Morgan, carried the community of interest idea some steps
further. Morgan caused the New York Central to acquire stock
interests in certain "feeder" lines such as the New York, New
Haven and Hartford and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, as
well as in competing lines; and Harriman caused the Union Pacific
not only to dominate the Southern Pacific Company by minority
control but also to acquire interests in the Illinois Central,
the Baltimore and Ohio, the New York Central, and other eastern
properties. The fact was that Harriman had plans in view for
acquiring actual control of the New York Central for the Union
Pacific and thus, with the Illinois Central, of creating a
continuous transcontinental line from ocean to ocean.

In the past decade few unusual or startling events have marked
the history of the Vanderbilt lines. The Vanderbilt family no
longer possesses a majority interest in the stock, or anything
which approaches it, and the New York Central system and its
subsidiaries have come to be known more and more as Morgan
properties. The system has grown up with the country. Many of its
former controlled roads have now been merged into the main
corporation and many new lines have been added to it. Hundreds of
millions of dollars of new capital have been spent on the main
lines and terminals since 1900. In 1919 the entire property,
including controlled lines, embraced more than 13,000 miles of
main track, besides about 5000 miles of extra tracks; over
200,000 freight cars are in use on the system, and every year
upwards of 200,000,000 tons of freight are transported. The gross
annual revenues of the entire system now aggregate more than
$400,000,000, while the total capitalization in stocks and bonds
exceeds a billion dollars. It is indeed a far cry from that day