The Corporate War for the Rails

Mr. W. J. Footner, General Superintendent of the Northern Pacific Express Company, is at the Palace Hotel. The object of his visit to San Francisco is to reach an understanding with Wells Fargo, to operate more in harmony in Oregon and Washington Territory business. When the Northern Pacific line was completed, some of the officials of the railway, in connection with one or two of the stockholders, organized the Express Company. As soon as the new company got operating, it was announced to the public, and the first year the men who formed the company cleared over their salaries. They had a fair equipment, and the country through which the lines operated was rapidly developing. The future looked very bright, and those composing the company all expected to retire in a few years independently wealthy. They feared largely as to the future, and anyone can realize how troubled they were when Wells-Fargo intimated that it would like to operate over the Northern Pacific Railway itself and store in the big cities. It was thought that the Northern Pacific would show a solid front and keep out the intruder, and it did until Judge Deady, of the United States District Court of the District of Oregon, decided that Wells-Fargo could do business on the line. When the opposition company was nearly prostrated, the case was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, and Wells-Fargo were required to put up $20,000. When Judge Deady decided thus, General Manager Oakes issued a circular in the name of the Northern Pacific, instructing that all freight going east of St. Paul on the United States Express Company be to the exclusion of others. President Harris, of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, had nothing to do with the express company, but he was blamed for the circular.