Just as this region, almost immediately east of the Mississippi River, bids fair to remain competitive for an indefinite time, so is the territory immediately west of that great stream also bound to remain competitive. Reserve the greater part of Illinois Central for future and separate consideration, and now come to that Middle West territory. Are we going to create simon-pure regions there and ignore the fine traditions of properties such as the Burlington, the Rock Island, and the Santa Fe? No, not if we have any real sort of wisdom. North of them the problem is far easier of solution. The Milwaukee will merge quite easily into the Northwestern; although to operate the combined properties through to the Pacific coast would require at least three separate regional organizations--the Northwestern, between Chicago and the Missouri River, the Montana Lines from there to Spokane, and the Puget Sound Lines from there to the actual shore of the Pacific. Into these almost purely regional systems would also be merged the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific. The Burlington's line into the Twin Cities (St. Paul and Minneapolis) would cease to be. And in fairness to that road the Milwaukee's lines to Omaha and Kansas City would be withdrawn from the new Northwestern combination and parceled out between Santa Fe, Rock Island, and Burlington. Into such parceling would also go the always perplexing Chicago Great Western and the extraneous arm of the Illinois Central between Chicago and Omaha, running at right angles to the main-stem of that important system and to a larger extent disassociated from it. It might be found more practicable to bring Union Pacific directly into Chicago over the rails of one or the other of these last two properties (Union Pacific's financial interest in Illinois Central already is a powerful one), although the Union Pacific's operating heads would probably prefer one of the routes between Chicago and Omaha discarded by the larger Northwestern grouping; the present Milwaukee between those two cities is better built and so more easily operated than Illinois Central or Chicago Great Western. Union Pacific for a long time has felt that it has the same right as its chief transcontinental competitor, the Santa Fe, to a direct entrance into Chicago. In a way such as this it would be brought to a parity with the direct, although longer, southern route. "But," you interrupt, "how about Southern Pacific in such a case? It is also a pretty warm competitor of the Santa Fe."