Arizona republican., 1916-06-29
S18.000,000 |S
 PRICE WESTERN
 PACIFIC BRINGS
TReputlIcan A. B. Leased wirel

OAKLAND, Cal, June 2S-The Western Pacific Railroad was sold 10 the organization committee oT the road fere today for SIS, 900 900 at a public auction.
 The sale was conducted under the orders of .he United States district court by Francis J. Krun, United States commissioner. The $1S,000.000 paid for the Western Pacific was the minimum price fixed by the federal court and paid in first mortgage bonds turned into the organization committee by their holders to for ward reorganization.
 The Western Pacific Railroad com pany, a new organization formed 10 take over and operate the road au- tomatically assumes control of the auctioned road which passed out of the hands of it's receivers with its sale. c. M. Bevy of San Francisco. general manager under the receivers. who have had jurisdiction since March, 1915, is president of the new company. Hw4 The Western Pacific Railway was the final link in the trans continental raidroad system evolved by George j. Gould at the cost of many millions of dollars. Gould pledged the resources of the Denver & Rio Grande Rail road to reach the Pacific, yet his dream hardly was realized. for the 927 miles of Western Pacific betweel, san Francisco and the Denver X Rio Grande terminus at Salt Lake City were still uncompleted when the great chain of lines he had welded together in the east began to disintegrate.
 It is estimated that Western Pacific involved an outlay of not less than S75.0G0000. Construction was earn cstly begun in 1905. the road was opened for traffic in 1910 and five years later receivers were in posses sicn.
 After the death of his father in 1893. George Gould, not yet 30, found himself president Of the Missouri Pa cific Railroad ard thousands of miles of ramifying lines in the west anG southwest. There began his dream of an ocean to ocean railroad. Soon he crossed the Rockies by acquisition of the Denver x Rio Grande. thus becoming financial master of a sys- tenn of railroads extending from Omaha along the valley of the Mis sissippi river to the Gulf, and west ward through rich Colorado, ard over the mountains to q terminal at Salt Lake City His hore then turned to the Atlantic seaboard
 He began a struggle for control Of the Wabash system and won and then pushed eastward to Buffalo, with an entry into Chicago, tying the Wa hash to the Missouri Pacific at St. Louis and Kansas City. An Atlantic port he gained at Baltimore by pur- chasing control Of the Western Mary land road. which by acquisitions he extended to Pittsburg At Toledo he joined the Wabash to the Wheeling and Lake Erie, which again brought him within striking distance of Pitts burg.
 It cost the Goulds a huge sum to get in and out of Pittsburs, fortune unjustified even by the enormous ton mage afforded there by great indus tries. yet not so incommensuratc when it is considered that the Gould Pittsburg Terminal Railroad was ar absolutely vital unit in the vision ot a continent bridging railroad.
 In the flush of the Pittsburg fight Gould was goaded to declare that the Gould lines would join the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. This was hi defiance to the Pennsylvania railroad when Gould was ordered to remov, his Western Union wires from Penn sylvania rights-o -of-way.
 In San Francisco in the late eightie was a man who had long coddled tn hope of scaling the Sierra Nevada with a railroad that would bring t San Francisco the trains of the grea middleWestern trunk lines Withou paying tribute to the Central Pacific He was w. J. Bartnett, a lawyer, wh owned only his idea and shor stretch of track between Tesla an tide water at Stockton. He took hi idea to Gould, and it fitted in s snugly with the great railroad man dreams that it was finally accepte and Gould pledged his support an furnished money.
 Bartnett returned to California an in 1901 he incorporated the San Fran cisco Terminal Railway and Ferr company for the purpose of buildin a railway between Oakland harbor an Stockton. At first his incorporation and acquisition of franchises an rights -of-way created little publ comment, so religiously was Gould connection kept secret. But there wer railroad interests in California tn were watching and preparing for bat tie.
 Bartnett was next confronted wit