BIG RAILWAY COMBINE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 23 May 1925, Page 16

BIG RAILWAY COMBINE

LATEST MOVE IN AMERICA.

A great railway consolidation representing a capital of £300.000.000 aud involvipg 15,000 miles of tracks was brought a step nearer consummation recently, when the stockholders of the Erie yailroarj voted to join the proposed "Nickel Plate" system, which seeks to establish a new trunk line between tho eastern coast and Chicago, states a New York correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." The five railway systems to be joined are the Erie, Chesapeake, and Ohio. Hocking Valley. Pere Marquette. and New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railway Company, known as the "Nickel Plate." The latter railway, with 1700 miles oE track, operating" in six. States, is the one which b absorbing Ihn other four. Ten years s»o it was a broken-down concern which two bro- | thevs, 0. P. and I\l. .T. van Swcringen. acquired chiefly "mi their nervo" and restored to a flourishing condition. The genius of these two men carried them to a point where they were able to contemplate the organisation of one of the largest railway system in this country of great railways, and their romantic careers are filled with examples of busi, ness_ ventures brought to successful conclusions by seeming wizardry. One obstacle lies in tho path to the realisa- - tion of their great dream. A minority of the stockholders of the Chesapeake and Ohio feel that they are giving more than they are receiving by the proposed consolidation. They have" requested tho Court for an injunction to restrain tho (stockholders from meeting for the purpose of ]casmc the properly for .929 years to the '-Nickel Plate." Eight of the twelve dirert.pis of the Chesapeake .■md Ohjp -Me directors of tho "Xickel Plate." and tho minority of the. "stacki holders cjnclavt! thai, 'these men arc handing. Hi railway lo (.iicmsclvesi on a silver platter. . If ih P Cniirt issues an injuticl inn «n appp»l will !,„ m! ,rj ß by 'tlis lasjoritj' to. .tic highest- .Couit. ' j