The reorganization plan aroused sharp criticism both from Wall Street[666] and from the wider public, but met no opposition sufficient to prevent its being carried through. In September Attorney-General C. W. Mullen, of Iowa, in an opinion filed with the Governor of that state, held that the acts of the new Iowa corporation of the Rock Island, _i. e._ the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, were not outside the powers conferred by statute.[667] The Governor, in concurring with the opinion from a legal point of view, added, “the thing done is neither a merger nor a consolidation. Not a mile of track nor a dollar in value is added to the Rock Island property. It is simply a new device for watering securities; it is for the next General Assembly to say whether it is wise to permit our laws to so remain that such things are possible.”[668] The various corporations were, therefore, organized, and the various issues of stocks and bonds put forth. During the past four years the events which require mention are four: First, the acquisition of the St. Louis & San Francisco; second, the connection of the Rock Island with the Gulf; third, the temporary control of the Chicago & Alton; and fourth, the issue of a new refunding mortgage. In October, 1903, the Rock Island operated 7123 miles of line. Its tracks stretched southwest from Chicago to Santa Rosa, New Mexico, west from Memphis to Tucumcari, and northwest from Rock Island, Illinois, to Minneapolis and St. Paul, and to Watertown, South Dakota. This extensive mileage surrounded, however, instead of occupying, a large territory in Missouri, Kansas, Indian Territory, and Arkansas, and could claim no share in the vast traffic passing up and down the Mississippi Valley. One of the first acts of the Moores was to remedy this defect. In May, 1903, the Rock Island made a formal offer to purchase any and all shares of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, providing $22,500,000 in par value should accept, at a rate of $60 par value in the common stock of the Rock Island Company and $60 par value in a new issue of 5 per cent gold bonds of 1913 of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, for each $100 par value of Frisco common stock deposited; the new bonds to be secured by the stock acquired. This Frisco Company, it will be remembered, was the same that had previously been acquired and given up by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Since that time it had greatly extended its mileage, had gained control of the prosperous Chicago & Eastern Illinois, with entrance into Chicago, and was altogether more valuable than it had been before. In relation to the Rock Island it possessed precisely the mileage which was required. It connected the latter’s terminus at Chicago with the terminus of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf at Memphis; it traversed Southern Illinois, Southern Missouri, Southeastern Kansas, and Indian Territory, to say nothing of lines in Oklahoma and