The Washington herald., 1909-03-21
HARRIMAN'S GREAT POWER

At II a. m. January q. 1909. by his
/ election as a director 10 the board OF the
/ New York Central and Hudson River
Railroad Company. Edward Henry Harri-
man became king Of the railroad world
says the Philadelphia North American
4 On the morning Of February Is he
paralleled. in Texas. tine pOmp and majes-
/ " Of the Emperor OF Germany. when
/ that european monarch made his pilgrim
age toPthe Holy Land and. pitching his
tents in Palestine. held ther~ the most
| imposing court since the Gays OF the
i Queen OF Sheba
HarTiman did more No sooner had
he occupied IN Texas the palatial tents
set up for him and has retinue. with
their array Of modern comforts and IA
cilities. from household furniture such
as Xerxes on the march might have en-
WED. 10 the electric lights. telegraphs
and telephones. Xerxes had not even
the imagination to long for. than he let
II be known that he would build a rail-
road line paralleling the Colorado and
I Southern from Denver 10 Dallas He
would connect his Houston and Texas
Central road 10 Houston and the Sunset
/ line 10 Galveston
And thus, in even more royal fashion
than Kaiser Wilhelm dreamed Of doing
In Palestine. the worlds new railroad
KING told his subjects IN his tributary
state Of Texas Of the larEesse he would
shower in honor OF his presence among
. them
Never in all the thrilling history OF
! American finance and transportation has
there been such a mighty king welding
the scepter Of empire
Vanderbilt Family Retires.
The dat OF King Harriman's accession
70 his majestic domain was coincident
with the abdicatiou OF one OF the most
famous among the older royal lines. long
. previously marked for usurpati0n Of its
/ prerogatives and for declinatlon into a
condition Of only quasi kingship. Ike
those medisuzed royalties OF Germany
who have had to bow 10 the overlordship
or the Emperor.
The morning Of January o. which
crowned King Hartman. practically end
ed The dynasty of the VanderbUts. that
powerful railroad family founded by
Cornelius the Great. commonly known
as Commodore Vanderbilt
Steadily from the time OF thai first
mighty. crude. and rugged conQueror
the pristine energy OF the race declined
until. wOrsted in the vaster campaigns
or this modern day. William X. Cor
nelius III. and Alfred G. Vanderbilt, none
OF them imbued with any real taste
for the hard knocks OF finance by which
alone their kingdom could have been re-
tanned. let the inherited scepter droop in
their lax grasp. and soon were forced
20. urnf
/ n seize H. as Il had seized the primacy
from men Ike J. Pierpont Morgan. their
ally
Won His Waterloo.
! Until that date so fateful for the
i American people, perhaps even more fate
/ ful for them than for their group Of
( railroad rulers who so disdainfully dis
/ posed OF their lives and properties. King
+ Harriman's' supremacy had been dis
puted by James J. Hm. thst veteran
who was the Wellington OF the campaign
/ In which this American Napoleon won,
! instead OF losing. his Waterloo.
! Until that date the railway world held
/ a Blucher Ia the person Of George Could.
I who. desperately bringing up his reserves
+ comprising all the immense forces In
I herited from the Machiavellian JAY
Gould. was beaten as decisiveIy as the
i original Blucher was victorious al the
Z real Waterloo.
/ By a strange fitness OF things. only
/ fortnight before William X Vanderbilt
/ proposed the election OF Hartman 20 the
l actual control Of the great VANDERBILT;
! property. the Interstate Commerce Com
mission. with all the authority OF the
I United States government In It's words
/ disclosed the figures proving that II he
I was not then de facto king OF the world
/ Of steel rails. he was nominaHy king.
4 Great and small no fewer than -
I roads have submitted annual reports 10
( the commission. with the statistics Of
1 their stock control and ownership. In the
/ course Of several months Prof. r. C.
I Adams. the st8tistician OF the government
employed in .he work, will il is expected.
1 have completed report on the figures
showing precisely where the control OF ali
I railroad stocks in the United states Is
/ vested.
But early in January the main figures
were apparent. and upon them the pre-
liminary finding OF the commission was
made public Il demonstrated. conclusive
( ". that not Hill, or Morgan. or Gould
( could be considered the dictator OF the
I railroads. but that Edward Henry Har-
riman alone was supreme.
/ What with his holdings for the various
/ lines ne governs and for the bankers Ike
+ Kuhn. Loeb 4 Co, who cooperate in
/ lis enterprises. the report showed that
I Hartman held. even as far back as
1907. the year on whose returns many OF
/ the railroad reports were based, stocks
amounting to Si545S35o0.
Owns Many of the Lines.
! In his hands are practically all the
stock OF the Oregon Short Line and an
overwhelming majority Of Southern Pa
+ cific. He outholds HH in Great Northern.
and is a holder In the other great
I Hm road. Northern Pacific. to such an
reckon with HarTiman's power IN the
very citadel Of his own strength.
4 But these figures, impressive as they
I are by reason Of their PRONUNCIATION by
! She Interstate Commerce Commission. are
I n erely confrmatory Of the suzerainty
! acknowledged months ago by the entire
\ financial world. over which the giganti-
/ cally enlarged form Of the new king cast
[ a shadow that obScUred all rivals taken
I together
/ He is conceded control Of the Union
| and Southern Pacific. Illinois Central.
1 New York Central, Atchison. ST. Louis
/ and San Francisco. St Paul Chicago and
/ Northwestern. Baltimore and Ohio. Della
4 ware and Hudson. Georgia Central
I Wheeling and Lake Erie. and the Erie
I roads
Not only does that control extend East
! 70 West and North 10 South in the United
/ States. but It stretches the tentaCles Of
/ its power across the Pacific ocean by
/ steamship lines and grips nightly upon
\ the Orient where its dictator. some years
/ -.-.-- -,-s.-..l - Fnt,l IiI-a Lin