Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/140

 124 closeted together in Poppenhusen's College Point mansion. It developed that Havemeyer had secured the consent of a majority of the stockholders of the Long Island R.R. to the change, and that there was to be a consolidation of the roads and not a sale. The transfer was made public on January 25.

On February 1, 1876, details of the deal became known. Thirty-five thousand shares of Long Island R.R. stock were sold to the Poppenhusen family for $37.50 per share, or $1,175,000. The capital stock of the Long Island R.R. was then 66,000 shares. The purchase gave the Poppenhusens a controlling interest in the management while the Havemeyers profited handsomely, for they had bought the stock at about $22, even though its par value was $50.

The union of all the competing Long Island railroads into one operating whole was a landmark in Long Island transit history and a major achievement, the significance of which was not fully realized by the public of that day. The immediate concern at that time was a fear of the effects of monopoly and a dread of runaway fare increases. Today, we can, in retrospect, see more clearly what the unification really meant—the emergence of the modern Long Island R.R., and the familiar routings and operations in practice today. The new united Long Island railroad did not wipe out the corporate existence of the component roads. The Poppenhusen blueprint called for the leasing of the newer roads to the older and financially stronger Long Island R.R., and this plan was submitted to the stockholders at the May meeting of that year. The North Side and Central system was to be leased at an annual rental of $229,250 for the first year, increasing in six years to a maximum of $351,050. For the Southern the rental was set at $173,250 for the first year and to increase in six years to $233,450. All the leases were to run 99 years.

Poppenhusen, in his address to the directors, pointed out that the new arrangement was designed to benefit all three roads alike both in the savings of about $150,000 in running expenses and in the increase of business facilities for both passengers and freight. The Long Island R.R., in accepting the leases of the other two roads, did not accept the liabilities of these roads, the mortgages on them remaining as before, but it would have the right of removing shops and depots so as to have central build-