Emperor's Dream

Sad are my thoughts, for I am forty, Sad as the drifting leaves this autumn day. . . .

Until today it seemed my path led upward,

But now I find myself upon a constant downward slope

Which gains in pitch until I see Dim, distantly a void. . . .

Thus in 1937 wrote Robert Ralph Young, a financial wizard given to homespun free verse. He had worked hard gathering unto himself the mammoth railroad empire created by Cleveland's famed, buccaneering Van Sweringen brothers, and it seemed about to slip from his hands.

Last week Robert Young was no longer despondent. In the intervening years of recession and war he had copper-riveted his hold on the old Van Sweringen empire --with the help of $3 million from an old friend and Woolworth heir, shy, tweedy Allan Price Kirby. Now he was ready to consolidate the empire, to make it the base from which he hoped to realize an old Van Sweringen dream--a single transcontinental railroad.

Fourth Best. What Robert Young had got from the Van Sweringens was: 1) the profit-fat Chesapeake & Ohio Railway; 2) through the Alleghany Corp., the controlling interest in three other roads which sprawl across the U.S. heartland--the New York, Chicago & St. Louis (Nickel Plate), the Pere Marquette, and the Wheeling and Lake Erie (see map). Last week, in Cleveland's Terminal Tower, the C & O's board of directors voted to merge all four railroads, make them one operating company.

If the merger is approved by the lines' stockholders (which is almost certain) and by the Interstate Commerce Commission (likely), Robert Young will control the twelfth largest U.S. rail system (7,500 miles of trackage) and the fourth best income producer ($39.3 million last year from the four railroads). Presidents of the four roads promised that the merger would mean substantial savings in overhead, bookkeeping and maintenance.

The Right Way. Short, balding Robert Young is trying hard to become the biggest U.S. railroad tycoon since the Union Pacific's Edward Henry Harriman. Born in Texas, he worked in a Du Pont powder mill at 22 1/2-c- an hour a short 20 years ago. Now he has a fortune of $7,000,000 and a show place in Newport. His admirers refer to him as "the emperor." (In the library of his Newport home hangs the David portrait of Napoleon.)

Although he was once of Wall Street, he fought Wall Street bankers with the weapon of politicians. He once told a banker: "My way is the right way. If I can't have it, I will find some kind of a club to beat you with." And he has been smart: despite loud squawks from dividend-hungry stockholders, he poured wartime profits back into his railroads.

Hogs Are Lucky. For Emperor Young, the vision of a transcontinental line was more than just a dream. Through the Alleghany Corp., he has a large block of Missouri Pacific bonds. If he could get the MOP, he would have a line west to Denver--and through MOP's half-control of the Denver & Rio Grande Western, all the way to Salt Lake City. From Salt Lake City to San Francisco runs the Western Pacific, the small but spunky rival of the Southern Pacific (which owns the other half of D. & R. G. W.); Arthur Curtiss James's onetime road might possibly be had. In the East Young might take over the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western to get from Buffalo to Jersey City.

In his bid for a transcontinental line, Robert Young knew that he would have the passengers on his side. He knows how they grouse at changing trains. Said he: "It's disgraceful. Hogs get better service than passengers; they don't have to change cars." This week Bob Young and Otis & Co. offered $70 million-odd for 7,098 Pullman Co. cars.

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