The Washington times., 1923-11-13
Z BIG RAILROADS
START FIGHT
FOR THIRD
Pennsylvania and New York
Central Bring Jersey sys-
tenn Before l. C. c.
BY WILLIAM HARD.


for the hearings at the end of this
week on the largest and fiercest
railroad consolidation conflict now
before the commission and the
country-nameiy, the one involving
the Central Railroad Of New Jersey
and entangling the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company, the New York
Central Railroad - EAny, and the
Baltimore and Ono Railroad Com.
pany in q titanic battle which ex.
tends from the Atlantic seaboard to
the Mississippi river, and which
gives promise Of being one Of the
supreme events In American rail-
road history.
Monday Of next week the Baltimore
and Ohio, the Philadelphia and
Reading, the New York Central, the
Port Authority Of New York, the
Merchants Association of New
York, the New York Produce Ex-
change, the city Of Newark. N. IL.
the Newark Chamber OF Commerce,
and various trade bodies Of the cfts
Of Philadelphia will appear before
the Interstate Commerce Commas
sion to present protracted argu-
ments as to whether the Central
Railroad OF New Jersey should be
consolidated with the Baltimore and
Ohio or with the New York Central,
or should continue to be. as now,
a sort Of open-tO-all terminal rail-
road operated In close conjunction
with the Fhiladelphia and Reading
Struggle Between Cities.
Back Of this technical railroad
dispute lies the story Of an intense
struggle between the city Of Phila-
delphia and the city Of New York
and the story also of the intense
effort Of the New York Central to
dislodge the Pennsylvania Railroad
System from its classic position as
the premier railroad system of
America and to substitute itself aa
the player Of that role in the whole
territory between Chicago and st.
Louis on the one hand and Boston
and New York and the coast OF
Virginia on the other.
The Interstate Commerce Com
mission, in its tentative plan OF
railroad consolidation, assigned the
Philadelphia and Reading System.
including the Central Railroad of
New Jersey, TO the Baltimore &
Ohio. The Philadelphia q Read
ing serves the eastern part OF
pennsylvania and centers itself
upon Philadelphia. ~
The Central Railroad OF New Jer-
sey has q line which extends from
the anthracite region Of northeast
ern Pennsylvania to the Jersey side
Of the port Of New York.
The New York Central Railroad,
through its own lines and through
controlled lines, stretches from the.
Atlantic port of Boston and from
the Atlantic port of New York to
Buffalo and then has a through
route thence to st. Louis and two
through routes-the Michigan Cen.
trail and the Lake Shore-to Chi
cago.
It's present proposition, as ad.
vanced by its president, Alfred Fl.
Smith, who, in railroading, is as
as New York's other
ZAP Smith is in politics, is that
the New York Central needs an
other through route from the Great
Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard.
This additional through route 1t
proposes to secure through persuad-
ing the Interstate Commerce Com
mission to abstain from consolidat-
ing the Central Railroad of New
Jersey with the Baltimore and Ohio
and through further persuading the
commission to give the Central
Railroad Of New Jersey to the New
York Central system
Needs Other Fragments.
Additionally, in order to COM
plete this new second route for
itself from the Great Lakes to the
Atlantic seaboard, the New York
Central needs a fragment or two
of the Philadelphia and Reading.
It then could run trains from the
port Of New York across New Jer-
sey and across Pennsylvania to
Lake Erie, where those trains
would pass onto the tracks Of the
Lake Shore, which is consolidated
New York Central property.
The -result of this achievement
would be that whereas the Penn.
sylvania system and the Baltimore
and Ohio system have one route
apiece from New York to Chicago.
the New York Central would have
a route from New York by the Hud.
son to Buffalo and across Canada
and Michigan to Chicago and also
from the port Of New York across
New Jersey and Pennsylvania and
Ohio and Indiana to the same mid.
destination.
This, however, would not be the
tale of the whole of the New York
Central's imperial railroad influ-
ence. The New York Central some
time ago sold the Nickel Plate,
which runs between Buffalo and
Chicago, to the Van Schweringen
Brothers, of Cleveland, on terms
which have convinced the railroad
industry that the New York Central
and the Van Schweringens are on
intimate terms of cooperative
Reaches Virginia Shore.
The Van Schweringens, having
come into possession Of a route
between Buffalo and Chicago, ex-
tended their contacts to St Louis
a consolidation between the
Nickel Plate and the Toledo. St,
Louis and Western.
They also secured a control of
the Chesapeake and Ohio and thus
nut themselves into the mastery of
a line reaching from Chicago
through Cincinnati to Newport
News on the Virginian Atlantic
shore.
BY competent observers in the
Commerce Commission
the Van Schweringens are regarded
as perhaps the most innovating and
railroad persons that
have appeared in this country since