as an initial benefaction for the founding of the Johns Hopkins University. Here it is pertinent to inquire what was the form of property given in these bounties. Very largely, it consisted of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stock; it was property representing the corruption. of public life, the abasement of the workers and the general spoliation of the entire community.

This

And what was Garrett's share of the proceeds of the joint control? At his death, in 1884, it was said to be $15,000,000, but it was undoubtedly much more. wealth descended to his son Robert, who went through a series of personal excesses, to wind up in melancholia and softening of the brain. Obviously enough, he was no match for those abler capitalists, the Vanderbilts, Goulds and Scott; 13 they pounced upon him and ruthlessly despoiled him as his father had despoiled others; his autocratic power and sway gradually vanished. When he died, in 1896, his wealth had shrunk to about $5,000,000, and the Baltimore and Ohio system had passed under the control of the Pennsylvania railroad group of magnates.

13 A current story, frequently published, was to this effect: That Robert Garrett had secretly consummated negotiations for the purchase of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, and the night before the final arrangements were to be made invited a friend to celebrate the occasion. When bibulous from champagne, Garrett revealed the secret. The friend excused himself, went immediately to Scott, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and informed that magnate. Scott at once filled a satchel full of bonds, and hurried away to make an offer to the capitalists controlling the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, outbid Garrett, and had secured the ownership of that railroad for the Pennsylvania system almost before Garrett had awakened from his drunken stupor.

CHAPTER VI

THE PACIFIC QUARTET

During the range of years when the Vanderbilts, Gould, Sage, Blair and various other railroad magnates were hurling themselves upward into the realms of masterful wealth, four other noted capitalists whose careers were interjoined, were doing likewise in the Far West.

This group was composed of Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins. It was an unusual brotherhood in that, for a long time, they hung together with a tenacious fidelity not often. found among railroad capitalists. In fact, it was so rare a phenomenon that the mention of it deserves a place of supreme precedence. Such magnates as Commodore Vanderbilt and William H. Vanderbilt, Gould and Sage, preferred to go it alone, not merely satisfied with the lion's share, but determined to bag it all, if they could; they were distrustful and intolerant of partners except as expediency demanded, and then they acted with them. only to fleece them eventually. The Pacific quartet were also starkly individualistic, each for himself, but they moderated their propensities enough to fuse their interests in a common harmony of aim. Even more: they sagaciously weighed the special fitness of each, assigned the duties according to this individual appraisement, and divided the spoils with a certain flavor of fairness.

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So far as railroad magnates were concerned, this was a remarkable feature of their time.

FOUR MEN WHO COULD ACT TOGETHER.

In fine, this group was distinguished by a method of intelligent coöperation. To this fact was due, in a measure, their rapid success in obtaining great wealth without the necessity of dragging through intermediate stages. They were among the first of the magnates to prove the superiority of the principle of systematic organization—a lesson which the Standard Oil group took up a little later, amplified, improved, and developed into a superfine system. Here was not a case of where one man dominatingly insisted that he alone was endowed with all of the functions required in successful business. The Pacific quartet recognized the value of specialization. In a general way, Huntington was intrusted with the supervision of the financial affairs; Stanford of the plans for the manipulation of law and politics; Crocker was placed in charge of the construction work, and Hopkins was the commandant of office details. The particular useful qualifications of each of the four were mutually appreciated and availed of. In addition to this division of overseership, all joined together as a unit in the promotion and consummation of their plans.

Circumstances did not compel these four men to be of quite the same revolutionary type of capitalists as the Vanderbilts and Goulds. They did not have to do much pummeling of smaller capitalists, nor expend much effort in beating down the sacred doctrine of "free and unrestricted competition." Their territory was largely one