Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, March 1, 1903, Page 23

Street Railway Kings of America W. L. ELKINS. (Copyright, 198, by Thomas G. Visk.) ITHIN the last decade a new king has sprung up—the street rail- way king. He is always Ameri- can and almeost invariably he has been evolved from a poor boy. He is the practical man to whom American cities are looking for seluticns of their transportation problems, and he is the man who is spending millions upon millions in his cfforts to meet the demands of con- tinuvally increasing centers of population. Representative of his class are H. H. Vree- land of New York, Charles T. Yerkes of Chicago. Murray Verner and Judge J. Widener and William L. Eilkins of Phil- adelphia. But although the transportation problem is far from selved in this country the American strect railway king is already reaching out into foreign fields. Charles T. Yerkes is going to give London a mod- ern underground system; Murray Verner is laying electric railways in the capital of the czar, St. Vetersburg, and nearly every European city that can boast of up- to-date systems of transportation has to acknoweldge that American money and American bralns have figurgd largely in the consummation. Mr. Verner is typical of the American railway magnate abroad. Like the major- ity of his fellows, he started with nothing except an indomitable determination to amount to somebody seme day. It was this ambition that sent %im from his father's farm in Western Pennsylvania to Pitts- burg, where, after knocking around for several weeks looking for a job, he seized on an opportunity to become a horse car driver. His knowledge of horses, gained on the farm, stoed him in good stead, and it was soon noticed that his car was hardly ever behind its schedule and his. horses always in good condition. This led to young Verner's transfer to the car barns as stable boss. Her< he remained for sev- eral years, saving his employers thousands of dollars in horseflesh. As a reward for this piece of buslness he was graduated into a more responsible position, where, in the words of one of his old employers, ‘Murray did the work of two men in half the time they would have taken to do it."" Then, gradually, step by #tep, he advanced until finally he became superintendent of the line. He was still young when this happened, but he had ‘not been in his new position twelve months before the road was placed on a paying basis, something that former superintend- ents Lad strived in vain to do for years. Mr. Verner had made the read a good investment simply because he had learned the business from A to Z, and it was not long before thia fact was recogunized. Then, when the era of the trolley car came, men of capital interested themselves in Mr. Verner, and pretty soon were found to be backing him in his purchases and electrification of rundown street railwars throughout the central states. In every case Mr. Verner gave the lines persenal attention, with the resvit that they were trapsformed into profitable prop- erties with almost lightning-like rapidity. After he had amassed a fortune of $3,000,600 from this sort of work Mr. Ver- ner concluded that he would see what could be done toward giving European cities better transportation facilities. With this object in view he went abroad. After looking over Paris, Berlin and several other continental cities, he traveled to St. Petersburg to visit a friend, who took him home in one of the rattle-trap tram cars that have been fixtures of the czar's capital for generations. Mr. Verner was seo dis- gusted with that mode of getting around that he said, jokingly, to his companion: “I've half a notion to come to this town and give it electric railways." The friend took the remark seriously. “If you can get the proper concessions from the authorities,” he said, “you'll make a mint of money." That remark made Mr. Verner prick up his ears, and, whereas he had planned to remain in 8t. Petersburg scarcely a week, he stayed two months making investiga- tlons and talking to officlals. When he departed he carried back to Pittsburg an agreement between himself and the czar's representative for modern transportation P. A. B. WIDENER. lines in the Russian seat of government. The men who had backed Lim before were only too willing to back him again, and so, today, a former Yankee horse car driver is the sireet railway king f Russia. Another Pittsburg man who has recently beeome widely known as a street railway power is Judge J. H. Reed. Hls prom- icence and his fortune of $8,000,000 have come to him only within the last tew years, but both are the direct result of years of study of corporation law during spare mo- ments. When a young man Judge Reed went from a neighboring town to Pittshurg, where he read law in the office in which he earned his bread and butter by tran- seription, He stayed there until he was admitted to the bar and then he rented a dingy little room and hung out his shingle. As he had preclous few clients to repre- sent for the first few years of his legal ex- perience, he took the opportunity to verse bimself thoroughly in corporation law, of which he had been extremely fond as a student. Some years later, while he was prosecuting a case in court against a rail- rcad, that property’s officials became aware of the fact that he was more than a match for their attorneys, and some time after