Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-03-20
STARTLING DISCLOSURES RE.
GARDlNG DEVELOPMENT OF
HILL RAILROAD LINES.
FOUR CANADIANS oUTWlr
YANKEE FINANcIERs.
Hill Lord Mount Stephen, Lord Star
thcona and Others Got Railroads and
Millions Of Acres for Nothing and
Sold Them for Better Than
s1s,ooo,oo

New York, March 20-1'hat James J..
Hill, Lord Mount Stephen, Lord
Strathcona and few others assoc
ciated in the development of the Hill
railroads of the northwest have in
about thirty years divided among
themselves the colossal sum of s407.-
100000, exclusive of dividends, inter-
est or other emoluments, and that this
stupendous fortune has been made
from an original investment of moth
ing, is the amazing assertion made by
Charles Edward Russell in an article
entitled "The Heart Of the Railroad
Problem in the April number of
Hampton's Magazine.
Incredible as this amount is, the
present Investigator has found it to be
"only q part of the colossal profits
coined from an investment of nothing
by this most wonderful American
money-making machine, and when
you come to see the full balance sheet
me that never before have there been
such marvellous results from a begin
ming so inconsiderable."
Tracing the genesis of what is now
the Great Northern and allied lines,
the court records disclose, among 9TH
er startling facts, that when Jesse
p. Farley came into the st. Paul &
Pacific railroad in 1873 as receiver for
the United State district court, the
first division of the St Paul & Pa
cific, as then known, had the line from
st. Paul to Breckenridge and the
branch to Sank Rapids; the other
company. known simply as the st.
Paul & Pacific railroad, had the ex-
tension from Watab to Brainerd and
the line from st. Cloud to st. Vincent,
In all something more than 400 miles
of track Farley not only put these in
with the Canadian railroad at the
frontier He still further proved his
capacity when, after three or four
years of his receivership. the Minne-
sofa legislature passed an act pro-
viding that unless the road should be
completed to certain point within
certain time 1t must forfeit part of
the rich land grant whereof the peo-
pies representatives had been SO lib
eral. Judge John +. Dillon authorized
Farley as receiver to construct this
extension and to issue receivers de-
bentures for the expense. So the re-
ceiver built 112 miles of new road and
saved the land grant, says Mr.. Rus
sell.
The Real Cost Of a Railroad.
Four facts connected with this OPP
Grafton are important, he summarizes:
"First, Judge Dillon limited the cost
of construction to $4,000 mile, and
this sum must include station build
ings grounds, side tracks and equip.
ment.
second, The receiver built and
equipped the 112 miles for less than
the limit fixed, expanding only about
$4,000 a mile. some stretches being
done for $S,225 a mile. Kindly remem-
Der this. 1t is a good fact toy have
handy when you encounter the asser-
ton of gentlemen in the railroad war
that it costs 100000 to $4,000 a mile
to build a railroad.
"Third. The receiver filed with the
court detailed accounts of every item OF
expense connected with this work, and
every citizen can go now and see IN
the office of the clerk of the United
States district court at st. Paul, Mimi,
exactly what it costs to build and equip
a. railroad when the work is honestly
done.
"F,ourth, The construction company
with the alias, as before noted, expend-
ing the money of the lowly and ignor-
ant foreigner, had charged up 100000 a
mile for construction in the same re-
gion and had done the work so badly
that when the receiver took charge
much of the track was unsafe"
When Hill Became Factor.
J. ]. Hill, at that time, was local
freight agent of the road at st. Paul
Securing the cooperation of Norman
w. Kittson, George stephen and Don
aid A. Smith, first mortgages were
presently and quietly obtained ION more
than 500 miles of operated railroad and
. 5s,O. 6O6 acres of land, on the under
standing that they should not be paid
for until the road should be reorgan-
ized. This was done in 1879, the Cam
adam brotherhood forming the st.
Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Rail