Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-05-29
JAMES ]. HILL IS
DEAD AND THE US.
LOSES GREAT MAN

ST. PAUL, Mimi. May 29.-JamesAJ.
Hill, pioneer railroad builder, banker
and developer of the northwestern
country died at his residence here this
morning. Death resulted from bowel
trouble, and the deceased was un-
conscious nearly twelve hours before
tie end. All of the members of the
immediate family were at his bedside
when death came. At noon today no
funeral arrangement had been an
.nounced.
The deceased was one of the most
prominent characters in financial and
political circles in the whole United
States, and a factor to be reckoned
with in all of the great development
schemes north of the Ohio river and
west of the Missippi. He was the first
OF the great financial powers to pin
his faith to Chicago as a commercial
center, and to his faith in its ultimate
destiny, Chicago owes much of it's
present day greatness. st. Paul and
Minneapolis, are two other cities that
benefited greatly through Mr.. Hills
support and belief in their growth
"The Breadbasket' Was His.
James j. Hill discovered the bread
basket of the world" in the Great
Northwest; he led in its development
from wilderness into what now COM
prises six wealthy states, dotted with
100000 farms; and he blazed trail
for transportation which reached
eventually from Buffalo to Asia, with
a total mileage of rail and steamship
facilities that would nearly girdle the
earth.
That but roughly spans the story of
his achievement.
Near Guelph, in Ontario, where
Games Jerome Hill was born in 1888,
the son of an Irish-Canadian farmer
who died when the boy was Is, there
stands tree stump labeled: "The last
tree chopped by James J. Hill" 1t
marked the lads resolution to go to
the United States.
AS a mere roustabout lad of IS, he
toured from Maine to Minnesota. When,
in 1856, he disembarked from Mis-
sissippi river packet at St. Paul that
place was frontier town of 5000 in
habitants. At the sign of W. ]. Bass
K Co., agents for the Dubuque & st.
Faul Packet Company, he found job
as both stevedore and clerk.
The secret of the Hill success was
no secret at all, according to Mr.. Hill,
and he had no new recipes to offer.
The man with the big opportunity to,
day." he said, lis the man in the
ranks" But the secret of failure he
frequently declared to be extrava-
gance. He regarded this as national
tendency, against which he strongly
set himself, particularly as concerned
the natural resources.
During his active supervision of the
Great Northern system, Mr.. Hill over
saw almost every detail, to the wonder
of all employees, with whom he came
in contact He carried out sigular
in the location of branch
lines, giving minimum of short lines
on whict light trains, were unavoid-
BILE. The principal text of his railway
gospel was low grades, heavy power,
large capacity cars, and big train loads
on his main lines, and he began to
preach this at time when these things
we're held as visionary by most railway
men.
In contact with the late e. H. Harri-
man, who outdid him in the extent of
railway ownership, Mr.. Hill was not
only the financial head, but the practi-
cal head, of his great railway system.
He was the chief promoter and presi-
dent of the Northern Securities com
pany, organized with the purpose toI