Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-02-13
PRESIDENT elliott.
LAYS BLAME ON ANTITRUST
LEGISLATION.
For Cessation In Railroad Building.
Says 1t Has Retarded the Progress
of the West IS Years. Spokesman.
Review (Rep.) Shows AbSurdity Of
That Argument.

blanlnS antitrust legislation for
the cessation in railroad building eX-
cept on projects well under way,
President Howard Elliott of the
Northern Pacific railroad declares
that the west has been retarded Is
years by the great power given to
commissions, his opinion being that
the Interstate commerce commission
is the greatest check to further de-
velopment. In speaking of what he
calls hostility of the administration
to corporate interests Mr.. Elliott said
to Spokesman-Revie representa-
tive:
mot satisfied with the havoc al
ready wrought by extreme and un-
wise statements, President Roosevelt
yesterday made another attack on
corporations. His recommendation
for federal control of the stock is
sues of corporations is so rabid as to
be alarming. The encroaching power
given commissions over railroads has
checked building for years to come
and the west must suffer for this un-
wise legislation. This talk about wa
tered railroad stock is untrue. There
is not a single drop of water in any
| of the railroad stocks of the country
1t would be impossible to replace the
railroads for the par value of the
railroad stocks of the country today"
To which the Spokane Spokesman
Review, the leading republican pa
per of Eastern Washington, replies:
president Howard Elliott of the
Northern Pacific must have winked
at himself when he said at Lewiston
yesterday that "there is not single
drop of water in any of the rail-
roads," Mr.. Elliott was evidently
joking.
''Take, for example, his own COM
pany. When it was reorganized in
1896 the reorganizers got their stock
by paying an assessment of SIS a
share, and this investment was ex-
pended in improvements of the rail
road. For 10 years the company has
been eXpending a large part of it's
earnings in bettering the railroad,
and all that time has been paying
dividends besides. On that invest
ment of SIS share the holders have
drawn dividends regularly for a dec
ade, and the stock has advanced un-
til it lis quoted now, after the slump
in Wall Street, at 1927 a share.
The company's last official state
ment showed, as analyzed by so re-
liable an authority as the Wall Street
Journal, direct earnings last year,
net, of II per cent. and profits from
land sales and it's lease of the Bur-
lington brought the total profits of
one year up to a little more than 21
per cent. And there is well-de-
fined belief in Wall street that there
were hidden earnings beyond these
which were not revealed in the COM
pany's statement.
"A large part of the present great
system of the Northern Pacific was
originally branch lines, built under
nominally Independent companies,
and the method of financing these
lines made every dollar of the stock
pure water. The bonds paid for the
building of the roads, including all
sorts of rakeoffs by those on the in
side, and the stock was a pure graf
uity, generally on the basis of So
per cent to the bondholders and As
per cent to the promoters.
If the railroad captains want to
check the reform policies of Presi-
dent Roosevelt they will do we'll to
advance something more effective
than rabid abuse of the president and
ridiculous denials of facts which are
of known and proved existence"