Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-03
RAIL MERGER PLAN
STILL IN BALANCE
Eastern and Northern Inter-
eStS Await Decision
of |. C. C.
BY CHARLES F, SPEARE.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, December 3.-The high
spots in the plan of railroad conSolida-
ton to be presented by the Interstate
Commerce Commission to Congress in
the next two weeks are its attitude to-
ward mergers in the Eastern trunk
line territory and to the application for
unification of the so-called Northern
lines. There is little doubt that if the
plan recommends five systems in the
East it will cause a renewal of the bat
tie that has continued for several years
between the Pennsylvania Railroad on
| the one side, the Baltimore g. Ohio and
Nickel Plate on the other, with the
New York Central inclined to take a
somewhat neutral position, although
deeply concerned in the ultimate dis
posal OF the Reading, in which it has
Joint ownership with the Baltimore g.
| Ohio.
Objection will certainly be made to a
| permanent control through holding
| company auspices under Pennsylvania
direction of those lines that are listed
as the important members of the fifth
system. These are the Wabash, Lehigh
valley, Pittsburgh g. West Virginia, and
ino[ectly the wheeling 81 Lake Erie. 1t
mas been suggested that the commission
hight advocate this fifth system II its
| integral parts were absolutely divorced
| from pennsylvania Railroad influence
from Pennsylvania Railroad influence.
TO the Baltimore &c Ohio and Nickel
Plate IN order to round out these prop
| critics.
Northwest Situation.
IntlmationS have been made that the
consolidation plan in which 20 systems
VIII be created, will concede the right of
Inc Great Northern and the Northern
racine to merge, but only as they sep
a Se themselves from the Chicago, Bur-
ilngton q Quincy. in which they have
JOINT ownership. This also would cause
serious objections from both of the
Northern lines, which consider the Bur-
hngton as natural part of any system
with which they are identified. In this
proposal the attitude of Arthur Curtiss
James, one of the largest individual
stockholders in the Great Northern pa
CHIC may play an important part
! II Understood that Mr.. James owns
| aDout 5U,OOO shares each of the stock
OF the two Northern roads. ON the
otner hand, his holdings of Western Pa
enc common stock are said to be $50
0OO shares. He acquired an interest in
the former Gould line several years ago
and began at once to rehabilitate If.
putting al surplus funds into the physi-
cal upbilding of the property, and at
the same time suspending dividends on
| us preferred stock. Mr.. James is be-
neVed to be deeply interested in form
ing an alliance between the Western
Paci1c and the Chicago, Burlington 81
quincy, with the Denver Rio Grande
! western acting as a bridge between
these two roads. This would make the
Burlington the basis for a new trans
continental line in competition with the
existing coast-to-coast systems of the
| Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Chi
| cago, Milwaukee, st. Paul & Pacific.
Atchison and Southern Pacific.
| Seab0ard Air Line.
| Such an arrangement would increase
! the necessity that the Union Pacific
hitch up more completely with the Chi
cago d Northwestern, with which it
now has close traffic arrangements and
OF whose common stock it is an i'm
portant, though not majority, holder.
1t would also bring into closer relations
the Rock Island-Fri lines and the
Southern Pacific.
| One of the perplexing problems of the
| commission has been that of disposing
of the Seaboard Air Line, which has re-
Gently reflnanced itself and is now be-
| lieved to be under the complete control
of the Dillon-Reed banking interests.
| RumorS are to the effect that it will be
1 assigned to the Southern Railway. A
more logical arrangement, according to
railroad executives, is that it become a
part of the Illinois Central system and
| thereby avoid the direct competitive
phases that would develop from control
of two parallel lines by the same in
| terestS.