This ends that part of the history of the Atchison Company which can be connected with either of its reorganizations. From 1895 to the present time the Atchison has enjoyed a rapidly increasing prosperity, due in part to the lightening of the charges upon it, in part to able management, and in part to the great increase in volume of business which has been a characteristic of the time. One or two things may be noted. A final settlement has been made of the relations between the Southern Pacific and the Atchison in the Southwest. It will be remembered that the final result of the negotiations in 1882 had been the purchase of the former Mojave division from the Needles to Mojave, but that since title could not be acquired until the maturity of the outstanding mortgages, Atchison had leased this track at an annual rental of 6 per cent on the purchase price. In 1897 this rental was cancelled. The Southern Pacific could not even then give a clear title, but exchanged a long time lease of the Mojave division against a similar lease of the Sonora Railway, the Atchison branch which reached from Deming to Guaymas. The rentals cancelled each other, and the actual transfer is eventually to take place.[453] The arrangement is mutually advantageous. On the one hand the Mojave division formed a spur of the Southern Pacific, and on the other the Sonora Railway was totally disconnected from the Atchison, so that the latter company was obliged to use the Southern Pacific’s tracks to reach the property at all. In 1898 Chairman Walker of the Executive Committee was able to announce the substantial completion of negotiations for the purchase of the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railroad, running from Bakersfield to Stockton, California; the former town being sixty-eight miles from Mojave and the latter something less than that from San Francisco.[454] Atchison at once began building at the Stockton end, and reached San Francisco the following year. The Santa Fe Terminal Company was then incorporated with a capital stock of $1,000,000, Atchison secured a traffic contract with the Southern Pacific, and through freight trains were run from Chicago to San Francisco on May 1, 1900, through passenger trains following two months later. Besides this there have been important extensions in Arizona and New Mexico. In 1901 the Atchison purchased two-thirds of the bonds, and practically all of the capital stock of the Pecos Valley & Northeastern Railway Company, stretching 370 miles from Texico through the southeastern corner of New Mexico to Pecos City, Texas. In July of the same year it bought the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phœnix Railroad, from Ash Fork, Arizona, to Phœnix, Arizona, some 195 miles. Construction has been practically completed between Belen, New Mexico, a few miles south of Albuquerque, and Amarillo, Texas, to afford an alternative and somewhat shorter route from California to Eastern Kansas. A still more noteworthy project is under consideration for a road to join the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe at Brownwood with the Belen line at Texico, and to open direct connection over the Atchison from California to the Gulf.
Briefly stated, the Atchison’s mileage has increased from 6479 miles in 1897, to 9273 in 1907. Its gross earnings have grown from $30,621,230 to $93,683,407; its net earnings from $7,754,041 to $32,153,692; and its surplus above all charges from $1,452,446 to $21,168,724. This marvellous showing has been accompanied by heavy expenditures for improvements, so that the physical condition of the system is much better than before. Operating expenses, fixed charges, and taxes took less than 77 per cent of gross income in 1907, and a decline of over $21,000,000 can be suffered in net before interest on even the adjustment bonds becomes imperilled. It is not to be wondered at that Mr. Harriman saw fit to invest $10,395,000 of Union Pacific money in Atchison preferred stock in 1906,[455] nor that dividends of 5 per cent on preferred, and 5 per cent on common stock are being paid. The Atchison owns 1791 locomotives instead of 953 as in 1897; 1135 passenger cars instead of 622; 49,770 freight cars instead of 26,776. There has been a large increase in the capacity and power of rolling stock. The average freight train load has increased from 131 to 320 tons. Freight train mileage has grown but 35 per cent, while ton mileage has more than tripled. Thus, although the average length of haul has increased and the average receipts per ton mile have diminished, the earnings per freight train mile are actually more than double in 1907 what they were in 1897. And, finally, the Atchison is not dependent for its revenue upon any single kind of business. Coal, ore, and other mineral products yielded but 30.87 per cent of its tonnage in 1907; products of agriculture 25.34 per cent; manufactures 17.37 per cent; and products of the forest 12.12 per cent.
The capital account, meanwhile, has been kept from undue expansion. The funded debt has increased from $174,196,750 in 1897 to $284,171,550 in 1907, but the capital stock has decreased somewhat, and the greater part of the new bond issues have been convertible serial debenture bonds, which occasion no permanent increase in charges. It is within the last two years only that Atchison stockholders have authorized the issue of new capital on a scale commensurate with the growth of their property. In 1906 $26,060,000 in 4 per cent convertible bonds were offered to them at par, and this last year they have authorized the issue of $98,000,000 of common stock for improvements, extensions, and the like. This provides ample facilities for the future without endangering the solvency of the road.
CHAPTER VII
UNION PACIFIC
Acts of 1862 and 1864—High cost of construction—Forced combination with the Kansas Pacific and the Denver Pacific—Unprofitable branches—Adams’s administration—Financial difficulties—Debt to the Government—Receivership and reorganization—Later history.
The construction of the Union Pacific was made possible by direct grants of lands and government bonds by Congress. The motive for the project was military and political as well as economic; on the one hand California was to be cemented to the Union, and aggression on the part of England was to be forestalled; on the other a great and fertile territory was to be opened and an additional market provided for the products of the East.
In 1862 the first act “to aid in the construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the Use of the same for Postal, Military, and Other Purposes” was passed.[456]. It created a corporation to be known as the Union Pacific Railroad Company, with a capital of 100,000 shares of $1000 each, and authorized it to construct a railroad from the one hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich at a point within the territory of Nebraska westward to the western boundary of the territory of Nevada. It granted the right of way, and in addition five additional sections per mile on each side of the track, plus a varying amount of United States bonds per mile, the use and delivery of which was to constitute a first mortgage on the property of the company. All compensation for services rendered to the Government was to be applied to the payment of these bonds and interest thereon; and after the road was completed, until the bonds and interest should have been paid, at least 5 per cent of the net earnings of the road was to be annually applied to the payment thereof. The directors were to be not less than fifteen in number, of whom two were to be appointed by the President of the United States. It was hoped that the offer would be sufficient to attract private capital to the undertaking, and when it failed in this, the inducements were increased. The Act of 1864 amended that of 1862. It reduced the par value of the shares of stock from $1000 to $100, and increased their number from 100,000 to 1,000,000. It increased the land grant from five to ten alternate sections per mile, and subordinated the government lien to the rank of a second mortgage. Only one-half the compensation for services rendered for the Government was required to be applied to the payment of the bonds issued by the Government. The directors were to be twenty in number, of whom five were to be appointed by the Federal President.[457]
It was under these main provisions that the Union Pacific Railroad was constructed. In their final shape they were intended to provide for the greater part of the cost of construction, while allowing the company to supply deficiencies by the issue of its own first mortgage bonds. Capitalization under these conditions would not have been excessive; the Government’s investment would have redounded unmistakably to its own benefit, as well as to that of the country, and the corporation would have looked forward to a long and prosperous career. Three things interfered to swell the cost of the construction of the road, and with that its capitalization: First, construction was carried on during a time of high prices, swollen not only by depreciation of the currency, but by artificial conditions occasioned by the war; second, the normal level of the prices paid was raised by the speed with which the road was completed; third, construction was entrusted to a construction company, the famous Crédit Mobilier.