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Show GOULD'S SURRENDER TO HARRIMAN Salt Lakers are awakening very slowly, If at all, to the fact that one of the greatest and most important changes in the recent history of western west-ern railroads is at hand in the affairs of the Den- ' jver tc Rio Grande and Western Pacific roads, ' the inter-mountain and western Gould lines. Little else might be expected, however, as the dailies have carried so many leports and counter reports the past few "days that one has been able to glean very l'ttle of the real situation situa-tion from them. Rumor has it and has it so strong that official denials from this or that quarter are counting for very little with those in a position to be at all conversant with the truth, that Hairriman has through a loan of eight millions of dollars to the Gould interests and one or two other flnan-c'al flnan-c'al moves, secured a big, if not a controlling interest in the Denver & Rio Grande and Western . PacI0c roads. The fact that Gould was forced to appeal to Harriman for the loan of eight million mil-lion dollars to pull he Denver & Rio Grande up unto a higher maintenance level is unquestioned unques-tioned and with this loan and the other holds Harriman is believed to have secured on the Goulds' two western lines there is every indication indica-tion that he has decided upon an entire reorganl- I ' tion of the executive and managing forces of the j Denver & Rio Grande. Until a few weks ago A. C. Ridgway was gen- i eral manager of the latter line. Mr. Ridgway 'is one of the most competent railroad managers and construction men west of the Mississippi river. ' His work has at all times been under the direc- l tion of Edward T. Jeffrey as president of the load, and Charles H. Schiacks, as vice president. j With the many disastrous accidents, land slides and other unfortunate occurrences of the past year or two it lias been generally known that the , maintenance department of the D. & R. G. has had its hands full, the situation finally reaching ,a pdint wheie thq company was forced more and more to retrench on its maintenance expenditures. It is said that Mr. Ridgway as general man- ' ager made every possible effort to secure money 'with Which to raise the standard of the line's efficiency. That he was not given the money to work with was" probably no fault of either President Presi-dent Jeffery or Vice President Schiacks. N6r was it the fault of the Gould regime at the eastern east-ern end, unless it was what has been claimed time and again in the past five years the mismanagement mis-management of their entire" railroad interests, east and west. Theie is probably but one reason rea-son why Ridgway wasn't given enough money to maintain and operate, the Denver and Rio Grande as it should have been and that is the Goulds didn't have the money necessary to swing into their western Denver-Salt Lake line and they couldn't get it. The terrific drain of the Western Pacific on their resources, the reverses they have suffered in the east, culminating but a few months ago in the loss from their control of the Wabash road, made it impossible for them to meet the demands of the Denver and. Rio Grande management man-agement for improvement funds. With the Harriman loan pretty monly known the ruction commenced in th .nks of the management at Denver. And here lies the story of the resignation of -General Manager Ridgway, the constantly recurring recur-ring reports of the prospective resignation of President Jeffery and Vice President Schiacks 'and of the assumption by Harriman railroad men of the management of the Denver and Rio 'Grande. With the certain knowledge that 'Harriman, if not handling the wheel entirely, certainly had a good grip on half a dozen spokes, President Jeffery Jef-fery and Vice President Schiacks faced this sit- uation: their road from an operating and malnte H nance standpoint was run down and of a certain- M ty this would receive Harriman's first and most M forceful attention. M That his first question would be "Who is re- M sponsible?" doubtless seemed just as certain. M And Piesident Jeffery asked General Manager M Ridgway for his resignation. M Whereupon and since it has been pretty vehe- M mently declared in many quarters that Mr. Ridg- M way has been made the scapegoat of the Denver H & Rio Grande official family. Railroad men de- M clare that President Jeffery and Vice Piesident M Schiacks thought to save their own positions by H forestalling any summary act'on in that direction H by taking the Initiative and letting Mr. Ridgway H Thnt part of the program unquestionably went 11 through without a hitch, as Mr. Ridgway is out. rl Now, however, come the rumors that Presi- H dent Je fiery has been asked to resign and that l President Delano of the Wabash line will succeed him, while W. L. Park, general superintendent of lH the Union Pacific road, will become general man- imB ager of the Denver and Rio Grande. ? If that is true, and in fact in any case, it is jH pretty fairly certain that the Denver & Rio jH Grande is to be reconstructed, improved, and Its H maintenance standard brought up to its proper jH level as a great transcontinental line. Harriman jH is fiist a financier and then a constructionist. Un- H der his executive direction W. L. Park has been H one of the big men in reconstructing and im- H proving the Union Pacific, until it is acknowledged H one of the finest and safest roads of the country. H It is but natural to believe that if Harriman H has secured enough power to in any degree dom- H inate the management of the D. & R. G., that the H men who know and have put into operation his H construction and mintenance ideas will be put H in charge of the road. H |
