Los Angeles herald., 1910-04-03
IS SANTA Re IN ON
ARIZONA PIPE LINE?
Oil Men, Pending Completion OF
Organization Speculate as
to Railroads Position
MAY ONLY BECOME A BUYER
Expert Suggests Common Carrier
by Guaranteeing Bonds Could
Legally Affiliate
BY CHARLES p. FOX

/ Absolute silence is maintained con-
! cerning the Santa FeS connection
with the California-Arizona pipe line
5 scheme, by every one familiar with the
t details so far as these have taken
{ shape. The railroad has the matter
} under consideration, but whether 1t
{ will become an owner of an interest IN
, the pipe line, the projects financial
, hacker, or merely a large patron IN
order to secure deliveries at conVen-
lent points along its route at special
rates in return for compensating ia
vors, cannot be learned. At the same
time, it may finally be decided that
both for legal and business reasons
the railroad shall not come in, but
there is probability that President e.
p. Ripley, who resides at Santa Bar
bara and is now at home will be able
to arrive at a determination within a
very short time.
Since the political upheaval of re-
cent years and the militant spirit ex-
hibited by the government, railroads
are particularly cautious in matters
the scope of which embraces more
than one state, but it is surmised that
in this instance the Santa Fe can be-
come a party to the arrangements and
remain within the law both in letter
and in spirit. If forbidden by statute
to have actual ownership in this pipe
line company WHICH IluSl DeCOIuS d
| common carrier, and to accept a re-
duced price for its fuel, it could earn
an obligation by a service such, for
instance, as the guaranteeing of the
bonds, thus making the financing of
the proposition a simple process, a
performance which would justify in
both law and morals the pipe line COM
pany in conceding to the railroad
price for its oil below that charged the
Crpnarq1 nnhliC This would give
the road an ample and dependable sup
ply of fuel, and render it of greater
usefulness by being able to better
transport freight and passengers, the
public would gain an advantage offset
ting whatever of usefulness might ap-
pear in the lower rate charged the
railroad. When heavy and bulky oil
trains engage the motive power, oc-
cupy the main rails and interfere with
switching yard efficiency, the public's
freight is delayed and damage not ca
pable of being estimated results. Track
congestion, like washouts, hurts all
! business.
-Arizona's mines create a large if not
highly profitable traffic in coal haul
from Colorado. Should oil be piped
to the mines, the Santa Fe would lose
this business, but on the other hand
there is little doubt that oil would so
stimulate and increase business in the
mines that the loss on coal freights
would be compensated for by an in
crease in the haulage of other and
more desirable forms of freight and
what is important, the releasing of
large equipment that could be put to
full use elsewhere, notably in Califor-
MIA. Furthermore, this pipe line would
preclude the present necessity for
double tracking the Tehachapi grade
an enormous undertaking which con-
fronts the Southern Pacific as things
are now, and for which the Santa Fe
must help to pay 1t would also do
away with the expense of a pipe line
over this range of mountains, to serve
jointly the two railroads, a project
known for some time to be under con-
sideration.
But over and above all, the Santa Fe
with the California Arizona system in
! existence would have fuel when and
where it wanted it, a fact that must
appeal strongly to President Ripley and
the other powers of the Santa Fe. Both
the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe
have been in a condition bordering on
hysteria over the accumulation and
distribution of their fuel since last
summer, the last named especially be-
ing in a precarious position, not haV-
ing on occasion, a supply on hand in
suring the roads complete operation
| for thirty-SiX hours. 1t has gained
somewhat on it's rate of consumption
but the situation is far from ideal and
is not encouraging as an index of the
future, for every circumstance has been
favorable, particularly the weather.
only a traffic man can completely APP
preciate the beauties of good weather,
and bad weather has terrors for him
beyond the capacities of other persons
to realize. Mr.. Ripley is fully aware
of the circumstance that. while his
road has progressed in a slight degree
in it's efforts to raise the oil level in its
fuel tanks, it has succeeded because
the wells have been generous and the
winter just closed has been the dryest
in a generation. For two months and
a half there was no rain. For the first
time in the memory of man the news
papers have not recorded slides and in
terruptions to traffic due to wet
weather on Tehachapi hill. Not for
Thirty years has the season been so
benign and yet the fuel reservoirs have
not been filled by any means Business
is reViYing.
Shipments grow in number and con-
sequence. Travel increases What of
( the Santa Fes fuel next year and the
years after that? The Santa Fe must
do something if it is to continue to
burn oil under its locomotive boilers,
and to abandon that fuel is out of the
question.
These are the considerations, in ad-
dition to those appertaning to the pipe
line per Sc, which Mr.. Ripley is re-
volVing in his mind and ruminating
upon at his home in Santa Barbara.
The probabilities are that the agency
organized a few years ago by a small
group of half-starved oil producers, all
mOrtgaged to the limit and almost des-
perate, will have in alliance with them
selves before long one of the strongest
business institutions in the world, the
two factors with Union Oil and the
Doheny people working out together a
great achievement for their own ad-
Vancement and the common good.
TOO SWIFT FOR PARIS
SAN FRANCISCO, April 2.-Pros-
pectiVe buyers of oil lands returning
here from the West Side fields of Kern
county bitterly condemn the unbus-
inesslike treatment accorded them by
the owners of lands sought for pur-
chase.
They declare that these land owners
will not give them the slightest time
to conduct proper negotiations-that