The Washington herald., 1911-02-16
GOULD DROPS OUT
OF RAILROAD FIGHT
Opposition Too Strong and New President oi
Missouri Pacific Viii Be Elected

every railroad man appreciates the de-
| STABILITY of gulf outlet in anticipation
/ of the opening of the Panama Canal.
There is reason to believe that Mr.. Hill
| looked on the project of acquiring the
Gould lines affectionately But neither
he nor any one else could see how the
roads could be acquired without pre-
| cipitatng a fight which would have
| drawn in most of the raiload systems
and big bankers of the country.
Wall street licked its chops to-day
when it chewed over that morsel of in
formation. Had it developed, that would
have been some fight with Kuhn, Loeb
& Co., John D. Rockefeller, the Sage es-
tate, the Deutsche Bank, most of the
Eastern banking houses of consequence
| in this city, many other foreign banking
houses, the resources of the Union Pa
cific and of the Standard Oil party, the
sympathy of such institutions as the Gen.
trail Trust Company and the National
City Bank on one side. on the other
James ]. Hill, George F. Baker, Lord
Strathcona, Lord Mountstephen, the Bank
Of Montreal, big English banking houses.
and probably ]. P. Morgan & Co. and
the Chase National and the Guaranty
| Trust Company, the Bankers Trust
Company, and so on. Everybody realized
that would have been a fight for the
worlds heavyweight championship A
number of folks were still regretting its
failure to materialize when the lights
went out in favorite Wall street ports.
Announces His Retirement.
For whatever reason the big fight was
called off. the relatively little contest to-
day simmered down into a statement
given out by Mr.. Gould, sayingshe would
retire from the presidency and become
chairman of the board of directors and
naming the board which will be chosen
at the Missouri Pacific's annual election
on March l next
According to this statement. the retir-
ing directors will be c. S. Clarke one
of the vice presidents of the Missouri
Pacific; r. NJ. Galloway, a pronounced
Gould adherent; H. r. Henson, Frank
]. Could and Howard Gould, broth
ers of George ]. Gould. Representa-
ton will still be maintained on the board,
but, though substantial, it will be a mi
nority representation and Gould stock
and bond holdings will still be heavy, but
they will be minority holdings Control
is to be vested in the association of men
who have brought about the change, and
they will select the new president.
To-day these men let it he known that
they hoped Howard Elliott would accent
the presidency. He is president of the
Northern Pacific. and has a very fine Job
now. But it was explained that as pres
ident of the Northern Pacific a man must
be more or less subordinated to James 7
Hill, even though he be as well qualified
as Mr.. Elliott to paddle his own canoe
and the new management of Missouri Pa
ciflc offers man free hand to build IN a
very large railroad system, one even
greater in its potentialities than is North
ern Pacific.
Ocean to Ocean Line Fails.
1t was authoritatively said that no
other Gould road is concerned in the
transaction. The troubles of the Wabash,
Wheeling and Lake Erie, and wabash
Pittsburg Terminal have no relation to
the Missouri Pacific Mr.. Gould once pro-
posed to link all his railroads together
into one big ocean to ocean line That
idea the new managers will not entertain.
The system will end at st. Louis There
Is enough money to be spent in replace
ment. improvements, equipment and so
on and the idea of extension is not to be
On the system as II is now
it is estimated that there is five !
years work TO be done at an expenditure |
which may be conservatively estimated at |
more than $780, 600.
1t was also declared that the interests |
Of the Missouri Pacific will not be SUBJ |
to those of the, Union Pacific. |
1t was, of course. admitted that there will !
be no fight except the fight for traffic, the |
same bankers being influential in both /
systems