The Railroad Week

Rail news of the week:

P: A new group took control of Chicago Great Western.* Leaders are Patrick H. Joyce, onetime President of Standard Steel Car Co., and John W. O'Leary, President of National Bank of the Republic. At the annual stockholders' meeting the group elected Mr. Joyce chairman of the executive committee and Bernard E. Sunny, of General Electric, board chairman. New by-laws were passed giving President V. V. Boatner entire control of operation and Mr. Joyce and the Executive Committee control of finance. As railmaster of the Great Western Mr. Joyce succeeds the late Samuel M. Felton, who dominated the road as president and chairman during the last two decades. Director General of Railways during Wartime, Samuel Felton had a career of 62 years of railroad operation behind him when he died last month. Successor Joyce, mild-mannered, is a self-made man from a hard school: Chicago's "back-of-the-yards" district. His hobby is breeding horses, and he has entered his Dick O'Hara in both the Kentucky and the American Derbies this year. In announcing that his group had gained control, Mr. Joyce spiked, or attempted to spike, all merger rumors by stating that he was interested in the Great Western purely as an investment. But there are persistent whispers of "Van Sweringens" in the air.

P: The statistician of the Long Island Railroad, Penn-owned commuters' road into New York City, revealed a curious statistic: the Long Island, 404 miles long, last year actually carried more passengers than did its 10,511-mile parent. The score was 118,888,128 for the Long Island to 113,713.797 for the Pennsylvania. The average revenue per passenger on the Long Island, however, was only $.23 as against $1.18 on the Pennsylvania.

P: The Brothers Van Sweringen continued their mysterious way. On the one hand, they acted like good little boys and withdrew their C. & 0. merger in order to revise it to suit their Uncle I. C. C. On the other hand, they deeply pained their good Uncle by their persistent buying into independent railroads. Not only do they control 47.8% of the voting stock of Missouri Pacific, but it is now revealed that their Allegheny Corp. owns 20.8% of the voting shares of Kansas City Southern, often called ''the straightest railroad in the U.S." Just how much fire there is behind the smoke of recent Van Sweringen activities is question-of-the-moment among railroaders.

P: The Northern merger rounded another bend in its tortuous progress. President Donnelly of Northern Pacific made two significant statements to his stockholders: I) "I do not think so" (in reply to a stockholder who asked whether the disadvantages of giving up the Burlington would not outweigh the advantages of merging the two Northerns); 2) The Northerns are "considering" the purchase from the Burlington of its line from the Twin Cities to Aurora, 111., and the leasing of trackage rights from Aurora into Chicago.

P: Erie made an important offering: $50,000,000 of 5% mortgage bonds through a Morgan-National City-First National syndicate.

P: One more proxy battle seemed assured when Walter E. Meyer sent out letters to stockholders of St. Louis Southwestern ("Cotton Belt") asking for proxies, alleging that Kansas City Southern still dominates the road. Mr. Meyer, who has for several years been a gadfly to the Cotton Belt management, charges diversion of traffic from that road to Kansas City Southern.

P: Commissioner Joseph B. Eastman, one of the most influential members of the I. C. C., continued his attack on railroad holding companies before the House Interstate Commerce Committee (TIME, April 14).

P: To the Boston & Maine came a new master: Edward S. French, elected president of the road to succeed Thomas Nelson Perkins, who has been acting president since last fall (TIME, Nov. 18). Railmaster French is, or was, operating chief of several smaller independent New England railroads. He will resign all outside positions, devote himself entirely to running the B. & M. He is a New Englander, born in Maine, now a resident of Springfield, Vt.--which he calls "a shining example of how alive a small place may be.'' Mr. Perkins is now Chairman of the Board --a shift which gives his economic and financial prowess full scope, while placing operating activities in the hands of experienced Railmaster French.

P: In Sebring, Fla., passenger train No. 191 of the Atlantic Coast Line drew into town, was seized by Sheriff Oscar Wolff who claimed the road owes Highlands County $40,502.42 delinquent taxes. In Avon Park, Sheriff Wolff attached the road's right-of-way, tracks, tool houses, depot, served a warrant on the station agent. Not satisfied, he then sat down and waited for a special fruit train, two freight trains and another passenger train which were expected to come along.

*The Chicago Great Western is one of the "Granger" roads that serve the farm territory immediately west of Chicago. It sprawls out over the northwest like a great four-armed starfish: from the town of Oelwein, Iowa (8,000 pop.) it stretches an arm east to Chicago, one north to Minneapolis, one west to Omaha, and one south to Kansas City. Though its 1,495 miles of track are Liliputian compared to such "Granger" roads as the Burlington and the Chicago & Northwestern, the Great Western is a prosperous and desirable road because of its strategic situation. The I. C. C. plan made it a northern extension of the Santa Fe.

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