Untitled - Clpdigital.org

THE STORY OF ERIE 46;
It has been truly said that in downright dramatic interest,
in its exhibition of results achieved through the exercise of
intellectual qualities which were themselves an achievement,
and in the example which it furnishes of the consistent
development of traits which can scarcely be considered as the
dower of heredity, Jay Gould's life-story surpasses by far the
history of any of his great contemporaries in finance and in the
management of stupendous enterprises—and in the generation
in which he lived his active and wonderful business life
there were such masters of finance and such giants in the
management of great affairs as were known in no former
epoch of the world's history.
It was from his connection with the management of the
Erie Railway Company that Jay Gould first became widely
known as a man of wonderful sagacity, fertility of resource,
tenacity of will, and determination of purpose. It was that
connection, also, that turned against him the stinging shafts
of criticism, which followed him until and (from some sources)
after his death, and made it popular to denounce and revile
him. If he hatl chosen, he could have shown in comparatively
few words a defence for his methods in the control of
Erie which would have given his critics much food for gentler
thought, and blunted the sharp edge of popular malice ; but
he remained silent under the storm of distorted statements
and positive falsehood with which he was assailed. Thus it
was made to appear by such criticism, and in the popular
mind to-day it remains disabused by any retraction or modification,
that Jay Gould gained control of the Erie Railway
Company when its property was in the finest condition as to
railroad and equipment, its financial affairs on a secure and
enviable basis, and its future bright and promising, and that
he leftit with its treasury looted of its last dollar, its property
in a state of dilapidation and decay, its business gone to the
dogs, and its future only bankruptcy and ruin. As a matter
of fact, when Jay Gould came into the Directory of the Erie
Railway Company, in 1S68, the Company's property, rights,
and privileges were handled only as cards to be played in the
great game of Wall Street speculation. In fact, the influence
. then dominating PCrie affairs had been in control for many
years, and in all that time the great corporation had been
used and abused as a speculative football. At the time Mr.
Gould became connected with the Company as a Director, a
desperate battle was on between the dominant power in the
Erie management and an antagonist who had been his
potent rival in Wall Street speculation and railroad management
for years, and who had now entered the lists to wrest
the control of Erie from him and make that property subservient
to his own transportation line. 'Phe success of this
bold movement meant the taking of the Erie Railway out
of the list of independent and competitive railroads of the
country, the diversion of its business, and inevitable rum and
disaster to the region through which it had been constructed
at so much cost, and after years of disheartening but persistent
struggle. To prevent this, and save the Erie to its
people and its territory, Jay Gould first brought to bear those
qualities that subsequently (made him for a time supreme in
the Company. Although but one in the Board of Directors,
the exciting campaign that resulted during this crisis in the
affairs of the Erie was conducted largely on his suggestion and
advice, and ifit had been continued on these lines, as Mr.
Gould's close associates always contended, the end of the
battle would have been a suet ess for the Krie, unattended by
any humiliating conditions. Asit was, after months of legal
Strife, both in the civil and criminal courts, the controlling
influence in the Erie management agreed to buy rather than
drive their antagonist out of the light, and paid his price,
amounting to several millions of dollars, out of the Pane's
treasury. Against this method of terminating the contest in
defence of their own property and rights, Jay Gould earnestly
protested.
Phe result of this ending of the " Erie War" brought also
to an em\ the life of the regime that had ruled in P^rie
affairs so long, and placed Jay Gould at the head of the
Company. Instead of finding a treasury to be looted, he
found one that had to be filledif the Company was to be
kept out of absolute bankruptcy, for there was not a dollar
in* it. Instead of a finely equipped railroad, in superior condition,
he came into the possession of one not only deficient
in the quota of its rolling stock, but with even its available
stock in a condition of deplorable dilapidation, and of a
road-bed and track sadly and dangerously out of repair.
The foes of P]rie were still intriguing and working for its
downfall. Money, and a large sum of money, had to be
raised, and raised at once, if the Company were to be saved
from bankruptcy and its railroad put in a condition that
would warrant effort on the part of the management to make
it the strong competitor of rival roads that it should, be.
A weak or hesitating man in his place would have succumbed
on the threshold of this situation, and all would have been
lost ; hut |av Gould was far from being either weak or hesitating.
He raised money. His method of raising it was
undoubtedly a heroic one, anil the cliques that had been
for months using every trick and game known to Wall
Street to destroy Erie, instantly lifted up their voices in
tones of pious horror, and roundly denounced the man who
had outwitted them by raising money to save the Erie property
from its foes. At any rate, after a long and thorough
investigation, set afoot by the influences that had for years
striven for the control of the Krie Railway, the New York
Legislature approved his act, by an almost unanimous vote.
'Phe funds in hand, Mr. Gould at once began the reconstruction
and building up of the railroad and the equipping
of it with rolling stock commensurate with the demands that
he foresaw of an increasing business. During his administration
steel rails were introduced in place of rotten iron
ones. New and important connections, not only local lint
through, were secured. Old and insecure wooden bridges
were replaced by modern iron structures. Tumble-down
depots and freight-houses gave way to substantial new buildings.
Train service was made as perfect as the coaches,
appliances, and conveniences of a generation ago could provide.
Within two years after Jay Gould became the con-