From this as a beginning he went on swiftly and incisively.  The Pacific Southwestern, in its present condition, was a failure.  It was an incomplete line, trying vainly to hold its own against great and powerful systems overlapping it at either end.  The remedy lay in extension.  The acquisition of a controlling interest in three short roads, which, pieced together, would bridge the gap between the Missouri River and Chicago, would place the Pacific Southwestern upon an equal footing with its competitors as a grain carrier.  By standardizing the Plug Mountain narrow gauge and extending it to Salt Lake and beyond, the line would secure a western outlet, and would be in a position to demand its share of transcontinental business.

To finance these two extensions a capital of thirty-five million dollars would be needed; five million dollars for the purchase of the majority stock in the three short roads, and the remainder for the western outlet.  These assertions were not guesses:  by referring to exhibits marked “a” “b” and “f,” his hearers would find accurate estimates of cost, not only of construction, but also of stock purchases.

As to the manner of providing the capital, he had only a suggestion to offer.  The five million dollars necessary for the acquirement of a controlling interest in the three short roads would be a fair investment.  It could be covered immediately by a reissue—­share for share—­of the reorganization stock of the P. S-W., which would amply secure the investors, since the stock of the most prosperous of the three local roads was listed at twenty-eight, ten points lower than the present market quotation of P. S-W.

The thirty million dollar extension fund might be raised by issuing second mortgage bonds upon the entire system, or the new line itself could be bonded mile for mile under a separate charter.  Ford modestly disclaimed any intention of dictating the financial policy; this was not in his line.  But again he would submit facts.  The grain crop in the West was phenomenally large in prospect.  With its own eastern terminal in Chicago, the Pacific Southwestern could control the grain shipments in its own territory.  With the moving of the grain, the depressed P. S-W. stock would inevitably recover, and on a rising market the new issue of bonds could doubtless be floated.

The enthusiast closed his argument with a hasty summing-up of the benefits which must, in the nature of things, accrue.  From being an alien link in the great transcontinental chain, the Pacific Southwestern would rise at a bound to the dignity of a great railway system; a power to be reckoned with among the other great systems gridironing the West.  Its earnings would be enhanced at every point; cross lines which now fed its competitors would become its allies; the local lines to be welded into the eastern end of the system would share at once in the prosperity of a strong through line.