Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/138

 122 The bitter rivalry with the White Line at Flushing was not the only area of competition. With the opening of the Central Railroad of Long Island in January 1873 and its operation by the Poppenhusens, further fierce struggles developed at Hempstead and Babylon. The Central R.R., because of its newness and glamour, won the preference of the Hempstead and Babylon people and secured the lion's share of the New York travel. The farmers along the line appreciated the low freight rates, and a heavy traffic developed in shipping manure with trains of as many as twenty-four cars. From 125 to 140 barrels of produce were shipped daily. To attract and hold the Hempstead traffic, the passenger tariff on May 1, 1874, was reduced to $75 a year or thirty package tickets for $10.50, and nineteen trains ran in and out. The Poppenhusens scored a coup in 1874 by the purchase of the South Side system; by this stroke they eliminated most of the Central Railroad's competition and exerted crushing pressure on Oliver Charlick's Long Island R.R. The Poppenhusens had the advantage of newer rolling stock, new road bed and offered more trains than the traffic justified.

It is hard to say just how long the ruinous stalemate between the railroad giants would have continued; the situation changed suddenly with the death of Oliver Charlick on April 30, 1875. The Long Island's Board of Directors in the March meeting of 1875 realized that Charlick was dying and that his railroad war with the Poppenhusens was driving the road to the brink of disaster; to no one's surprise, therefore, Charlick failed of reelection to the presidency for the first time since 1863, and there was installed in his place as president, Henry Havemeyer, whose family was one of the principal financial backers of the road.

Feeling that the death of Oliver Charlick removed the one great obstacle to a working agreement with the Long Island R.R., President Herman Poppenhusen of the North Side line called on Havemeyer and urged him to increase rates for both passenger and freight to a tariff to be mutually decided upon by the two companies. Havemeyer rejected the proffered olive branch, and Poppenhusen countered with a threat to fight on, not only at Flushing, but at every other point where their roads touched.

On May 15, 1875, Poppenhusen implemented his threat by cutting the passenger rate to 10¢ between Flushing and Long