e
idea of keeping down the operating costs and of showing a larger margin
of profit than the others. From the very start the Great Northern was
noted for its low ratio of operating expenses and its comparatively long
trains and heavy trainloads. It was by this method that it really made
its money.

By the year 1901 the Great Northern Railway absolutely controlled its
own territory. But it was still handicapped by lack of an independent
entrance into Chicago, as its eastern lines terminated at Duluth and
St. Paul. At the western end also, the situation was unsatisfactory.
It seemed important for the Great Northern to control a line of its own
into Portland, Oregon, because the Northern Pacific Railroad, which, as
we have seen, had been reorganized several years before by the
Morgan interests, had been rapidly extending its lines in Oregon and
Washington. Hill and his associates, therefore, had been quietly buying
a substantial interest in the Northern Pacific property and thus, in the
course of time, had come into closer relations with the Morgan group in
New York. Soon afterward, under Hill's influence, the Northern Pacific
began the construction of further extensions in Oregon and reached into
territory that the Harriman interests in the Union Pacific Railroad
had regarded as their own. This move created much friction between the
Harriman and Hill groups, and in order to forestall danger Harriman
in turn began quietly accumulating an interest in the Northern Pacific
property by purchases in the open market.

The story of the battle royal between the Hill and Harriman interests
will be told in a subsequent chapter. It is not necessary to repeat the
history of the famous corner of 1901 nor of the compromise effected by
the formation of the Northern Securities Company. The final result
of this contest was the complete harmonizing of the Western railroad
situation, so far as the Hill and the Harriman interests were concerned.
In the succeeding years the Great Northern system penetrated to the
heart of Manitoba and constructed lines through British Columbia to
Nelson and Vancouver. It built other branches to Spokane, Washington,
and Helena and Butte, Montana. Moreover by the discovery of extensive
ore deposits on the lines of the company in northern Minnesota and by
subsequent purchases of other mines, the Great Northern acquired control
of about sixty-five thousand acres and hundreds of millions of tons
of iron ore. All