The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-24
SATISFIED WITH
 RAILROAD BILL
By HOLLAND

New York, February 23.--4 4SpeclalJ- J-C"e l Of the comments which were heard aiter the report came from Washington that the railroad bill as perfected in con ference provided for a comprehensive ar bitration system for the settlement or all railway labor disputes, was put into
 words by one of the financial leaders m
 this way: If something of that kind had been adopted two years ago instead
 of the Adamson law the railroads of the
 United states would have been in much
 better financial cordition, credit would have been improved and the oversnadow- ing fear of constant labor troubles would have been dissipated"
 On the whole the railway measure as perfected in conference is regarded as probably the best method whereby the l ra ilway situation can be made satsiac- tory In fact it is spoken of as in some respects an almost perfect measure
 There will be grevious disappointment II after the bill becomes a law ana me great forces in the railway world are again to act upon their own initiatives there does not follow an influence which will be reflected in steadily increasing quotation prices for railroad securities. There are likely to be within year a tserieS of mergers which when completed may divide the United States possibly ! into twelve, certainly as many as ten tregional or zone systems. There may m 1 fact be such action speedily taken with i the New England railroad as will rna4-eA it probable if not certain,
 that the railroad systems of New
 England, withN the exception perhaps of one railroad which Is controlled by a Canadian corporation and also the l Canadian roads which cross the state lline of Maine on their way 10 Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, will be brought Into one system, Probably this system I vxv;1I do Tt ilf system. That is the natural combIna- | tion to make because the Pennsylvania lthrough it's ownership of the Long Island Railroad and it's half ownership with the | New Haven of the worlds greatest raii- way bridge, which Is over Heus Gate are brought into physical touch in New York City although in the Bronx Borough
 Ultimately the Pennsylvania or the uni fled Pennsylvania and New England sys- tenn may construct tunnel under the rarrows of New York harbor connecting Long Island with Staten Island.
 SOME OTHER MERGERS
 One of the mergers likely to be put
 through win represent, if 1t be done, the idea of E. Fl. Hartman. He was per
 suaded fifteen years ago that it would De
 to the interest not only of the railroads but of the country if true through II to be at Boston and another possibly at San Francisco were made possible. II | was his idea that the Erie Railroad, which was one of the first great trunk lines to be constructed, be included III this system. He regarded it as essential that the New York Central and that part of the Central which stretched froms Al I bany to Boston be included, and then by l lIutflizins the Chicago and Northwestern -tI there could be complete consolidation lwirh the Union Pacific and the south ern Pacific To the late James Stillmar l IlMr. Hartman is reported to have salc that if this could be done he wouic
 make the Erie Railroad within five years ! | a dividend payer and the holders or tnt < Erie common stock would be througf consolidation benefited for the first timt 1 | in more than forty years. Furthermore by consolidation it would be possible tt \ decrease rates for there would be grea economies in the operation of trains. IT MAY BE DONE
 They have heard in the financal as \ t,ict that a part at least advocated bl MT Hartman will be adopted with th' \ approval of the government through tn | Interstate commerce cominission' Ini \ merger would include the Chicago ant Northwestern, which is recognized as 0 | the Vanderbilt family, the Union Pacifi k and the Southern Pacific.
 merger of this kind could not fai to recall the prolonged litigation whicl at last resulted in tearing the Southern Pacific from the Union Pacific. Nov | by authority of Congress and by an in cidental amendment to the federal statut which the courts heretofore have hell l prohibited certain combinations, tn
 Southern Pacific may again be in tn
 family of the Union Pacific with tn Chicago and Northwestern also a mem
 ber of the family. although presumabl the merger must be actual, complete. In the south there are likely to be a least three mergers, one comprising tn railroad lines which operate east of tn Blue Ridge mountains and which ma . take in the Tidewater Railroad whic \ was built by the late H. H. Rogers, tn | Clinchfield System which was organize and promoted by the late Norman I | Ream and T. Jefferson Coolidge of Bos
 ton, and very likely the, F'lagler Systei | in Florida.
 Then there will be mergers in the mid | south or that part of the south whic