1907 - POWER BEHIND THE THRONE

[NW Mailing List]

Roger,
Thanks for these wonderful newspaper accounts from 1907...Reading the story
and being a person of the"Media" I'm sure  NOT was left out of the Newspaper
account ...Doesn't make sense otherwise....Thanks again ..Ken Tanner ,Former
(wish I still was) Roanoker
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From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
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Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 10:29 PM
Subject: 1907 - POWER BEHIND THE THRONE



> Roanoke Times - May 18, 1907

>

> POWER BEHIND THE THRONE

>

> Rockefeller Said to Be Owner of the Tidewater.

>

>    Norfolk, Va., May 17. - A deed of trust from the Virginian Railway,

> comprising the Tidewater and Deepwater systems, to the Central Trust

> Company of New York, for ten million dollars, was recorded in the clerks'

> office of Norfolk county late last evening.

>    This is the security for the famous series of personal notes, said to

> have been made by Mr. Henry H. Rogers, the reputed owner of the Tidewater,

> for the completion of the line, news of which was exclusively published in

> the Star at the time the notes were executed. It is said that the

> transaction was the most stupendous ever put through by any one man in the

> history of finance in the manner in which this was done. Personal notes

for

> ten million dollars are apt to create a ripple even in the land of

> financial magic.

>    In this connection the following Washington dispatch is full of

interest

> for this section:

>    Washing, May 17. -- The usually prosaic hearings before the Interstate

> Commerce Commission were enlivened by the testimony of W. N. Page,

> president of the Tidewater railroad up to the time that the road and the

> Deepwater railroad were merged into one system -- the Virginia railroad --

> and now president of that system. Under oath he told the story, so far as

> he knows it, of the inside history of this road -- a road that has been

> built without a bond. He told of having been given a letter of credit to

> the amount of $18,000,000 to build the Tidewater railroad, and of having

> spent more that $20,000,000 already on its construction. He told of how H.

> H. Rogers and H. H. Hyams, the latter a Boston millionaire, were the two

> men whom he supposed were backing the project and added that there might

be

> some one else behind it, about whom he knew no more than the most casual

> spectator in the room. This latter man of mystery seems to be none other

> than John D. Rockefeller.

>    The whole thing came out in the hearing of the complaint of the Loop

> Creek Colliery Company and the Deepwater railroad to compel the Chesapeake

> and Ohio to enter into satisfactory traffic agreements.

>    He testified that the he had in his pocket a letter of credit on the

> international Trust Company of Boston for $18,000,000, and that his drafts

> on that trust company had amounted to $20,000,000, and he yet could not

> swear who had put it there and, furthermore, that he did not personally

> know any one connected with the institution, and if he went into the place

> of business to get a check cashed he would have to be identified.

>    He said that he was only a figurehead as president of the road, and

> owned little or no stock in it, but did enjoy confidential relations with

> the men who are financing it.

>    Speaking about the inception of the enterprise, he said that it was the

> original intention of the people owning the Virginian railroad to build to

> tidewater, but to build only a short line connecting the Norfolk and

> Western and the Chesapeake and Ohio. The Chesapeake and Ohio, however,

> could not, and would not, afford his people an outlet, and the Virginian

> railroad has been the result.

>    He said that the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Norfolk and Western,

> through Presidents Stevens and Johnson, had offered him every sort of

> proposition if he would not go to tidewater, and had offered to handle his

> traffic on practically his own terms if he would not go to tidewater.

>    He said that the Chesapeake and Ohio is today playing the

> dog-in-the-manger; that it is today developing six new counties, when its

> facilities are confessedly inadequate to handle the output of the counties

> it now gets coal from.

>    He said that on April 23 the Tidewater and Deepwater roads had been

> consolidated, and capital stock amounting to $33,500,000 had been

> authorized. Mr. Page said that he thought that he could produce

documentary

> evidence to prove that he had brought more capital into the States of

> Virginia and West Virginia than any other man had ever done.

>    After he had concluded his testimony, Mr. Page stated that is was the

> ultimate plan to extend the Virginian railroad through to the Great Lakes.

>    In view of the testimony of Mr. Page, it is believed that the man back

> of Mr. Rogers is John D. Rockefeller. It is evident that to carry the

> project through to the Great Lakes will require a great deal more money

> than Mr. Rogers can put up himself.

>

> -----------------------------------

>

> Notes:

>    "Speaking about the inception of the enterprise, he said that it was

the

> original intention of the people owning the Virginian railroad to build to

> tidewater, but to build only a short line connecting the Norfolk and

> Western and the Chesapeake and Ohio." is what is printed in the paper. I

> suspect there is a missing "not"??

>

> dog-in-the-manger:

>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dog_in_the_Manger

>

> - Roger Link

>

>

>

>

>

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