The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-12-15
RAILROAD NEWS.
Beginning of Railway Leaders
of This Country.
Hill, Hartman, Gould, Wander
bilt, and Other Big Men.
AGRICULTURE DID 1T.
Towns Grew, Land Values In
creased, Roads Prosper.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

OtACA 1tcHlS Vi UCuOI oh AutCI GU
in Traffic World.
The question in current finance about
which popular curiosity is greatest IS
just how railroad dictators, such as
James J. Hill and E. H. Hartman.
gained their power, says the New York
Post. The general character of a rail-
road leaders, career and the steps by
which he came into prominence are al
ways clearly written on the public
record. But there is always one chap
ter in the story upon which all the
rest hangs, and in many instances that
chapter is obscure, because it fails to
show the connecting links.
Describing the rise Of James ]. Hill
in the railroad world, John Moody and
George Kibbe Turner, in the Decem-
Der McClure's, answer some questions
frequently raised by people unfamiliar |
with the early history of the Great |
Northern. During the three years, |
| 1874, 1875 and 1876, the long-remen-
| bered grasshopper pest swept over Min |
| nesota. James J. Hill used in those |
| days to sit in front of his coal and |
wood store on the 1evee at st. Paul |
and talk about buying the St. Paul &
| Pacific railroad.
| In 1876 Hill was 80 years of age, and
had been in st. Paul since 1856. During
that 20 years he had been agent for
two steamboat lines, one on the Miss1s-
| sippi, the other on the Red river. 1t
was through those steamship COM
panies that Hill came in touch with
Donald A. Smith, who afterwards be-
come Lord Strathcona, George Stephen
(now Lord Mountstepren). and Norman
| w. Kittson. After getting those men
interested in the bankrupt ST. Paul e.
Pacific, Hill began to negotiate with
John s. Kennedy, then representative
of the Dutch syndicate that owned a
majority of the company's bonds. The
railroad was bought in for $2S3,000, and
Kennedy afterwards Joined Hill and his
associates. From the start the re-
organized railroad prospered. and by
1879 $15,000.000 new stock was issued, of
which Hill received one-fifth for his
| services.
The Turning Point.
But how did the $3.50, 900 railway be-
come worth anything that could be
seriously capitalized for fifteen mil
lions? Any one can increase the stock
of a company, but it takes more than
issues of share certificates to increase
it's value. The question is partly an
, swered in the McClure's article, but
only partly. At the hour of greatest
encouragement, the scourge of grass
: hoppers suddenly disappeared, never TO
I return. That did much, but something
" else happened that did more. On jan
uary 1, 1879, the United States resumed
:, specie payments, and the attention of
the investing world was once more con-
Iverged on our securities. A few
:, months later, the European wheat
crop failed, while our own agricultural
west raised the greatest harvest in its
:, history. Wheat rose in price; popula-
!. ton rushed to the fertile area of Min
" nesota; towns grew up and population
- increased by leaps and bounds. Lane
= values in Minnesota doubled, and IL
- | some cases trebled; the granger rail
- roads were called upon to move tn,
. largest traffic ever seen in the histor,
of the country.
From 1879 the newly named st. Paul
. Minneapolis & Manitoba kept CROWN,
with every year. BY 1893, as the Grea
y Northern, it had gone to the Pacifi
coast and had become a system of 400
= miles against the original road of les
than 500 miles; in 1898 it had 5000 mile
Ia capitalized at $143, 900, 600. 1t is now
=, | system of 1000 miles capitalized a
IS 1905, 900, 900.
During the first few years Stephe
"a | was president and Hill was genera
ia manager, but more and more Hill be
- came the railroad, and the other me
:. rarely went near it. At no time dI
Ii Hill ever own anything like a majorit
of the stock; his control was purely
case of the strongest personality as
Stunning leadership.
Harriman's Career.
similar story can be told of tn
y late E. H Hartman. who at the tim
Of his death was absolute dictator
$4,000 miles Of railroad, one-third
the country's total railway mileag
e1 Until 1898 Hartman was little know
in the financial district. That was IL
year Kuhn, Loeb & Co., reorganize
the Union Pacific and put Harrims
on the board of that company as OF
of several representatives to look o.
for their interest. What happens
then, as told by one of Harrimans a
sociates on the Union Pacific boar
explains how several railroads in aft
years become known as "Harrims
lines
Hartman at that time was cor
paratively unknown" the Union Pat
fic director said, land older men w
had had long years of experience wi
the property were in control
grasp of detail, power of argumel
and ability to show results soon pus
ed everybody else in the backgrour
and Hartman became the Union P
cific.'
Like James J. Hill, "Commodor
Vanderbilt. the founder of the Va
derbilt fortune. became Interested
railroads through experience gained
the steamboat business. Vandert
'eo, did not, however. begin with Steal
esn boats; he began with a rowboat, p
ing between Staten Island and n
for York; and he was captain and GA
nth man. In time he was owner of
for steamboat line which operated on
for Pacific Coast, in opposition to the +
cific Mail. After selling out to
in Of the Harlem, raiJroad The seq
nee to that move was the famous Harl
snt corner, in which he squeezed" me
iecS bers of the legislature, who had g
OF short thinking that they could def
be daoI,,[ -, ar. .+(,aL vander1
@oE' bought all the stock that had b.
-, sold short at Albany. and then cal
49, for a settlement. With the profit
ida lna. YEA nc 1ou ,.iu .se
oes and Hartman in that from the first