Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-01-29
NICKEL PLATES
UNIFICATION BIG
THING IN NATION
(By Dispatch A. P. Wirel }

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28.-The story
iof the projected Nickel Plate unifica-
Ition, an epochal step in railway trans
portation, is the story of the rise Of
two former Cleveland news carriers
to a position where many have class
lifted them with J. ]. Hill and E. H.
Hartman.
o. P. and M. J. Van Sweringen were
real estate operators until 1915. Then
! they acquired control of the old
Nickel Plate, principally because they
needed a Cleveland terminal for a
rapid transit l:ne to their real estate
holdings.
This purchase excited a ripple in
the financial marts, but it was only
la small circumstance to the surging
wave of interest with which the in
dustrial world greeted the news in
1923 that the two Clevelanders had
secured control of four other rail-
roads-the Chesapeake and Ohio, the
Hooking Valley, the Erie and Pere
Marquette and were proposing to
merge them with the Nickel Plate.
The consolidation contemplated the
operation as unit of more than o.
600 miles of roadway, with a prop
Ierty value of about $1,O87, 100000, with
larteries in the country's main sweep
of traffic, western gateways and
catern outlets to New York and the
tidewater cities of Virginia.
1t was almost all over before Wall
lStreet, agitated by the market churn-
ing of Erie and Pere Marquette stock
iprices, learned that the cause lay in
selection of those lines as the final
factors of something vaguely described
in the Street as 1.-The Van Sweringen
plan" There was plenty of eye
rubbing, for not since the days of
Hartman and Hill had financial men
observed the overnight scooping up
iof whole railroads. SO expeditiously
land qrietly had the two unassuming
Wan Sweringens proceeded that Wall
Street was almost completely de-
Iprived of the thrills and excitement
that usually attend the birth of a
gigantic financial enterprise.
But the storm averted in the fl
Inancial forum of the metropolis broke
with comfortable fury when the con-
'solidation plan was presented to the
Interstate Commerce commission for
approval. Groups of minority stock
holders in three of the acquired roads
assaulted the Van Sweringen plan,
root and branch. committee rep
resenting, minority holdings in the
Chesapeake and Ohio led the on
slaught, with a determination epito-
Imized by it's leading attorney when
he characterized the plan in his final
argument as "the rawest proposition
ever laid before railroad stockholders
the rawest proposition ever laid be-
fore the stockholders of any corpora
tion.' SO insistent did the attack
become that o. P. Van Sweringen
submitted himself to a long, ham
mering cross examination on the wit
ness stand.
The minority complaint was that
the owners Of Chesapeake and Ohio
and Hooking Valley stock would not
receive a fair percentage of stock in
the new corporation when their hold
ings were transferred. But the op-
ponents Of the consolidation did not
stop there. They sought to prove
that the Van Sweringen brothers and
a small group of associates would
profit approximately $1O2,OO0,OOO by
the enterprise, and much testimony
for a big terminal in the Van Swerin-
gems home city of Cleveland, con-
Meeting up with certain real estate
and other interests.
The reply of the Van Sweringens
was that no such profits as were in
volVed in the deal could be expected
unless the project as a whole served
the public interest. 1t was con-
tended that the unified operation of
the five roads, by eliminating dupli-
cation of shop and other facilities,
would save at least $6,O0O,OOO a year
in transportation charges.
The evidence showed that the con-
solidation would introduce many new
elements into the railroad map of
the United States, such as direct
access between Norfolk and Newport
News and the tip of the lower Mich
igan peninsula. 1t was declared the
new system would have the shortest
route between Buffalo and Chicago
south of Lake Erie, and the second
shortest route between New York
and Chicago and New York and Cleve-
land.
BY states, Michigan ranks first in
mileage under the consolidation plan,
with 1887 miles of the new system
within her borders. Ohio has 1442
miles of the road, Indian, 1885, New
York 1927, West Virginia 814, Vir-
ginia 7S7, Pennsylvania 612, Ken
lucky $40, Illinois $50, and New Jer-
sey 149. In addition, 3S7 miles of
roadway lin in Canada.
The important industrial centers
touched by the system include New
York, Newport News, Norfolk, Rich
mond Roanoke, Charleston, w. Va,
Louisville, Chicago, Peoria, st. Louis,
Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo,s Rochester,