the case had been disposed of they made Mr. Reed their legal representative in Pittsburg. Along in the '90s the railroad got info a suit in which a miHion or two was at stake, and William K. Vanderbilt, who, by that time, owned a majority of the stock, summoned all of the road's attorneys to New York for a consultation as to the best methed of defending the case. A score of lawyers were present and nineteen gave lengthy and inveolved reasons why the suit should be defended this way or that, When the nineteenth man had finished, the twen- tieth, who had been sitting quictly in a corner.'of the room, arose. “Mr. Vanderbilt,”” h» said, ‘“‘the Pennsyl- varria supreme court will never take any of those views of the case.” “It won't, eh?” inquired Mr. Vanderbilt. “Why won't it?" Jn a few brief sentences the speaker told why his colleagues’ arguments would not ba comsidered good law, and then, as suc- cinctly, he outlined the position which he believed the court would take. Mr. Vanderbilt was oa his feet the in- stant the attorney finished. A “You're right,” he almost shouted; “we’ll make the case your way, and you're to nresent . it.” The supreme court took the view that Judge Reed said it would and, as an im- mediate result, Judge Reed was made pres- ident of the Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake Erie railroad A year or so ago when cighteen corpora- tions, representing the street railway and gas interests of Pittsburg were cansoli- dated, Judge Reed was chosen president of this $104,000,000 combine—and ail becauze he had made himself familiar with corpora- tion law while wziting for clients and after office hours. Two of the controlling faciors in the corporation of which Judge Reed is the head are P. A. B. Widener and William L. Elkins. These two men operate more miles of street railways in more American cities and towns than any other two men in the business. They have made an enormous checker board of Philadelphia with their properties; theirs are important volces in the management of New York's sur- face lnes; they have no competition in a score of towns in the interior of Penn- sylvania; the peopie of Chicago and Cin- cinnati travel by railways largely under their control, and many surburban and in- terborough trolley systems in Connecticut and the central states, especially Ohio, are operated by them. The story of their rise goes back to the '70s, when Mr. Widener was a butcher and Mr. Elkins an oil dealer in Philadelphia. Of the two Mr. Widener was heard of first in that city. Besides looking after his butcher shops, he dabbled in politics and one day he found himself a power in his ward. After that he chose to have him- seif elected to the city council, and while ferying in that capacity he made the ae- Quaintance of many of the Quaker City's prominent citizens. Among these was Rob- JUDGE J. H. REED. ert Mackey, president of the Continental line of horse cars, which ran by the oM city hali-—Independence hall—and therefore was much used by politiclans, judges and law- yers. Mackey, who was a power in municipal and state politics, saw in Widener what he said was the making of a fine politician, and he interested himself in the young man. During the course of the lessons that Mackey gave Widener in things polit- ical the latter also gleaned from his teacher some interesting data about the prontable- ness of the street railway business, Some years later Mr. Widener became treasurer of Philadelphia. At that time the office paid its holder, besides a liberal salary, about $20,€00 a year in fees. When Mr. Widener began receiving this money he cast about for a way to invest it, and then it was that he recalled Robert Mack- ey's statement that a good street car line was equal to a big vein gold mine for re- turns. Mr. Widener decided to buy street railway stock, but when he went into the market he found that the People’'s company controlled nearly all the paying lines, and that so gilt-edged was their paper that no one wanted to part with his holdings. The People's properties were in the cen- ter and built-up portions of the city. Sur- rounding them were other lines, all op- erated independently and all near bank:-upt for the same reason—secarcity of population along their routes. Thwa~ted in his at- tempt to get into People's, Mr. Widener began a careful investigation of these rail- ways, with the result (®i? he became con- vinced that several of them would be good investments in a few yoars when the city had grown more. As his treasurer's fees were ,‘‘velvet” to him, his business bring- fng him an income sufficient to live on, he decided to get control, if possible, of the mest promising of these outlying lines. This proved to be the old Union, whose terminals were in the open country to the north and south. In figuring up the situation Mr. Widener discovered that, if the amount of his sur- plus capital were doubled by some one else, the road could be gecured, Right here he thought of his friend, Willilam L. Elkins. At that time Mr, Elkins was a pros- perous oil dealer in that part of the town through which the Union line ran, and which he used to get to his business. On that route also, Mr. Widener had his most imzertant butcher shop, and it chanced that frequently the two men met in the cars. This led to a nodding acquaintance, after a while to a speaking acquaintance, and gradually into