STUYVESANT FISH.
In the meantime Mr. Fish announced his intention of carrying the matter into the courts. The constitution of the state of Illinois provides that “no railroad corporation shall consolidate its stock, property or franchises with any other railroad corporation owning a parallel or competing line. A majority of the directors of any railroad corporation now incorporated, or hereafter to be incorporated by the laws of this state, shall be citizens and residents of this state.” Of the directors of the Illinois Central only three, at the time of the recent election, were residents of the state of Illinois. They were Gov. Deneen, who is an ex-officio director by reason of his office as governor, James T. Harahan, the new president, and John C. Welling, who has since died. It is not denied that for thirteen years a majority of the directors have not been “citizens and residents of Illinois,” and the scope of the immediate issue is enlarged by the fact that if the courts hold the present board to be illegal, so also will be the work of every board for the past thirteen years, including issues of stocks, bonds, etc.
Harriman’s control of so vast a system of railroads is naturally regarded as a menace. The Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific, of which he is absolute master, aggregate 15,000 miles, with an outstanding capitalization of $1,031,000,000. The Chicago & Alton and the Illinois Central, which he practically controls, have a mileage of 6,668, with a capitalization of over $380,728,223. He is largely in control of the Baltimore & Ohio, the Reading and the Central of New Jersey railroads, with a mileage of 7,255 and a capitalization of practically $770,000,000. He is a stockholder and director in Erie, which has a mileage of 2,553 and a capitalization of $382,900,000. Thus he is a moving spirit and to a large extent the dominant figure in 31,000 miles of railroad, with a capitalization of more than two billions and a half of dollars. It is not surprising that an investigation on the part of the Interstate Commerce Commission is now announced.
THOMAS F. RYAN.
Ryan’s Vast Interests.
One of the recent surprises in Wall street was the resignation of Thomas F. Ryan as a director from more than twenty railroads and industrial corporations, including the leading trusts of the country. Coincident with his retirement came the announcement that he was one of a number of American capitalists who had secured from King Leopold of Belgium certain rights in 8,400,000 acres of land in the Congo Free State, for the purpose of developing the rubber and mineral resources, building railroads and otherwise exploiting that vast territory.
An effort is being made in Congress to have this government join in an investigation of conditions in the Congo and several of Leopold’s lobbyists are in hot water.
The Lesson of Spencer’s Death.
No event in recent years has created a more profound sensation than the tragic death of President Samuel Spencer, of the Southern railroad, who was killed in a rear-end collision on his own road on the morning of Thanksgiving day. Mr. Spencer was a native Georgian, and worked his way through all the grades of his calling to the presidency he held at the time of his death. Many personal tributes have been paid to Mr. Spencer, but the fact that he was a victim to the inefficiency of his own railroad system has been commented upon with decided emphasis. Readers of The Jeffersonian Magazine will recall the heated controversy last summer between Mr. Watson and the editor of The Macon Telegraph. The latter criticised Mr. Watson for making the point that Mr. Spencer, as a railroad manager, squeezed too much money out of the South into the pockets of Wall street millionaires, allowing his road to become dangerous, allowing employes to be overworked, allowing bridges to become decayed, refusing to double-track where double tracking was needed and refusing to employ a sufficient number of men to do the amount of work necessary in the proper operation of the property. The text from which Mr. Watson preached was the official commendation of Mr. Spencer by the voting trustees of the Southern Railway Holding Company. They praised him because he had, during the last thirteen years, doubled their property, trebled the gross earnings, and increased the net earnings, over and above all operating expenses, more than 525 per cent. He took this report and proved that instead of being something for Mr. Spencer to be proud of, it was something to make him ashamed, since it proved conclusively that the road was being run simply from the standpoint of those who wanted dividends and who did not care how unsatisfactory was the service, nor how many lives were lost because of the failure to adopt safety appliances, double tracks, and by failure to abolish the deadly grade crossings. Mr. Watson feels that the fate which has overtaken Mr. Spencer is the most appalling proof that could be furnished that he was right in his contentions.