The San Francisco call., 1896-02-22
CONTRADICTS STAMFORD
Says Great Fortunes Were Not
Made in the Contract and
Finance Company.
ONLY THREE OR FOUR MILLIONS
That Is the Miserable Pittance Hunt.
ington Secured by Twenty
Years Labor.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Feb. 21.-Sena-
tor Morgan resumed his examination of
Z. I. Huntington, president of the South
ern Pacific Company, before the Senate
Pacific Railroads Comm ittee this morning,
taking as the basis of his questions the re-
port of the United States Pacific Railroad
Commission, which examined into the
whole subject in 1887, Messrs. Littler and
Anderson making the ajority report and
ex- Governor Pattison of Pennsylvania
the minority report.
MIR. huntington was in mood to repel,
being driven to the wall, and he resented
with some show of asperity what he sup
posed to be reflections on his veracity I'M
piled in some of the questions put to him.
He denied that himself, Stanford, Hop
kins and Crocker made ali enormous
fortune, or even an undue profit out of the
operations of the Contract and Finance
Company, asserting that when the work
was all done and paid for-half in cash
and half in stock of the Central Pacific
the Contract and Finance Company was
not able to pay its debts.
1t was only when the Central Pacific
stock appreciated, as it did largely in few
y
| Company realized large protits. Taking
into consideration ali the work and anxiety
that he had gone through for twenty years
in building the road and in establishing it
on a successful basis, he declared that
| himself and his associates were not suffi-
ciently remunerated.
On being pressed to name the amount of
his personal profit, Mr.. Huntington finally
~. ~.
| lion dollars
THAT is pretty good pay for twenty
/, years work, said Senator Morgan.
mo, not for the work we did, said Mr..
Huntington.
II have done as much work in twenty
years." said Morgan, land 1 never got a
twentieth part of that"
II do not do that kind of work for any
such price as that-not of my own voli-
ton, Mr.. Huntington said.
Morgan asked if all the capital were not
furnished by the Government, and Hunt
lngton said it was not but could not say
just how much he did put Uncertainty
more than a million, and anyhow enough
to make great success of the work 1t
was put in from time to time as the neces-
sity of the work demanded. There was no
his dwelling house to carry on the work.
He had paid into the Contract and Finance
Company $4,000 or $4,000 at the beginning,
and several hundred thousand afterward.
He could not state exactly how much.
He was in the East the greater part of the
time, and Mr.. Hopkins had absolute con-
troll of that part of the business.
Gwen your pank account?" asked
Morgan.
"Yes," replied Mr.. Huntington, 'T
always found it the better way to trust
somebody than to trust nobody"
At another point in the examination
Senator Morgan remarked that Mr.. Hunt
ington's answer was mo answer at all.'
I'm answering the best 1 can," Hun
tington said.
I'm afraid not," Senator Morgan dryly
remarked.
81 am" Huntington retorted rather de-
family, land when l say 1 am that is what
it means"
Senator Morgan read statement from
the report of the United States Pacific
Railroad Committee and asked Hunting
ton whether the statement was correct.
81 do not fight ords," he answered,
'..that are thrown into the air by ire
sponsib BILE committees as these committees
usually were. They picked mp their in
formation on the street corners of San
Francisco. Very likely they did the best
they could, but they did not get correct
information"
at appears" said Senator Morgan,
"that they got some of their information
from Senator Stanford, and Senator Stan
ford testified that each of the four parties
in the Contract and Finance Company got
just $13, 600 as his share of the profit"
"Mr. Stanford knew very little,'' Mr..
Huntington replied, ''of the business of
the company, but l do not know how he
could have made that mistake. l have no
idea that there was any such amount OF
Central Pacific stock delivered, and how
he could have got $13, ,000, 600 of it cannot
see.''
Morgan read from the testimony of Mr.
Yost, who swore he saw Mr.. Croeker pick
out number of boxes containing books
of the Contract and Finance Company and
store them away. Mr.. Huntington ad-
hered to his former statement that the
books in question had all been destroyed.
"Did you know Yo st?" asked Morgan.
81 did," said Huntington.
"What sort of man was he2'
He is dead''
II know that" said Morgan.
well, the best thing be ever did was to
die, - was Huntington's reply.
"a John Miller tes tiied," said Morgan,
that he saw Crocker store the books away;
what about him?'
"I'n tell you," was Mr.. Huntington s re-
ply. II went into our office in San Fran
cisco one day and saw the man Miller at
work. What salary do you give that
man?' / asked Crocker. Five thousand a
year was his reply. That is either too
much or too little 1 replied. l then ad-
vised Crocker to put an expert on Miller's