Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Quotes

Harriman vs. Hill Harriman vs. Wall Street’S Great railroad War larry haeG University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis • london Original maps by Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis Copyright 2013 by Larry Haeg All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system , or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401–2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Haeg, Lawrence Peter, 1945– Harriman vs. Hill : Wall Street’s great railroad war / Larry Haeg. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8166-8364-2 (hc) ISBN 978-0-8166-8365-9 (pb) 1. Harriman, Edward Henry, 1848–1909. 2. Hill, James Jerome, 1838–1916. 3. Railroads— United States—History—20th century. 4. Capitalists and financiers—United States—Biography . 5. Stock exchanges—United States—History—20th century. 6. Speculation—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. HE2752.H34 2013 385'.1097309041—dc23 2013027118 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For all the talented team members, past and present, with whom I was privileged to ride the Wells Fargo stagecoach Did ye not hear it?—No; ’twas but the wind, Or the car rattling o’er the stony street; On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet. But hark!—that heavy sound breaks in once more, As if the clouds its echo would repeat; And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before; Arm! arm! it is—it is—the cannon’s opening roar! —Lord George Gordon Byron, “The Eve of Waterloo,” 1816 In the stock-market, “corner” spells ruin, backward and forward, and spells it in big black capitals. No one can tell until a corner is over who is beneath the ruins. Often those buried deepest have had no part in the making of it or in the operations that brought it about. —Thomas W. Lawson, 1905 Tell them you’re a speculator; that you buy them if you like them and sell them if you don’t like them. It doesn’t matter whether you [don’t] have them when you sell them, and buy them later, or whether you buy them first and sell them later. —Eugene Meyer Jr., advising Bernard Baruch, 1917 ...