PDF Ebook Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg
In reading Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg, now you could not likewise do conventionally. In this modern era, gadget as well as computer system will assist you so much. This is the moment for you to open up the device and also remain in this site. It is the appropriate doing. You can see the link to download this Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg below, can not you? Just click the link as well as negotiate to download it. You could get to acquire guide Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg by on-line as well as ready to download. It is very various with the typical means by gong to guide store around your city.
Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg
PDF Ebook Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg
Exactly how if there is a website that enables you to hunt for referred publication Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg from all around the world publisher? Immediately, the site will be extraordinary completed. So many book collections can be discovered. All will certainly be so simple without complex thing to relocate from site to site to get guide Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg desired. This is the site that will offer you those assumptions. By following this website you could acquire great deals numbers of book Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg collections from variations types of writer and also author prominent in this world. The book such as Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg and also others can be gained by clicking great on web link download.
Just how can? Do you assume that you do not need enough time to opt for buying book Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg Never ever mind! Merely sit on your seat. Open your gadget or computer system as well as be on the internet. You can open up or see the link download that we supplied to get this Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg By through this, you can get the on-line publication Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg Checking out the book Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg by online can be truly done quickly by conserving it in your computer and gadget. So, you could proceed every single time you have spare time.
Checking out guide Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg by on-line could be additionally done conveniently every where you are. It appears that hesitating the bus on the shelter, waiting the list for queue, or other areas possible. This Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg could accompany you during that time. It will certainly not make you really feel weary. Besides, through this will additionally improve your life quality.
So, simply be below, find guide Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg now as well as review that swiftly. Be the very first to read this book Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg by downloading in the link. We have some other e-books to read in this internet site. So, you could find them also quickly. Well, now we have done to offer you the most effective e-book to review today, this Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg is truly appropriate for you. Never ever neglect that you require this e-book Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg to make far better life. On the internet book Harriman Vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, By Larry Haeg will really give simple of every little thing to read as well as take the perks.
In 1901, the Northern Pacific was an unlikely prize: a twice-bankrupt construction of the federal government, it was a two-bit railroad (literally—five years back, its stock traded for twenty-five cents a share). But it was also a key to connecting eastern markets through Chicago to the rising West. Two titans of American railroads set their sights on it: James J. Hill, head of the Great Northern and largest individual shareholder of the Northern Pacific, and Edward Harriman, head of the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific. The subsequent contest was unprecedented in the history of American enterprise, pitting not only Hill against Harriman but also Big Oil against Big Steel and J. P. Morgan against the Rockefellers, with a supporting cast of enough wealthy investors to fill the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria.
The story, told here in full for the first time, transports us to the New York Stock Exchange during the unfolding of the earliest modern-day stock market panic. Harriman vs. Hill re-creates the drama of four tumultuous days in May 1901, when the common stock of the Northern Pacific rocketed from one hundred ten dollars a share to one thousand in a mere seventeen hours of trading—the result of an inadvertent “corner” caused by the opposing forces. Panic followed and then, in short order, a calamity for the “shorts,” a compromise, the near-collapse of Wall Street brokerages and banks, the most precipitous decline ever in American stock values, and the fastest recovery. Larry Haeg brings to life the ensuing stalemate and truce, which led to the forming of a holding company, briefly the biggest railroad combine in American history, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the deal, launching the reputation of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes as the “great dissenter” and President Theodore Roosevelt as the “trust buster.” The forces of competition and combination, unfettered growth, government regulation, and corporate ambition—all the elements of American business at its best and worst—come into play in the account of this epic battle, whose effects echo through our economy to this day.
- Sales Rank: #830818 in Books
- Published on: 2013-10-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.20" w x 6.00" l, 1.47 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 384 pages
Review
"
I first read about the Northern Pacific Corner when I was ten years old. When I opened my office on January 1, 1962, I put on the wall a framed copy of the New York Times of May 10, 1901, describing the fateful prior day. Larry Haeg now tells the full story, and I enjoyed every word of it.
" —Warren Buffett
"This book is a page-turner. Even for the reader that knows what is about to happen, Larry Haeg is able to convey a sense of excitement about the events’ unfolding." —H. Roger Grant, author of Railroads and the American People
"Harriman vs. Hill is a fascinating read. It treats an important episode in business and financial history, fleshes it out in more detail than any previous author has done, and covers the ground in an engaging style. Haeg’s approach is original and clever in the best sense of the word." —Maury Klein, author of Union Pacific
About the Author
Larry Haeg is former executive vice president of corporate communications for Wells Fargo & Company and a former broadcast journalist.
