Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-20

From the
What Hartman is to the railroad
world and Morgan to the steel indus
try Charles Wyman Morse has become
in the last few months to the coastwise
trade along the Atlantic seaboard. Mr..
Morse is today the master Of eighty-one
ocean-going steamships, a fleet much
larger than the navies of many ma
tions In addition he has control Of
innumerable steamboats, and smaller
vessels.
In November last Morse bought the
Mallory line of steamships. numbering
twelve fine modern vessels, with prof
table freight and passenger trade be-
tween this city, Georgia, Florida, Tex
as and other gulf ports. 1t took some-
thing like fifteen million dollars for
Morse to swing this deal.
Two weeks ago Morse offered the
New York, New Haven & Hartford
railroad twenty million dollars for all
its steamboat lines embraced in the
New England Navigation company,
which Includes the great steamboats, of
the Fall River line, the Old Colony
line, the Stonington line and the Maine
Steamship company with its steamers
III sur IlOl dllO nan anu AhtllA-
haitian.
The twenty million dollar offer was
turned down by the New Haven road,
and then, fearing the aggressive and
monopolistic tactics of Morse, the rail-
road company started a campaign of
acquisition of it's own. Within the
past few days the New Haven road
bought the Philadelphia steamship
company, which has a line of steam
ships running between Boston and
Philadelphia. Morse had his eye on
this line, but the New Haven road sur
prised him by going far out of its own
territory to grab one of the links in
his chain
Within the past ten days Mr.. Morse
got control of the Ward line, officially |
called the New York & Cuba Mail Line
Steamship company, with a fleet of
twenty of the finest vessels on the |
Atlantic seaboard, and an immensely |
business between United |
States and Cuban ports.
1t is said that he is negotiating for |
the Old Dominion line, whose vessels |
ply between Boston, New York Nor
folk and Richmond Va; the Red I'D"
line to Venezuela and other ports in
the tropics and the ships Of the United
Fruit company, running to the West
Indies from Boston, New York and
Baltimore.
Mr.. Morse is looking ahead to the
time when the Panama canal will be
an actuality and when, in consequence,
immense avenues for trade between the
Atlantic seaboard of the United States
and the Pacific seaboard of South
America will be opened up.
Will Merge All Lines
1t is his purpose to merge all the
ines he already controls and those he
expects to acquire within the next
year or two into one vast corporation.
n preparation for this event he has
Llready organized the Consolidated
Lines company under a
Maine charter. The capital of this
orporation is sixty million dollars, but /
his capitalization, huge as it is, will
robably be enlarged if he gets all the
he is now cunning for.
Mr. Morse has never been bashful :
bout capitalizing any of his corporate
reations, and he has already shown L
hat in his steamship undertakings h
e intends to pursue the same financial v
,lans he has followed in other lines. r
When he bought the Mallory line last \
November it's capital was eight million a
Iollars and he promptly boosted it to v
ourteen million dollars. +
The Clyde line, which he had pur- q
'hased a few months earlier, was cap {
taliZed at seven million dollars. Mr. =
Morse reorganized that company, ad- !
ling just 100 per cent to the capital :
took, bringing it up to fourteen mill :,
on dollars. He is expected to heavily -
Increase the capitalization of the Ward !
inc. Counting both stock and bonds !,
he aggregate capital of the steamship |,
he already controls is great =
r than the sixty million dollars cap L
tai of the Consolidated Steamship
lines company. I
Steps have already been taken by II
Ir. Morse to merge the different lines n
S well as combining them financially. +
Negotiations are now under way to n
ring all the lines into one big terminal p
instead of having their piers scattered II
long the North and East river fronts o
By concentrating the various lines in il
me great terminal it is figured that v
many economies will be possible in the n
of both freight and passen- n
gers. For instance, the Mallory line +