The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-10
E. D. Kenna, First Vice Presi
dent, Talks.
900 SHAREHOLDERS.
Much of Stock Owned by New
Englanders and Dutch.
Proposed Uses of the Recent so
Million Bond Issue.

the Santa F'e and the party of officials
including General Manager H. U.
Nudge, Gardiner Lathrop. the new gen
eraI solicitor. and W. B. Storey. chief
engineer, has returned from a trip of
inspection of the lines and properties of
the company in southern Kansas and
Oklahoma.
Mr.. Kenna announces that more than
20 millions Of dollars of value in the
form of equipments will be added to
the property of the company this year.
Mr. Kenna has not retired from the
service of the company as has been re-
ported. He only has resigned the office
! of general solicitor, to which Mr.. La
/ throp has been appointed, and he did
that only because his private business
! requires attention that he otherwise
could not give. He win continue to dis
charge the duties of first vice president
/ and will be in close touch with the rail-
way and the territory it traverses as
| before.
1T is intended" Mr.. Kenna said
that the proceeds of the entire loan of
so million dollars recently authorized
/ shall, for the present, be devoted to the
! betterment of existing lines and the con-
/ structiOn of new ones. For this year
about 10 million dollars has been set
aside Cor Improvements and 5 millions
for the purchase of new engines and
cars, and 6 millions for new construc-
ton.
New Trackage in Kansas.
1T is proposed to construct 1873 miles
of new tracks, most of which viii be in
Kansas, and to ballast at least $50 miles
Of road now in use. Among the import
ant betterments the management has
/ planned is the crossing of the Canadian
| river on the Southern Kansas & Texas
which viii include, besides a new bridge,
! the abandonment of ten miles of road
now in use. We also will straighten the
1rf= In
grades on the Southern Kansas & Texas
line, in accordance with the settled
policy of the routes possible for the
transportation of freight in territory
I served by the cOmpany's lines.
''Eighty-flve new engines and 5000
! cars will be added to the equipment. A
few short branch lines in Kansas are
under construction, but the most of the
new construction will be in New Mex
! leo, Arizona and California. The re-
mainder of the loan not expended this
year will be reserved for the consum-
nation Of plans for double tracks, the
reduction Of grades, etc, now determin-
! ed upon and TO be done hereafter. The
/ large amount of work have mentioned
being all that it is possible for the
company to undertake without serious
interference with its existing traffic.
Where Labor Gets In.
And do you understand" continued
Mr.. Kenna, after a moments reflection,
money which is to be expended goes
| eventually to labor; for the cost of raw
materials and the profits, ETC., are a
very small per cent of the total cost. To
Illustrate; Nearly all of the cost of a tie,
a rail, or car represents labor, the raw
1 materials costing very little and the
profits being only a small per cent of
4 the whole
of the 10 million dollars to be ex-
4 pended in betterments at least 6 mil
I lion viii be paid out directly by the
4 company for labor. The wages will
| range from $115 to So rs a day and pro-
badly average at least 81. Making the
usual allowance for Sundays, holidays
and idleness, the work under way would
furnish continuous employment a whole
year for about 1000 men. OF course
many more will be employed, for the
!, work viii be done in much less than a
years time In this estimate no allow
ance is made for men at work in the
forest telling trees and making ties, or
digging ore and manufacturing and
transporting it,
Mr.. Kenna referred to the report of
the comptroller of the road, and then
resumed. DO you know" he said,
that the 'Atchison road whose small
beginning a generation ago the old citi-
zens of Kansas remember, has become
a big institution? You people out here
simply think of it as a Kansas concern
to be proud of and point to the great
carrying trade 1t does. But it is more
than that. The 'Atchison,' or the San
ia Fe,' as it is known in western Amer
lea, is a household word throughout the
United States and beyond the sea, even
in Great Britain, Holland and Germany,
/ and bankers know it everywhere. It is
identified with the fortunes of many
thousand families on both sides of the
Atlantic. It's stock is not owned by
nillionaires and stock companies alone.
OF its 1900 stockholders, about 800 are
women; nearly / 900 are estates; nearly
100 are educational institutions, and
more than $50 are charitable institu-
lions. That is to say, q majority of the
/ stockholders are women, estates and
educational and charitable institutions.
OF course it does not follow that this
class OF stockholders owns a majority
of the value of the company's property,
but it is apparent that many dependent
persons and institutions are interested
in the cOnpany's welfare.
Standard OILS Holdings.
Two Dutch stockholders hold re-
SpectiVely Is, GOO shares and "a, 900 shares
They count only as two stockholders
but they represent between 1000 and
1900 Dutch investors. Many banking
houses of England and Germany have
issued to them in single certificates
shares that represent the holdings OF
hundreds, and probably thousands, OF
small European investors. So it is not
unreasonable to conclude that easily
$4,000 persons are holders of Atchisor
stock; that probably not more than 10(
such persons are of large means. ano
that most OF the other stockholders are
persons who are largely dependent for
their small incomes upon the earnings
of the railroad. The average of indi-
vidual holdings of Atchison stock is
from so to rs shares. There are some
big holders of course, but they are no
many. In this class is John D. Rookie
feller and his associates, who own abou1
4 million shares of common stock, o.
about II per cent of the authorized
capital
and their relation to the directory o.
the comnany Mr.. Kenna said.