Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-23
cas-. DEAL PART OF BIG PLAN
Gives Hill and Hartman All North
and South Lines.
FEEDERS FOR THE GREAT TRUNKS
One by One These Roads Are An
nexed rs Outlets to the Gulf
for the TranscOntInentaI
Railroads.

The announcement OF the acquisition of
the Colorado & Southern by the Burling-
ton brings up the fact hat all the north
and south lines, which for years were
thorns In the sides OF the owners of the
great transcontinental lines, are being COB
bled up and absorbed by these giant east
and west roads.
One by one these north and south lines
which were looked upon as the great bene-
factors Of the middle west country In
that they would give an outlet for the
products of the valley states to the Gulf,
have been made parts of one or the other
of the cr~oss-country roads. The Port Ar
thur & Gulf was first absorbed by Harrl-
man and then practically dlsmantled as
far as the Omaha end was concerned; then
the Frisco was absorbed by the Rock ISL
and. the Illinois Central was secured by
Hartman and now Hill takes over the
Colorado & Southern.
With the completion Of Hills second line
across Wyoming. which is to be one Of
the first large undertakings Of the spring,
Hill will have a direct connection be-
tween the Great Northern and the North
ern Pacific and the southern states and
the Gulf. When Hill first built the Great
Northern the tonnage was greater from
the west than to the west and to increase
this westbound tonnage and also to provide
cargoes for his boats. Hill had agents
working through the south to induce the
cotton producers to ship their cotton to the
Pacific northwest for the China trade and
thus the Great Northern got the long end
OF the tonnage. This new through line from
the southern states to the Great Northern
will, It is claimed give Mr.. Hill this orr
entail trade on cotton all the way from
the south to Seattle.
Pacific Coast Lines Fail.
Since the legislative enactment that pre-.
vents Hill or Hartman absorbing LAND
freight rates 1t has been seriously as.
serted that oriental m on the Pa.
cific will not become lucrative to Amer.
lean lines, not until conditions are rad.
ically changed. Hill today is operating just
one steamship and Hartman three, and al
at a loss. The reason given is that they
cannot compete with the Suez lines. TIL
latter load their cargoes on the Atlantic
Seaboard and start for the orient with only
a water charge, to their shippers, while the
patrons OF the Pacific coast lines must pay
for land transportation from the point Of
shipment in the south or east to the Pa.
clfic coast and then pay water trans
portation. Only by absorbing this land rate
1t is argued, can the Pacific magnates hope
for success, and until congress takes som,
different view of the matter, they canno
absorb the rate.
The Colorado & Southern also will Civ,
Mr.. Hill an almost exclusive hold on Ger
tain cattle business which amounts t
thousands of cars annually. Every sprn,
Texas ships to the ranges of Wyoming anC
Montana a good many thousand cars O
cattle, which are fattened on the range
and then shipped to the Missouri rive
markets or Chicago. On this business MI
Hill will get the business going and com
ing. the Colorado & Southern handling tn,
cattle from the south to the north n tn,
Burlington bringing the fattened cattle t,
market.