The Colorado Central lease was canceled on account of a State law against consolidating competing lines. Mr. Gould did not know that the Dodge and Humphreys letter was to be presented to the meeting of January 24. He was probably informed of the consolidation on the day it took place. He was also probably present at the first meeting of the new company on January 24. Mr. Gould’s resignation from the Kansas Pacific Board was gone over, and in summarizing his reasons for resigning Mr. Gould said he did not want to be mixed up with trusteeships and directorships. When he was not a Union Pacific director he felt at liberty to take care of himself. There was a chance that the properties might be made hostile to him, and then it would have been improper for him to be a director. He did not know that Russell Sage was to move the acceptance of his resignation.
“At the Kansas Pacific meeting a list of the branch lines obtained from you was read. President Dillon said the company had bought them. What did he mean?”
“Possibly he referred to the directors’ agreement with me.”
“But we can find no record of this in the books. Don’t you think he referred to the agreement with the Boston gentlemen?”
“Very likely, but it had no authority until it was accepted or rejected.”
Mr. Gould was set to explaining some discrepancies between the accounts of his dealings in branch securities, handed in on Tuesday, and the list submitted by Controller Mink. Mr. Mink gave 15,162 shares of St. Jo. and Western stock, and Mr. Gould 8,119. The difference was explained by Mr. Gould’s getting some stock for building the Hastings and Grand Island. He retained control of the $150,000 St. Jo. Bridge bonds he sold Dillon and Sage and turned them over with his own. His $479,000 Kansas Central bonds and 2,521 shares of the stock cost him $431,820.25 at the time he bought the Missouri Pacific. They all went into the consolidation for $479,000. Mr. Gould bought the Central Branch of the Union Pacific from Oliver Ames and President Pomeroy, who came to New York and induced him to go and look at the property.
“I thought it was doing a big business,” said he. “Afterward I learned they had kept the freight back for a week to impress me. So I saw a freight train at every station when I got there. I bought the road anyway.” Its total cost to Mr. Gould was $1,826,500. Over the Central Branch, whose stock was disposed of by Mr. Gould for 239, there was a little stir in the hearing, but the witness tranquilly explained that the road was practically stocked at only $2,500 a mile, and therefore the stock ought to range way above par.
“Has the road earned dividends?” he was asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“Have the aggregate earnings exceeded the fixed and Government charges?”