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Market panic
By Bill Hough
Larry Haeg's book "Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street's Great Railroad War," describes an event that has been largely forgotten in American business history. The event was a fight between the titular protagonists, and their financiers, for control of Northern Pacific Railway. Haeg, formerly an executive vice president of corporate communications for Wells Fargo & Company and a broadcast journalist, decided to write this story when he was unable to find a "full-length account of this story."
Publisher University of Minnesota Press introduces the book thusly: "The story, told here in full for the first time, transports us to the New York Stock Exchange during the unfolding of the earliest modern-day stock market panic." It is important to put the events into historical context, however, so Haeg begins with an introduction of the "railroad world" of 1901, when they were near the pinnacle of their power and influence. After a list of "dramatis personae," he introduces the principles of the story: James Jerome Hill and John Pierpont Morgan on one side, and Edward Henry Harriman and Jacob Henry Schiff on the other. Haeg spends 54 pages fleshing out these four individuals, which allows the reader to get to know what motivated their actions in the upcoming story.
Harriman, concerned about linking his Union Pacific to Chicago and the eastern railroads, initially attempts to acquire the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. Hill, Morgan and CB&Q president Charles Perkins thwart this, as CB&Q is sold to GN and NP for $215 million in bonds and scrip. In response, Harriman, backed by financier Schiff, begins to surreptitiously acquire Northern Pacific stock. Both parties bought Northern Pacific stock and this inadvertently led to a stock-market panic with NP's stock price ballooning from $110/share to $1000/share in 17 hours, followed by an equally rapid decline and recovery.
These events ultimately led to the formation of the Northern Securities Company, a holding corporation that was formed to own most GN and NP stock. New president Theodore Roosevelt's administration immediately started a politically motivated suit to break up Northern Securities, which the Supreme Court upheld in 1904. Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a blistering dissent, wrote, "Great cases like hard cases make bad law." Haeg reminds us that Roosevelt was up for election the year that the Northern Securities decision was handed down.
The amount of detail in the narrative is simply amazing, and the book has been meticulously researched judging from the 13-page bibliography and the 46 pages of notes. The latter are not referenced by the traditional note-number but rather by page references, which takes a bit of getting used to if the reader wants to follow a reference. Twenty historic photos and two maps help illustrate the story.
This book is more than an excellent account of a significant event in railroad business history. We also get glimpses into what life in New York was like at the beginning of the 20th Century. For example, in Chapter 7, readers get a tour of the original Waldorf-Astoria hotel located on the site of the Empire State Building at 34th and 5th. Notable personalities such as Oscar Tschirky, the maitre d' who defined the concept of epicurean public dining, are introduced to provide some necessary human interest to the story. Oscar's Brasserie, a restaurant in today's Waldorf at 301 Park Avenue, is named in Tschirky's honor.
An Epilogue puts the events of this book into a greater historical context, explaining how increasing government oversight of railroads coincided with the rise of alternate modes of transportation that would erode the railroad's share of the transportation market. Government regulation of railroads became sclerotic during the mid-20th Century and it was not until after the 1980 signing of the Staggers Act that matters began to improve. Staggers passed a decade after the so-called "Hill roads" would finally combine to form Burlington Northern. The reader is referred to Frank Wilner's "Railroad Mergers: History Analysis Insight" for a complete narrative of the topics covered in this epilogue. The world of railroads and finance was a vastly different place in 1901 and Larry Haeg brings it to life.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
A Battle of the Titans
By David Shulman
Larry Haeg brings to life an era when Wall Street was the wild west and regulation was nonexistent. The giants of finance and industry dominated the stage like never before or after. The great railroad war arises out of the the strategic dilemma faced by both Harriman's Union Pacific and Hill's Great Northern. The eastern terminus of the Union Pacific is St. Louis and the eastern terminus of the the Great Northern is St. Paul. In order to efficiently bring grain from the west and trade to and from China both needed access to the the great railroad hub of Chicago. That access could be provided by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy which was controlled by the Northern Pacific. Each fears that control by the other would lock them out of Chicago.
Harriman starts the war by quietly gobbling up common and preferred shares of Northern Pacific though his banker Jacob Schiff of Kuhn Loeb. Hill seeing the activity in Northern Pacific starts buying too through his banker, J.P. Morgan. The war is on. Soon more stock is bought than can actually be delivered because short sellers seeing the rise in Northern Pacific stock come in and short the stock. A corner, where no deliveries can be made, ensues driving the stock of Northern Pacific up from $110 a share to an astounding $1000 a share in two days. Realizing a corner had taken place, Schiff and Morgan agree to settle at $150 a share and Northern Pacific drops precipitously to $150 a share.
