their training had been on the financial side of corporation dealings, and the bulk of what experience they had had in actual management had been derived from industrial and not from railroad operations. It was natural, therefore, that the most striking results from their accession to power should appear on the financial rather than on the operating end, and that their ability to manipulate stocks and bonds should prove more unquestionable than their ability to handle railroad affairs. Results in the development of the Rock Island system were, however, attained, and for two reasons: in the first place, the Moores were able, and above all enterprising men, and untrammelled by traditions of conservatism, they were quick to see and bold to execute plans made possible by the admirable location of their 4000 miles of road; in the second place, they soon had large blocks of securities which they wished to sell, and were impelled to undertake large operations in the hope of raising quotations upon the Exchange. In June, 1901, the stockholders authorized an increase in the capital stock from $50,000,000 to $60,000,000; stockholders of record June 28, 1901, to have the right to subscribe at par.[659] The proceeds were to go in part for extension from Liberal, Kansas, to El Paso, Texas, and in part for a new depot and elevation of tracks in Chicago, and for the improvement of the physical condition of the road. This El Paso extension plan was not new, since in December, 1900, the Chicago, Rock Island & Mexico, and the Chicago, Rock Island & El Paso had been incorporated to build a line from Liberal, Kansas, to Santa Rosa, New Mexico; there to connect with the El Paso & Northeastern, and to afford a through route to the Pacific coast and into Mexico. The other plans were, however, new. In April, 1903, the Chicago, Rock Island & Texas filed an amendment to its charter providing for an extension from Fort Worth to Galveston, 295 miles. The same month the sale of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf to the Rock Island was officially confirmed. This road has been, with one exception, the most important acquisition of the Moores. It stretches from Memphis, Tennessee, through the Indian Territory, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, to the border line of Texas, and furnishes a nearly direct line from those states to the Mississippi River; while a projected extension to New Mexico will connect with the Rock Island main lines to the southward, and make it a valuable link in the through route from El Paso to Memphis and Birmingham. The Rock Island paid $80 a share for the common stock and $60 for the preferred,[660] and under the terms of the sale agreed to take at the same price all stock offered. The premium was very large. Choctaw preferred had been paying 5 per cent for some years, and the common had received 2 per cent in 1889, 4 per cent in 1900, and 4½ per cent in 1901, plus 10 per cent in stock; but reckoned on a basis of 120 and 160