Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/131

Rh piecemeal mortgages at high rates of interest. The line from Portland to Tacoma had been built, and the eastern division of the road pushed west to the crossing of the Missouri, and some work done on a section from the Columbia towards Spokane. The outlook was ominous. In the hands of a more energetic management Villard could foresee that his grand scheme of an Oregon system might be crippled, and so, maturing his plans he made the great venture of his career. Quietly ascertaining the amount of money necessary to secure a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific Company he addressed a circular (May 15, 1881) to his financial friends asking for the temporary loan of $8,000,000 for a purpose not named, "and no questions to be asked," assuring his friends that in due time he would account to them for the money intrusted to him with such profits as would be satisfactory. Such a proposition was unheard of in the world of finance. It was appalling, audacious. But nevertheless the money was promptly given him. And this was the formation of the historic "blind pool" to control the Northern Pacific Railroad, never attempted before and never repeated since.

With this $8,000,000 Villard purchased a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific, got control in June, 1881, and was elected president in September. He immediately started an army of men to complete the great work. J. L. Hallett, of Washington County, was superintendent of construction on the west end, Hans Thielsen of Portland, chief engineer, and the work was pushed with such force and vigor that an observer might have supposed that the entire army of the United States was pushing construction of a military work in time of a great war. It was the supreme test of Villard's mental and physical strength. He was at that time president of the Northern Pacific, the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co., the Oregon Steam Navigation Co., and the Oregon & California Co.,