against it. bluffing is futile
Management of such sort will sue
ceed outside combination quite as well
as within one The Santa Fe men are
young men in the sense that they are
particularly alive: and they come from
good railroad school. In 1878 Mr.. Rip
ley was general freight agent of the
Brrnngton and Paul Morton was
clerk in his office. Just why the Bur-
Hngton has graduated so many more
blg railroad men than its natural share
no one seems clearly to have deter
mined But Burlington men are as
widely prominent throughout the United
states in railway management as Ohio
men are in fat offices Notwithstanding
the fact that the Burlington was some
time ago absorbed by the Northern Pa
cine, the Burlington Howard Elliot APP
pears already to have absorbed the
Northern Pacific presidency The New
York Central and the Lake Shore roads
are operated today by Burlington man,
Wllllam C. Brown. and two men from
the Burlington manage very largely the
destinies Of the Santa Fe
What the Santa Fe stands for that is
unique among American roads is the
present position and unusual length of
its main line. No other road that owns
a Chicago terminal can boast a straight
away line into San Francisco Bay
Geograp hically, then, the road is of
especial interest; but it stands also on
the most debatable railroad ground in
the country Not only is its competi-
ton widely distributed but of a charac-
ter the most intense and incaIcula BILE.
The Santa Fe from Chicago strikes
straight into the heart of the Gould
lines territory. At the Missouri river it
meets practically all comerS-HilPs pet,
the dangerous Burlington. Harriman's
crack line, the superb Alton; the always
powerful st. Paul and the new Rock
Island; besides the lveliest of the Gould
lines, the Wabash and the Missouri Pa
clflc. The Santa F'e from Twelfth street
to Kansas City lies in a blaze of com
petition that would melt ordinary rail-
road abilities, and west of the Missouri
river the map brOadens into the Colo
RADIO territory. The st. Paul, then, has
dropped out, the Wabash is out, the
Alton is out, but Hartman is there with
the great Union Pacific, and Chicago
competition is again added by way of
the keen far-reaching Chicago & North
western. Hill remains with the Bur
Hngton. and the new Rock Island is
there, as it is again on the Gulf of Mex
lco where the Santa Fe must also lock
horns with George Gould on his stamp
ing ground and with Hartman again in
the Southern Pacific. This is surely
business enough; but the Santa Fe, with
a jump that leaves all but the very
giants of the western world behind,
crossing the desert wastes and the con-
tlnentaI divide, opens it's freight house
doors on San Francisco Bay. Here the
competition again takes on new fea-
lures. 1t is not alone the powerful COM
petitiono of its own territory-the Southern
Pacific intrenehed behind an unbroI<en
monopoly of thirty years in its own
stronghold-that must be reckoned with
now-it is also Vancouver Puget Sound
and the Canadian roads competing for
the traffic of the Orient Thus the COM
plhatlons that engage the Santa Fe man
agement are as wide as the continent.
The Santa Fe Against the Field.
WHAT the odds are against the Santa Fe
may now be reekoned. 1t is practically
great move that Mr.. Ripley made to give
the Santa F'e absolute Independence was
found the Santa Fe unable to land its
freight in San Francisco save over a hos
I NE ne connection, and he severed the cord
mat was strangling it by acquiring his
own rails into northern California With
his terminals thus firmly fixed at Chicago
and at San Francisco he has rested con-
tent in his own territory. Beyond the
nght he has made for proper rate cOndi-
lions and due recognition he can not he
said to have INDUCED in offensive meas
ures. His energies and those of his staff
are turned at all times in the direction of
this the success of the road has been al
most phenomenal. In oil alone, which it
California on its locomotives, the Santa
F'e carries ten thousand cars of oil
year where formerly it carried none local
~ IN California or Texas.
Though meeting in the most liberal way
mine owners and people interested in de-
veloping the southwest, and adopting a
policy of not charging locally more than
the traffic will bear, the Santa Fe has
been largely instrumental in preventing
Preferential rates to the owners Of I nri
vate line refrigerator cars and has elm
mated them entirely from its own traf-
ton to put all shippers on a Just and
equal footing, to maintain open and even
rates, is the note of Mr.. Ripley's success
full strategy.
Like all men that achieve unusual sue
cess. the head of the Santa. Fe is studied
curiously by the world, eager to get at the
secret of how such things have been done
stands surprised Instead Of a cabaiistic
formula for getting the curious in
quirer has found merely the simplest,
Oldest principles of doing business-com77
grounded in common honesty.
The work of the Santa Fe today is
that which must for 50 years to come alb
sorb the attention of every western road
the cOlonizing of local territory, the
planting of a family where only a cactus
grew before. To this end its people preach
the gospel of irrigation and spend ex-
traordinary sums in advertising the re-
sources of the west.
Good Time for Western Farmers.
The steady growth made by it in mile
age and in earnings throws a. curious
sidelight one feature of American
prosperity directly attributable to this
pioneer work and one which within seven
years has become so pronounced as to
lake on the proportions of a mystery. In
the disastrous stock panic of 1903 the east,
frightened at the bursting of its own pro-
Rigious bubble. looked for a national
nan H. i10 ffT1ar C11e
the apprehension of New York. But the
Missouri and the Iowa farmer and the
Kansas and the Nebraska homesteader,
came to the rescue of the country with
their blue jeans bursting with cash.
Credit has been frankly accorded to the
west for it's aid, but Wall street hardly
understands yet where the money came
from and that a portion of the glory is
due of the railroads.
OIL Il. tIar-r, e..