The Virginia enterprise., 1907-10-11

from the building into the alley
and broken open.
No clue to the perpetrators is
known.
Hill, as have said, had bought the
Duluth & Winnipeg railroad, which
carried with it $4,000 acres of land,
and had also purchased 5000 acres
of wild land located about fifty
miles northwest of the west END of
the Mesaba range. In addition to
this he picked up leases from the
state and land where he could get
it, most OF it I'm small tracts of forty
acres each. In that way he added
about 1000 acres more to his hold.
ings, making a total of 5000 acres
of land on or in the neighborhood
of the Mesaba range. The deeds to
all these lands were made to the
Great Northern railway. Nr. Hill
had no personal interest in it, nor
had any other official of the rail-
way nor any other person whatso-
ever.
"A portion of lands thus secured
were at that time being developed
by persons to whom Wright& Davis
had given leases, including the
Mahoning mine, controlled by the
Cambria Steel company and
Youngstown people; the Utica
mine, controlled by Mather & Co. of
Cleveland, and the Latonia mine,
operated by Jones & Laughlin Of
Pittsburg. Those leases were all
transferred to the Great Northern
railway, which now receives the
royalties from them for the benefit
of it's stockholders.
"Mr. Hill would have nothing to
do with mining, declaring that he
was a transportation and not a
mining man.. Hundreds of people
have come to me from time to time
with mines they wanted to develop
and asked me to secure the co oper-
alton of Mr.. Hill in their develop.
ment, but he always replied that
the only way man could become a
partner with him was to buy stock
in the Great Northern railway. He
has invarrbly refused to take any
part in mining prospects; although
he has frequently loaned money
on his personal account to mine
owners and other people who want
ed to develop industries along the
line of the Great Northern railway.
This was done to increase the traffic
of the road rather than for personal
profit, just as he has loaned large
sums of money to farmers out in
Dakota to buy registered cows and
bulls to improve the stock of that
country, and has assisted in the in.
PRODUCTION of barley and other pro.
fitable crops on the farms of Mon
tana, Oregon and Washington.
"The personal purchase of the
Wright & Davis properties for
So, 100000 would have been a per-
fectly Legitimate transaction, and
most men would have made an in
dividual matter of it, but Mr.. Hill
has never been able to separate his
interests from the Great Northern
Railway company, or to separate
the interests of the company from
himself. James J. Hill and the
Great Northern Railway company
are one and the same thing.
II should say, however, that two
or three years ago five of the EN-
ployes of the Great. Northern rail
way found what they considered a
very valuable deposit of ore and
Mr.. Hill loaned them the money tc
lease eighty acres and develop
what is now known as the Leonard
mine.
'"When he bought the Duluth &
Winnipeg railroad we were freight.
ing ore over very heavy grade,
equal to 212 per cent in several
places. To secure better grade
Mr.. Hill proceeded to build a new
line about thirty miles long through
avery heavy country, which is now
double.tracked and has a descend.
ing grade all the way from the
mines to the ore docks, 80 that the
loaded cars can 90 down by gravity
and the empties can be hauled back
with nothing heavier than a four
tenth of l per cent grade againe
them. He also built a new line
seventy-five miles from the mining
district to Duluth, with a grade O.
three tenthas Of = per cent aRains
!, - = = 80 aI.t ~--~ ~ ~