The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-09
RAILROAD NEWS
J~mes J. Hill Only Survivor of
Creative Rail Forces.
With Hartman and HaWIey
Gone, Hill Stands Alone.
NORTH and SOUTH ROAD SOON
Ultimate Result of Needs of
Traffic in America.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.
NORTH and SOUTH ROAD SOON

New York. Feb. "a week has
passed since the death of Edwin Haw-
ley and within that short time it has
been made evident that his name is
speedily to pass, if not into oblivion,
at least to a place among the minor
traditions of railway and Wall street
activities of the first ten years of the
present century. Yet shortly after
the death of E.. H. Hartman, two and
one-half years ago. many were the
conjectures as to the place Mr. Haw-
ley would take in the great world of
railway affairs. Some predicted that
ne would speedily dem OnStrate pre-
eminent ability as an organizer and
reorganizer, q. creator of one vast sys-
TEN from various minor factors which,
until he vitalized them, seemed to
nave no natural relation to any great
railway system.
It was a remark comm only heard
that Edwin Hawley was to be the
successor of f. II. Hartman, as he
was, in fact, the heir of some of the
chief railway plans which his teacher,
G p. Huntington, had in mind.
week, however, has been suffi-
Client time to measure Mr. Hawley's
relation to the world of business, es-
peclally railway business, and his
death and the almost eventless con-
ditions which have prevailed since he
passed away have made it possible for
some of our business men to get a.
new vista, or, at least, to speak con-
fidently of new conditions which the
death of Mr. HaWIey and the comp pos
Ure. from a business point of view,
with which his passing away was TAX
en- have forcibly brought to mind.
In the first place, it has been a
common remark that James J. Hill is
the only survivor of the mastery
creative forces which have made
American railway systems what they
are now. There was no successor to
Mr.. Hartman, it is said, because there
was no need of one-sO far as creative
work was concerned. In ten years he
concentrated all of his mental and
physical powers upon the constructive
work now recognized as the Union Pa
cIfic system. That work was practi-
cally completed at least two years be-
fore his DEATH All that remained was
to develop the system, perfect the de-
tails and undertake to build up to its
possible prosperity the large belt or
section of the country which the I'm
ion Pacific and its branches bisect
and penetrate. Work of that kind
could be done by men who have great
talent even if they did not possess the
creative genius that characterized Mr..
Hartman. The important railway sys-
TENS running parallel to lines of longi-
tude, especially from the gulf north
erly, were all planned or perfected
within the past ten years, or little
more, and what remains to be done
IS work which can be successfully per-
formed by men of high talent.
Mr.. Mellen is undertaking to bring
New England under one railway sys-
TEN. but the real creative work was
done by predecessor, the late William
d. Bishop, who consolidated the New
York & New Haven Railway company
with the New Haven, Hartford &
Springfield, in the early seventies, and
who later counseled the absorption of
l. . q, ~
Mr.. Harriman's UIterior Purpose.
Those who are very near to the moro
intimate circle which surrounds the
able executive forces now in control
of the New York Central speak with
certainty of q purpose which Mr.. Har-
riman had of so expanding the Union
Pacific system as to bring it and the
New York Central into one firmly uni
ted family, thus creating true trans
continental line. It is the close friends
of the VanderbilJs who say that had
Mr. Hartman lived and maintained his
health that unificarion would have been
accomplished within five or six years
that is to say, about 1915. Yet if this
had been done by Mr.. Hartman the
work would have been no more than
supplementary to his creation of the
Union Pacific system.
Mr.. HilI's Genius
The creative work in the highest
and best meaning of that term when
y
was cOmpleted when his railway reach
ed the Pacific coast. 1t was his genius
like forecast which first taught the
railway managers of lines running east
and west that it was imperative, if the
possibilities which were II those sys-
TENS were to be realized, that there
should also be adequate feeding north
and south lines. And II is in recogni-
ton of the lessons taught by Mr.. Hill
that the Vanderbilts now expect to Sc
cure a true north and south line reach
ing from the gulf to Chicago. There are
many persons who suspect that it is the
present purpose of William K Wander
bilt to secure for the New York Cen
trail system a terminal upon the Pa
cific coast as good as are the terminals
at New York and Boston, thereby per
fecting a true transcontlnental line
The death of Mr.. Hawley, however
has caused the remark to be made
within the past week that the true
creative work, so far as American rail
way systems are concerned. has either
e-~-----1--