The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-30

the axle grease used on the locomotives
 and freight cars, and if you can't stand
 that, I will carry your freight for noth- ing"
 I OPENED THE ORIENT
 | At the $S rate named, the American
 manufacturer was enabled to secure the Japanese contract.
 | The same tactics were adopted in get 1 ting American wheat and flour into Japan and China, where rice was the staple l food.
 l His faith in the far east was re- | warded as liberally as that in the | northwest. It is estimated that the | Pacific fleet now carries nearly $50,- | O0O coo worth of products to the orient every year.
 While Mir Hill built up for himself and his associates an immense fortune | he also helped to create for the settlers along his lines wealth of over $5, I 900, GOO, 900 in real property, which is rep resented by the value of the 100000 farms and their 65,000,O00 acres of i'm proved land.
 Upon his retirement at 69, the "streak of rust he had bought 30 years before had expanded to more than 5000 miles and it was earning gross profits
 of more than $66,000,000 a year and carrying 15,000,o00 tons of freight an-
 nually. He still retained hand in the treat NOTlneIH putty dS CIldl1llldl of the board of directors, while his son Louis, who had worked up from the ! humblest position of his fathers rail road, became president.
 l The secret of the Hill success was
 no secret at all. according to MT. Hill, | and he had no new recipes to offer. 1 .'The man with the big opportunity to- day. he said, "is the man in the ranks But the secret of failure he frequent ly declared to be extravaganza. He re- garded this as a national tendency against which he strongly set himself, particularly as concerned the natural resources.
 SAW EVERY DETAIL During his active supervision of the Great Northern system MT. Hill over saw almost every detail to the wonder of all employees with whom he came in contact. A fugitive instance of his recognition in his own country is the story of a tourist who declares that there are afloat in the Swedish sec | titon of the northwest upward of 10.- 1 900 different stories in Swedish dialect with "Yem Hell as the centerpiece Patrons of his lines have liked and dis 1 liked him in rapid alienation, for it was his point to have his way, not only where his road should run, but where his patrons should settle. This was part of his economic policy. He carried out singular regularity in the location of branch lines. giving a min imum of short lines to which light trains were unavoidable. 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 were held as visionary by most railway men. In contact with the late E. H. liar riman who outdid him in the extent
 of railway ownership, MT. Hill was not only the financial head, but the prac tieal head of his great railway sys-
 tenn. He was the chief promoter and president of the Northern Securities company, organized with a purpose to bring the Northern Pacific and Great Northern under one ownership, to which such opposition developed that
 suit was brought in the United States
 circuit court, which decided that the acquisition was an Illegal combination affirmed in March, 1904, by the Uni ted States supreme court | For several years James J. Hill had insisted, both to his friends and to the public, that he was not actively enga ged in business.
 Just how active he was during the last two years of his life can be judged only by little evidences of his master hand in questions affecting the Great North ern railroad and the First National bank of St Paul, and by three outstanding accomplishments in which his will and genius asserted themselves. From world viewpoint it would be , hard to say whether his staunch support of the Belgian people following the in vasion of the Germans. or the part playeu in the negotiations for the $500, 900, 900 loan
 to the allied governments is the more inn pOrtant