ly fifty years the property had been
paying dividends with hardly an interruption, and altogether it had
an enviable reputation as one of the soundest investments. Harriman's
influence in the affairs of the company had been increasing quietly for
years; the management had been left almost completely in his hands; and
the directors were in effect largely his puppets, and a majority would
do his bidding in almost anything he might propose.

Harriman now announced to Schiff that he intended to have the Union
Pacific reorganized as an appendage of the Illinois Central. The
necessary one hundred millions would be raised by a first mortgage on
the entire Union Pacific lines at three per cent, and the mortgage would
be guaranteed by the Illinois Central, while the latter company would
receive a majority of the new Union Pacific stock in consideration for
giving its guarantee.

Here was a poser for Schiff, who saw at once that if Harriman could use
the Illinois Central credit in this way, he certainly could carry out
his plan. Schiff soon found that Harriman would have no difficulty in
using Illinois Central credit. The upshot of the matter was that the two
men got together and jointly reorganized the Union Pacific. Harriman
was made chairman of the Board of Directors, and Kuhn, Loeb and Company
became the permanent bankers for the new railroad system.

Thus with one bound Harriman had leaped to the forefront in American
railroad finance and by a bold act which was characteristic of the man.
For Edward H. Harriman was not only a hardheaded, practical business
builder who like Morgan thought in big figures, but he was also a bold
plunger, which Morgan was not. Possessing a vivid imagination, he not
only saw far into the future but he also planned far into that same
future. Morgan was also a man of vision, but his vision did not carry
him far beyond the present. The things Morgan saw best were those
immediately before him, while the things that Harriman saw best were at
a distance. Morgan's big plans of procedure were based on what he saw in
a business way in the near future; he reorganized his railroads with the
idea of making them pay their way as soon as possible and of showing a
good return on the capital invested. He thought little of what might be
the outcome a decade or two hence or of what combinations might later
be worked on the chessboard as a result of his immediate moves. Morgan's
mind was not philosophical; it was