The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-21

very great traffic to and from New Eng
land which would be secured through the
construction of a bridge over He'll Gate.
When the Pennsylvania managers car
ried their systems to the Mississippi river
they seem to have said, THUS far toward
the west will our lines go and no farther :
But If they were not expanding toward
the west beyond the Mississippi river they
were preparing 10 expand toward the
east, in such manner as to make the Penn
sylvania system a great railroad of ar
terles, matching the New York Central
and commanding much of the very prof.
table and rapidly i1creasing traffic to and
from New England.
The True Policy
The Pennsylvania management seems
always to have considered the Mississippi
river as the real boundary line for the
Pennsylvania system west There was u
time shortly after the decision of the
United States supreme court in the now
traditional Missouri traffic association
case, when 1t seemed to railway managers
Pennsylvania among them-as though
the only relief possible in view of the de-
clsion of the~courts that joint traffic as
sociations were illegal was that which
could be obtained through community of
interest Therefore, the New York Cen
tral, when Chauneey M. Depew was presi-
cassatt was president, established cont
munity of interest in several railroad sys-
tens by buying stock. In that way the
PENNSYLVANIA became part owner in she
Baltimore and Ohio. The New York Ces.-
trail became part owner of one of the
great lines which crossed Virginia. 1t is
the relic of this attempt to solve the rail-
road problem through community OF IN
terest which makes it possible for the
Pennsylvania to offer Baltimore and Ohio
stock which it owns for some of the Sc
curties which are involved in the dissolu-
ton of the Union Pacific.
The reasons which led Canadian and
British capital to construct one trans
continental line across Canada and to he
at this time constructing another one,
were political and commercial, but far
sighted railroad management in the
United States does not regard these rea-
sons as applying TO the railroad situation
here. The great railroad forces look upon
Chicago and st. Louis as the true eastern
terminals of the rrore northerly of the
Pacific railroad lines and New Orleans
as the true southern terminal The late
G. T. Huntington did contemplate with
enthusiasm the construction of a true
transcontinetal line whose seaport on tie
Atlantic was to be at Newport News, its
midway station to be at New Orleans, and
for which San Francisco was to be its
Pacific terminal.
Mr.. Huntington lived long enough, hov-
ever, to realize that his plan was commer-
elally impracticable. His successors
changed face, turning to the north, and
are now undertaking to construct nor. +
and south railway system with one ter
minal on the Canadian boundary and the
other at the Gulf of Mexico, SO potent is
the prospective influence of the Panama
canal. The PENNSYLVANIA management
was never 1e.apted to entertain transcon-
tinental railroad projects and probably
would not have been diverted from its
consistent policy of many years even ha
E. H. Hartman been able to make a ma
terial fact of his dream of transcon-
tinental railroad system under one man.
agement.
The most astute railroad managers are
now convinced that on the American
hemisphere the Two Canadian transcon-
tinental lines the short transcontinentaI
line stretching from the Gulf of Mexico
to the Pacific and known as the Tehuan-
tepcc railroad. and the single transconti-
mental line of South America stretching
from Valparaiso, Chile to Buenos Ayres.
will continue to be for many years the
only lines under one management stretch
ingr tha Tn no Parifip