Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-21
IS WESTERN ROAD
MERELY A BLUFF
HOLLIS PROJECT DECLARED
TO BE TENTATIVE
5urIlneton-Union Pacific Systems Are
Probably Aimed at--No official
Announcement From
Goulds

The announcement made in Denver to
the effect that a new line Is to be built
between Omaha and Denver Is consid-
cred in western railway circles to be In
the nature Of a bluff, aimed at the Bur
lington and the Union Pacific.
No one in authority will fatty pledge
himself to the statement that the pro-
iect has progressed beyond the most
tentative stage. 1t appears that the
Chicago Great Western owners have
taken no positive steps looking to its
development from that stage.
For eight years the Burlington, Union
Pacific Rock Island and Santa Fe have
been threatened with a Chicago Great
Western extension to Denver.
Not Fairly Treated
In each case the principal argument
in favor of such an extension has been
that the Great Western was not treated
fairly in the division of traffic by the
Union Pacific, the Burlington and the
other lines that bring Pacific coast traf-
fic to the Missouri river.
According to the announcement made
in Denver, the Chicago & Northwestern
will lease running rights from Omaha
to Hastings Neb.. and new line Will
be built from Hastings to Denver using
the tracks of the Colorado & Eastern
into Denver The Colorado e. Eastern
y
sold under foreclosure to its present
owners, for sum said to be $4,000. At
the present it's charter rights in Dem
yer are more or less vague, being COM
plicated by legal fight made by the
Burlington against the crossing of its
tracks.
From Hastings to Denver the distance
is 3S7 miles by the Burlington route,
which is about as direct as the new road
Gould he built To h1iild this link and
make it a serviceable competitor of the
Burlington and the Union Pacific would
need nearly $40, 900. 900 cash. This is the
undertaking which H. b. Hollins e. Co.
are said to have assumed.
A Sure Way
Assuming that this extension could ne
put through at 1856 miles, it Is possible
to compile a summary of the Northern
routes that would then exist between
Chicago and Denver, as follows:
Miles.
The new route NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 1O56
Northwestern Union Pacific ..... 1904
Burlington --...................1 1OlS
From the above, it appears that the
new line, if put through on the basis
outlined in dispatches, would rank as
the second Chicago-Denver route in
point of distance.
A route to Salt Lake via this projected
line and the Denver, Northwestern &
Pacific would be a feasible proposition.
1t would be longer than the Northwest
ern-Union Pacific line to Ogden, and
would not be very serious competitor
of the Overland route to San Francisco,
unless it should turn out that George
]. Gould is implicated 1t is dimly pos
sible that the creation of a new short
line from Chicago to Salt Lake is
backed by the Gould interests, in con-
nection with the building of the West
ern Pacific. If this Western Pacific
turns out to be as cheap a line as the
prospects would intimate, a through
route from Chicago to San Francisco,
via Chicago Great Western, the new
Omaha-Denver line, and the Western
Pacific might come closer to beating the
Overland route than any other railway
at present in existence.
This whole proposition exists on
paper only, so far as authorita tive
statements are concerned, and it is i'm
possible at present to do more than
speculate with regard to its possibili-
ties.