Business & Finance: James

The great railroad men of four decades ago were generally referred to as “Empire Builders,” an earth-shouldering epithet originally applied to James J. Hill. Since the death of Mr. Hill, and of less admirable Jay Gould and their stern peers, the epithet had lapsed into disuse, but last week it was revived for a contemporary capitalist, Arthur Curtiss James. It became known that during the last two years Mr. James has accumulated a large stock interest in the Western Pacific Railroad Corp., becoming thereby probably the largest private railroad shareholder in the U. S.— a mighty factor in nearly 40,000 miles of railroad. The money he bought it with began to be accumulated a hundred years ago when his grandfather, Daniel, founded the Phelps-Dodge Corp. to export U. S. minerals.

The main stem of the Western Pacific runs 927 miles from San Francisco to Salt Lake City.* It was once, financially, a hazardous railroad, an iron hope of the executors of the estate of Jay Gould for making a coast to coast system out of the Gould holdings. In the rocky country past Ogden, Utah, the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific dominated; if the Goulds wanted a new road they would have to build one over the mountains. The plan cost money—so much that the Gould roads collapsed and passed into the control of the Equitable Trust Co. Alvin W. Krech, chairman of the Western Pacific Board under the Equitable, resigned in favor of T. M. Schumacher, an associate of Mr. James.

Interviewed, Empire Builder James announced that his purchase was “purely personal.” He meant by this that in making it he did not look upon himself as representing the many other companies in which he owns controlling interest.

To the public he said: “I have entire confidence in the ability of the territory served by the Western Pacific to support an independent system which shall have for its sole objective the upbuilding of the territory served by it.”

To a friend: “I bought it [the Western Pacific stock] because I thought it was cheap.”

There is another empire over which Arthur Curtiss James presides. He even has a flag to symbolize his rule there—a triangular piece of bunting bearing a crescent and a star. It flew at the masthead of the Coronette, the yacht in which he went around the world; it snapped at the halyards of the Aloha I and the Aloha II, famous sailing yachts. Mr. James handles his yachts himself. He holds master’s papers which permit him to operate his craft in any waters. He is a former commodore of the New York and Seawanhaka-Corinthian yacht clubs.

And there is a lowlier empire in which Mr. James is a conspicuous servant of those who serve. To religion, to charity, he gives lavishly both time and money. Of the eminent liberal Union Theological Seminary he is a director.

*There it connects with the Denver & Rio Grande Western, which it controls. By way of the subsidiary it joins (at Denver) the Burlington (Mr. James’ Northern Pacific and Great Northern control the Burlington) and (at Pueblo, Colo.) the Missouri Pacific, the Burlington’s transcontinental rival. Mr. James also owns a large share of the Southern Pacific,