Business: Railroads

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From the fortnight's clatter of suppositions—as to the reason for Wheeling & Lake Erie stocks hopping from $27.50 a share on Jan. 3 to $130 a share last week when the practical market corner in this stock was at its tightest, and the reason for other railroad stocks popping like heated popcorn kernels —these facts became certain last week:

Wheeling & Lake Erie's. controlling shares owned by John D. Rockfeller Sr. were sold to the New York Central (Patrick E. Crowley, President), the Baltimore & Ohio (Daniel Willard, President) and the Nickel Plate R. R.* (Van Sweringen brothers, owners).

Western Maryland's controlling shares owned by John D. Rockefeller Sr. were sold to the B. & O. A 25-year-old ordinance of the City of Baltimore, which once owned the Western Maryland, provides that this road be sold to no railroad that has main terminals in Baltimore or Philadelphia. The intent has been to provide several railroad channels for traffic to the Port of Baltimore. This may handicap the present sale.

Chesapeake & Ohio (controlled by the Van Sweringens and their Nickel Plate R. R.) voted $59,502,400 to buy control of the Pere Marquette (now controlled by Van Sweringens) and the Erie (now controlled by Van Sweringens with the aid of George F. Baker Sr.).

Nickel R. R. (controlled by the Van Sweringens) was quiescent.

Implications. The implications of these facts are:

1) The Van Sweringens, foiled by the Interstate Commerce Commission at previous attempts to create the Nickel Plate System out of the Nickel Plate R. R., the C. & O., the Hocking Valley (owned by the C. & O., and so by the Van Sweringens), the Erie and the Pere Marquette, are trying a new alignment of their controlled roads. Apparent emphasis now is on the C. & O. But the Nickel Plate R. R. controls the C. & O.

2) Leonor Fresnel Loree, ablest railroad analyst in the U. S., is apparently blocked from creating a great fifth trunk system in the East, in rivalry to the New York Central, Pennsylvania, B. & O. and proposed Nickel Plate System. He controls the Wabash (Mississippi River and Great Lakes Ports to Buffalo; it reaches the Port of New York over the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western), the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh (connecting those cities), the Delaware & Hudson (upstate New York to the St. Lawrence). The B. & O. and the New York Central own control of the Philadelphia & Reading. In this particular road Mr. Loree has potent rights. This is important, for the Philadelphia & Reading controls the Central R. R. of New Jersey, the railroad that owns the finest port facilities in New York Harbor. The Western Maryland sale keeps Mr. Loree away from the South. The Wheeling & Lake Erie sale is not so important to him.

3) New York Central gets its own trackage into Baltimore.

4) The Van Sweringens add another knot to their projects.

5) The B. & O., which would have been the shortest of the Eastern trunk systems (about 6,000 miles) can approximate the mileage of the others.