The titans then settle there dispute with a three way merger bringing the railroads under the roof of a newly formed holding company, Northern Securities controlled by Hill and Harriman's Union Pacific. It is here where President Theodore Roosevelt intervenes with an antitrust lawsuit that goes all the way to the Supreme Court dissolving Northern Securities. Quite a yarn.
Along the way we get a peak into New York society, especially at the old Waldorf Astoria. There are aslo cameo appearances by Bernard Baruch and Jesse Livermore. Haeg's sympathy is with the titans and against the government and the crippling railroad rate legislation that was to come. However, he fails to fully appreciate that that the railroads of 1900 were quasi-monopolies that were in need of regulation. However, over time with federal subsidies for barges and the advent of trucking the rail monopolies would wither away and force much of the industry into bankruptcy.
Over the long run Harriman and Hill had it right. Consolidation was necessary and the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Chicago Burlington and Quincy along with the Santa Fe are now under one roof, the Burlington Northern owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
For those readers interested in getting a very real sense of what Wall Street was like in 1901, this book is a great read. My one and very real critism of the book is that stock charts would have been very helpful to clarify the text.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Amazing insight to an era
By G. R. Carter
I have long been fascinated by the so-called "Robber Barons" but have never encountered such a broad cross-section of the personalities and life styles which made up the class. If you believe Haeg, the "1%" of the early 1900s were basically sincere, honest people of good, noble intent, who were vilified and targeted by the government for political advantage. (I'm not sure I completely buy it, but he does put forth a convincing arguement!) Somewhere about the middle of the book, I became intensely aware of the remarkable parallels between that time and today.
The story revolves, initially, around the developmentl of railroad transportation systems between Chicago and the Pacific coast. Edward H. Harriman was head of the Union Pacific railroad. (He actually had interests in numerous others, detailed in the book). James J. Hill controlled the Great Northern railroad, and also had multiple other involvements. J.P. Morgan had rescued the Northern Pacific from bankruptcy and essentially controlled it, among his many diverse financial interests. Hill, with Morgan's assistance, was attempting to acquire the Burlington line to provide a direct link into Chicago. Harriman saw this as a threat to his territory, unless the Union Pacific could participate in the arrangement. The battle lines were drawn not on the Great Plains, but around the trading posts of the New York Stock Exchange.
The struggle for the Burlington became a struggle to take control of the Northern Pacific from Morgan through the purchase of a majority of the stock on the open market. (The behind-the-scenes machinations involved are true to my image of "robber baron-etry," yet each of the key players is portrayed as acting with integrity and without real malice.) As the stock prices rose and the rumors flew, greed influenced the stock market more than common sense. Eventually, so much stock had been sold "short" (i.e., borrowed shares, without actual ownership) that there was not enough stock available, at any price, to deliver the promised shares when due. Neither the Harriman nor the Hill interests were willing to give up shares which might be critical to their position, and Haeg paints a vivid picture of a financial system on the verge of collapse.
How the crisis developed and was ultimately resolved is only half the story. Once Morgan and other principals worked out a compromise to avoid total collapse of the market, the basic issue of who would control the future development of the western railroads remained. At this point, both contending parties (Hill et.al. and Harriman, et.al.) thought that they had gained the controlling majority of the Northern Pacific stock. To avoid a continuation of the conflict, they agreed to form a "Trust" (called Norhern Securities) to own the combined railroads and share the operating profits.
Enter the government. The near-collapse and panic in the stock market had aroused a strong resentment in the general public for the rich and powerful. When pro-business President William McKinley was assassinated he was succeeded by the Populist-leaning Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt quickly saw the formation of Northern Securities as a challenge to the Sherman Anti-trust Act, and an opportunity to secure his own election at the next cycle. Suffice it to say, he brought suit and won at the Supreme Court, forcing the dissolution of Northern Securities. This ruling was the start of a long chain of restrictions and government actions which, according to Haeg, severely crippled the rail transportation industry until the current day.
See all 30 customer reviews...
Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg PDF
Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg EPub
Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg Doc
Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg iBooks
Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg rtf
Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg Mobipocket
Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg Kindle
* PDF Ebook Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg Doc
* PDF Ebook Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg Doc
* PDF Ebook Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg Doc
* PDF Ebook Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street’s Great Railroad War, by Larry Haeg Doc
