New Britain Herald Newspaper, October 28, 1925, Page 17

LDug In Yowr Qun Backyued Say AMERICAS YOUNGEST RAIL MAGNATE ORIS P. VAN SWERINGEN NCANNING distant horizons for greener ficlds, 5 or looking for what the old Irishman once termed the “far-off cow with the huge hizh horns,” holds no place in the busy lives of the brothers three—O. P. and M. J. and H. C. Van eringen. " This fraternal trio, not yet a decade from the farm to mounting stardom in American railroad circleg, controls a half biliion dollars’ worth of property. The amount named represents the total capi talization of elght railroads with 5000 miles of It probably soon will be augmented b ssand more miles of trackage if the report proves true that the brothers have just taken over the ie and Pere Marquette lines, thus put- ting them In command of 10 roac These square-shouldered youths of the level ve, silent tongue and nimble brains, got what they have simply because early in life they prac ticed well and observed the virtue of digging for success {n their own back yards. Pursuit of rainbows In distant climes th o other Like Napoleon, who Eaid \bhe da clrcum stances, the Van Sweringen boys of Ohio owe nothing to luck. The story of their business romance reads lik apter out of some revised and twenticth ntury edition of the Arablan Nights, NEITHER RICH NOR POOR lacks the usual note of romantic jloverty, such as Is customarlly added to the early Jistories of our present-day financlal leaders. Nelther silver nor poons of pewter rested in he mouths of the Van Sweringens when day ght first streaked In upon them at successive ntervals down In the old farmhouse. H. C. came first. ile's the eldest and approach ing No one ever I of H. C. fn the Van Swer- ngen news. That's because interests 1 estate rami- confined to the less spectacular re itions of the brotherly combine. It's O. P. and M. J. that have startled the coun try with their railroad transactions, They are bachelors, while H. C. is a family man with several ch O.P. s 43, M. J. is 42 It 1s sald they are Leastwise they've nmever mar derstand why folk should be interested in knc Ing why they haven 0. . thinks faster than ¢ is a bit more cautious But eithef brother respects JOINT ACCOUNT a common chee with two left to am The o1 Sweringen )bs on e & $30,000,000 the city's ex These ure to tI But ning, owin perhaps, it which brings Sweringens started in To and no GREEN intents and pury from look dreamed* that they were Harrimans of the c« merger into shape, t been Probably before, was never the railroad 1 thelr foot d their first job cle real estate office, L and won financia king. On M. J. Sundays 0. be of t v went into busin and his Ins rs of natu mping t m beyond t The Van Swer w THOULGHT CRAZY BANKERS AID TURN to deve altotm ht I'0 RAILROADS since has sl W MANTIS J. VAN SWERINGEN the pur ald e sold at demand and dy owned any of them and other to the con insisted on ugh their and clded them m BLY MORE ROADS tor e Vander a nat nd log wn experiences Railroad romance and adven- story of the rafl- n in the of the layers of the 1 to conquer the wastes and still is, tory of the Van Sweringens n who gambled 1ght and dled, in s checker: a0 States, with oads as pawns, Romantic were the careers of 11d, Marriman, Vanderbilt, Stan- ford und Hill. Romantic figures to day are the Van Sweringens. At the beginning of the rail's ad. the first frontier halted at the Blue Ridge Mountains, This bul- wark finally gave way to the turn- d the canal and the barrier quently removed into the These heights became a barrier ding In lsolation the ploneers tn the eastern part of the Mississippl \ and mada of them almost a prople apart from the Inhabitants on the Atlantic seaboard. It was not untll the railroad ad- vanced its belt of steel that this sec- tional difference was removed. ROADS l'l'Sl! ON The Mississippi River becams the next frontier. But the railroads were not to be daunted by the Father of Waters afd successfully bridged the stream. Next to fall against the railroad ice were the jumping-off places through western Minnesota and the These territories in ths _early cizhties were considered impervious to railroud operation, Custer's campaign against the In Jians convinced the country that an extension of the Northern Pacific be yond the Mississippl, at St. Paul, could be kept open for more than tive months a year, which hereto: fore had been considered impossible. The south had much less than a third of the country’s railways dur- ing the Civil War, At the outbreak of the Civil War the country had less than 31,000 miles of line, of which only about <U00 were west of the Mississippl, Not until Feb. 23, 1863, was the first sod turned in projection of the first transcontinental line. This was on the Pacific end at Sacramento. Work did not start until Dee. 3 of the same year in the Mississippl Valley Some six years later, after many vigls and delays, which saw 3225 of rail stretched out to bind continent, an agreement was d whereby the two companies, ng on either end of the road, agreed to join forces. OPEN RESOURCES golden spike which linked b west was driven at Prom 1 May 10, 1869, §0 to the railroads ¥ =ped the succession of fron rs which led to the nation's rise eatness and power, roads in Europe are built as deman In the United ousunds of r of rail down through what has Iy virgin country rkable that the far-flung our country are bound rall Into one community. ands of steel are more than les for the locomotives. They links of common inter: T people of no other ) an area equal to our > closely joined together s we are. with about one-sixth of the I's land and a proportionate tlation, America has nearly one 1 of the world's railway mileage. ation is one-fourth that rope, vet it has enough miles to duplicate the systems of Europe and Asla together, American enterprise and vision s responsible for o great a record.