BEGINNINGS OF THE NORTHWEST 



ning a great deal of legislative favor, and, 

 being exposed to legislative raids, they organ- 

 ized for political control that they might save 

 their lives. Observers of man and his com- 

 plex ways will not ponder much over this 

 theory, knowing something of the magical 

 fascination that lies in great power. The 

 men that swayed the Western railroad com- 

 panies a few years ago were clothed with 

 a power literally greater than that of any 

 modern monarch, and that fact is enough to 

 explain all. 



The great power of the railroads in the 

 Northwest came before long to be closely 

 interwoven with the power of the Chamber 

 of Commerce and the power of the banks. 

 There was first the natural community of 

 interest growing out of the fact that the 

 millers had every day so many hundreds of 

 cars to be hauled; or, in other words, con- 

 trolled such great quantities of fat business. 

 But more than this, the dominating influences 

 in the mills, the Chamber of Commerce, the 

 banks, and the railroads became after some 

 years practically the same. The railroads 

 came to be owned or directed by two or 

 three groups of New York financiers whose 

 banks were not only in direct touch with the 

 banks of Minneapolis, but exercised over them 

 an always increasing influence as the owner- 

 ship of all these institutions, whether rail- 



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