108 TRANSPORTATION 



Court in the Northern Securities case in 1902 can scarcely be over- 

 estimated in importance as affecting the nature of corporate de- 

 velopment in this field. A most salutary check is thereby placed 

 upon a malign tendency in the so-called field of high finance, al- 

 though in this particular case the evils in sight were probably more 

 than counterbalanced by the advantages to be gained. The disso- 

 lution of several voting trusts, notably the Erie and Reading, On- 

 tario and Western, and Pere Marquette, have thrown these important 

 companies also more into the control of their owners. The Southern 

 Railway is, in fact, the only important voting trust giving control 

 to wholly banking interests, which remains from the period of reor- 

 ganization of 1893. The dissolution of these trusts may be, perhaps, 

 taken as symptomatic of a general loosening of the hold of Wall 

 Street upon railroads of the country. A large amount of so-called 

 undigested securities, products of the reorganizations of 1893 and 

 consolidations of 1900, were forced from banking control by the 

 great liquidation of 1903. Huge operations conducted upon bor- 

 rowed money were brought to an end by that wholesome event, so 

 that it may be presumed that a number of railroads once definitely 

 placed in groups named after prominent financiers are now to a far 

 greater degree in the hands of their owners. Whether this increasing 

 independence will render the properties more likely to be seized upon 

 by growing consolidations remains to be seen. 



Viewing the nature of the more recent consolidations and the dis- 

 integrating tendencies above mentioned, it appears less likely that 

 a parceling out of our territory into monopolistic groups will be the 

 ultimate outcome. Scarcely any of the great systems in reality can 

 lay claim to an absolute monopoly of any considerable territory with 

 the exception of New England, and if some substitute for the North- 

 ern Securities Company be found, the Northern transcontinental 

 lines. Certain evidences appear that the process of merger cannot 

 hope to obtain this result. All that a great system can hope for is 

 that it shall connect the great strategic points of our vast territory. 

 They all seek entrances into Chicago, whether their systems lie west, 

 south, or southwest. Most of them aim at an outlet on the seacoast 

 east or south. With this result they must be content. Moreover, 

 the community-of-interest idea is working less smoothly than at the 

 high tide of our industrial prosperity. Several events, such as the 

 warfare between the Gould and Pennsylvania interests for entrance 

 into Pittsburg, and the still more recent struggle between the Gould 

 and Harriman forces concerning the Colorado iron and steel products, 

 cannot fail to be somewhat disquieting. And the supreme test of all, 

 hard times, has not yet arisen. The old prediction may come 

 true that present consolidations will merely transform railroad 

 competition from a multitude of petty conflicts between small com- 