friendship, so that when Mr. Widener was thinking of going into street railways the intimacy had become marked and warm. It did not take Mr. Widener long to con- vince Mr. Elkins that the Union line would be a good investment in a few years. They pooled their capital and experienced no Aifficulty in securing a controlling inter- est, for the stockholders were only too willing to sell what they considered hope- less property. Two years later, owing to economies and the spread of population, dividends were declared. This more than hoped for success en- couraged Mr. Widener and Mr. Elkins to branch out, and they hought up a connect- ing line, two miles in length, whose equip- ment was exactly four cars and eight horses, and which penetrated still farther into the country to the south. And pretty soomn that paid, toe. ’ Then it was that the plan was con- ceived of getting hold of all the independ- ent lines surrounding the People's system, which gridironed the business section of the eity. The partners, keeping in the background, quietly sel to work and when- ever an opportunity offecred bought bloeks of stock, mno matter how large or how small, through agenis. This thing kept up for several years, until even the strong and important Continental line had been dargely absorbed, Widener and Elkins, in the mean- time not showing their hands and manipu- lating everything so unostentatiously that the public did not dream of what was going on. Nelther did the powerful corporation, the People’s, until one day its members awak- ened to the fact that some unknown parties bad got hold of their connecting lines MURRAY VERNER. seemingly over night and were cevertly threatening to parallel some of thelr bost dividend-paying properties. Here was a pretty now-de-do, and the People's fear- ing that the threat might be carrled out, proclaimed to the agents of their oppo- nents, who had hinted at sueh a move, that it was willing (o consider a proposition for the merging of the two interesta for their mutual benefit. Then Mr. Widener and Mr. Elkins came suddenly out into the open and met Lhe People's representatives, convinced the latter that they were mas- ters of the situation and made ‘them a proposition. The upshot of the whole mat- ter was that a few weeks later Philadelph- ians found that the all-powerful Peuple's had been taken over by two men whom they had never dreamed of being street railway powers, and one of whom—Mr. Elkins--they had never heard of. All of this happened some years before the advent of the trolley car, and ever since then Elkins and Widener have been the Quaker City transportation magnates. Such, in brief, {8 the history of the first of their many aotable street rallway dea!s. About Noted People ~ N HIS childhood days Senator Mor- ,‘ gan of Alabama played a great - deal with the children of Chero- kee braves. While making a epeech about Indians in the senate last week he told in simple but most affect- ing fashion how he and Arkeeche, one of his red-skinned playmates, went blackberrying. The Indian boy was bitten by a rattlesnake and died. None of the Indians thought the reptile hated Arkeeche, who was bitten, they declared, because the Great Spirit wanted him, pRitas” e, Senator Alger tells this story of W, H, Vanderbilt, who owned Maud 8. He had purchased a horse from Mr. Vanderbilt about the time the latier had sold the famous mare and asked the millionaire: “Why did you part with such a notable animal?" Mr. Vanderbilt replied: “When 1 drove her along the street the people used to say, ‘“There goes Maud 8. They never thought of saying, ‘There goes Vanderbiit.!' I could’'nt play second fidd’s to a mare—even such a mare."” it Bishop Tugwell of western equatorial Africa is often asked when in England, “What is the size of your diocese ?™ “I generally answer,” he saye, by say- ing, ‘You could put England ari Wales, Ireland and Scotland, Holland and Bel- glum, France and Germany Into my diocese and still have room to spare.’ ' The area is estimated at 700,000 square miles and it includes the Gold Coast colony, Ashanti, Lagos, Southern Nigeria, the eity of Benin, Northern Nigeria and Hausa and Bornu states, el i Representative Champ Clark has a new sobriquet for Gencral Grosvenor, which he has applied in debate before the house, “Out in Ohio,” says Mr. Clark, “i1d even ‘hn-yond the confines of that state my friend bears the sobriquet of ‘Old Figgers." The other day I happened to be standing down in the hall by the postofice. An old em- ploye of the house was talking to a ‘tender- foot." The general swept by in his majesty, tenderly fondling his prophet’'s beard, and the old employe said to the newcomer: “There goes the stud bug of arithmetic.' "’ RS> S Harry Wadsworth, assistant clerk of tho senate committee on claims, is a great ex- pert on Indian sign langusge. He is cred- fted with being able to converse with all kinds of red men. Recently he was ap- pointed Indian agent for the Shoshone res- ervation in Wyoming. Seeing a band of Nez Perces Indians the other day on a street car, on which he was also a pas- senger, Wadsworth commenced to attract their attention by his signs. "They eyed bhim suspiciously, but ome, more friendly than the others, eventually crossed over to the new Indian agent's seat. “I am sorry,” said he very apologetically for a red man, “but I never learned the sign language. I can only speak English.'"