Hill

port of steel, cotton, flour, and other products.
To stimulate their movement through Seattle he
put into effect low export rates. In 1896 he made
a contract with the principal steamship company
of Japan and in 1900 organized the Great North-
ern Steamship Company, which built two ves-
sels larger than anything then in freight-carrying
service. The Oriental traffic would not move ex-
cept under rates substantially lower than those
applying to domestic traffic. The low export
rates were a form of discrimination, sound
enough in this specific case, but difficult to ex-
plain satisfactorily to those who paid higher
domestic rates. The regulating authorities dis-
approved of the low rates on export traffic and
the vision of Oriental trade which was so bright
in 1901-02, by 1905 had almost faded.

In railroad administration Hill placed major
emphasis on exact and complete knowledge of
costs and every index of operating efficiency.
He insisted that every operating officer on his
railroads should be familiar with detail. Every
superintendent was required to be thoroughly at
home in accounts and statistics. Many stories
are told about his alleged harshness in dealing
with subordinate officials, but in each case there
was probably a background of incompetence, in-
complete knowledge of facts, or failure to con-
trol unfavorable tendencies. Hill's dictum was:
"Intelligent management of railroads must be
based on exact knowledge of facts. Guesswork
will not do."

Hill guarded jealously the interests of his
stockholders and had a high concept of his obli-
gations to them and to the region which the rail-
road served. His high sense of honor is indi-
cated by the manner in which he disposed of his
personal investment in the Mesabi ore ranges
later served by the Great Northern. When he
bought the lands (1899), then undeveloped and
uncertain in value, the venture seemed too much
of a gamble to risk the money of stockholders, so
he personally acquired the properties (25,000
acres) at a price of $4,050,000. Yet, after the
success of the venture was assured, he felt im-
pelled to give to the stockholders of the railroad
the future profits, which, from 1906 to 1916,
were $11,250,000,

Whether Hill's chief claim to greatness lay in
his genius and achievements as a railroad builder
and operator or in his skill in matters of finance
is open to argument. It is probable that if his
energies had not been devoted mainly to railroad
construction and management he would have
shone in finance. For many years he was a di-
rector of the Chase National Bank and the First
National of New York and of the First National

Hill
and the Illinois Trust & Savings of Chicago.
He was on the board of the First National of St.
Paul from 1880 to 1912, when he bought con-
trol of the Second National and merged the two
institutions. Later he bought also the North-
western Trust Company of St. Paul to operate
in harmony with the First National. His idea
was to have a strong bank in the Northwest to
relieve its degree of dependence on Eastern in-
stitutions.
Hill is often referred to as an empire builder
because of his great part in the development of
the Northwest. At times he was criticized as
capitalistic, but by and large the people of the
region held him in high esteem and were lavish
in their honors. When the management of the
Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in
1915 asked each state to name its greatest living
citizen for a hall of fame, a committee of five,
appointed by the Governor of Minnesota to desig-
nate the representative of that state, unanimous-
ly selected Hill. At Harvard University the
James J. Hill Professorship of Transportation,
endowed by seventy-four of his friends and ad-
mirers, was established in 1915. In politics Hill
was a Democrat. He worked assiduously in 1884
to promote the candidacy of Cleveland Later,
Cleveland and Hill became close friends and the
President frequently sought his advice on finan-
cial and transportation matters. Although Hill
was of medium height, there was something
about his appearance that suggested great size
and strength—probably his powerfully built
frame, massive head, the impression of immense
reserves of power, and the indefinable qualities
of one accustomed to command. Direct, almost
brusque, in conversation, he had withal a keen
sense of humor. He was a warm admirer of
Burns and could recite many of his poems from
memory. His simple and direct style reflect the
influence of his early reading and rereading of
Pilgrim's Progress. His business reports and
statements, his public addresses and personal let-
ters, were written in a peculiarly lucid style and
with the minimum of words required to express
the thought. His love for books led him in 1912
to erect and provide for the maintenance of the
Hill Reference Library, a beautiful building in
St Paul. As early as the eighties he had begun
to purchase paintings and his gallery contained
one of the finest collections of the works of mod-
ern French artists. He loved fine rugs and
jewels and had remarkable skill in appraising
and selecting them.
Hill was brought up by a Methodist mother
and Baptist father. On Aug. 19, 1867, he mar-
ried Mary Theresa Mehegan, daughter of Timo-