fficers of the West Shore, and immediately presented to them
a plan for the absorption of their line, instead of continuing
the struggle until absolute exhaustion. Mr. Vanderbilt approved
of the plan, as did the financial interests represented by
Mr. Pierpont Morgan.

By the reorganization and consolidation of the two companies the
New York Central began gradually to establish its efficiency and
to work on necessary improvements. As evidence of the growth
of the railway business of the country, the New York Central
proper has added since the reorganization an enormous amount of
increased trackage, and has practically rebuilt, as a necessary
second line, the West Shore and used fully its very large terminal
facilities on the Jersey side of the Hudson.

During his active life Mr. Vanderbilt was very often importuned
to buy a New York daily newspaper. He was personally bitterly
assailed and his property put in peril by attacks in the press.
He always rejected the proposition to buy one. "If," he said,
"I owned a newspaper, I would have all the others united in
attacking me, and they would ruin me, but by being utterly out of
the journalistic field, I find that taking the press as a whole
I am fairly well treated. I do not believe any great interest
dealing with the public can afford to have an organ."

Colonel Scott, of the Pennsylvania, thought otherwise, but the
result of his experiment demonstrated the accuracy of Mr. Vanderbilt's
judgment. Scott selected as editor of the New York World one of
the most brilliant journalistic writers of his time, William H. Hurlburt.
When it became known, however, that the World belonged to
Colonel Scott, Hurlburt's genius could not save it. The circulation
ran down to a minimum, the advertising followed suit, and the
paper was losing enormously every month. Mr. Joseph Pulitzer,
with the rare insight and foresight which distinguished him, saw
what could be made of the World, with its privileges in the
Associated Press, and so he paid Scott the amount he had originally
invested, and took over and made a phenomenal success of this
bankrupt and apparently hopeless enterprise.

I tried during my presidency to make the New York Central popular
with the public without impairing its efficiency. The proof of the
success of this was that without any effort on my part and against
my published wishes the New York delegation in the national
Republican convention in 1888, with unpreced