The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-11-10
E. II. Hartman Said to Die
tate Policy of Victor M0rawetz.
MOrawetz, Chairman Of Board
Dictates Policy of Santa Fe.
ENEMIESTAKECOURAGE
"Pine Street Wizard" Believed
to Be Dying Now.
Those WhU Are Fighting Har-
riman Play Waiting Game.

Within the next six months there
is likely to be a rather startling change
in the transcontinental railroad situa-
ton. A special dispatch from New
York to the Oregonian of Portland
says:
A serious attempt is now being
made, sub-rosa. to break the monopoly
which Z. H. Hartman has obtained
| in trancontinentals. The history of
the past 80 days has brought things
to a point beyond which they cannot
go without an open rupture between
George Gould and the Rock Island in
| terests on the one hand, and the Harri-
| man interests on the other.
Within these 80 days it has been
officially announced that E. II. Harri-
man has obtained working control
of the San Pedro route. and big
voice in the affairs of the Santa Fe.
The mere fact that no Hartman rep
resentatiyes have gone on the board
of the Santa Fe means nothing al all.
Victor MorawetZ. the Chairman of the
board, dictates the policy of that road,
and F. H. Hartman dictates the policy
of Victor Morawetz.
The statement credited to z. p. Rip
ley, president of the road, that control
is to stay in the present form is a grim
joke. He knows what the present
form is. 1t is not the same as it was
twelve months ago.
Corner in TranscontinentaIs.
There are eight routes to the Pacific
coast from the central west. OF these
Hartman has a voice in the control or
six. Four he controls outright, and in
two he is powerful. The Little Wiz
ard of Pine Street" has made prac-
teal corner in transcontinentals. 1t
has taken him years. He has fought
and beaten one railroad power after
another to do it.
Now as his health fails, as he is
still engaged in his great fight for one
of the transcontinentals against the
one foe that ever really thwarted him,
the old enemies gather to the attack
again. George Gould, Rock Island,
Frisco, St. Paul, the Vanderbilts-they
are all in the array.
Years ago Mr.. Hartman conceived
his gigantic scheme. He began by the
purchase of Union Pacific from the
English bondholders. From that he
gradually bought the other railroads
in. In a night he contaminated the
famous deal that shook the financial
world to it's foundations-the purchase
of Southern Pacific from the Hunting
ton interests. That gave him two
transcontinental routes, one via Ell
Paso, the second via Ogden. Southern
and Central Pacific were in his hands.
Prior to that deal, in the. late '90s, he
had acquired the control of Oregon
Short Line and of Oregon Railroad &
Navigation. This gave him the third
route to the, Pacific. He had, by Jan
uary, 1902, acquired the control of a
the north, tapping the Columbia river
trade and the Oriental trade at Port
land. and two other routes to south
ern points, reaching the fertile and
wealthy valleys and cities of Southern
California and of the Gulf.
He had the great bulk of the Orien-
tai and Pacific Coast trade in his
hands at that date. He owned Pacific
Gulf ports. He had half completed his
great conquest of the western half of
this union.
Made His Master Stroke.
In 1901 came the master struggle. He
bid for and nearly bought Burlington, |
because he deemed it plausible that |
this was 10 be a new transcontinental !
to the northern ports. By that time |
Puget Sound had come up andwas bid |
ding for traffic. Then came the master |
stroke, whereby he hoped and intended |
to lay the entire western coast at once |
at his mercy, and to assume a position |
from which he could dictate half the |
commerce of the United States. He bid |
for Northern Pacific.
He went in against the mightiest |
railroad potentates of the day, j. J. |
Hill and J. P. Morgan-both at the |
zenith of their power. In the open |
market he bought control of the |
Northern Pacific, his fourth transcon-
tinentaE This feat brings the history |
to modern times, as Wall street under |
stands the term.
Here he met what looked like his |
Waterloo-and may be so. Hill and |
Morgan took the control away by re-
firing the preferred stock. Hartman
was beaten for the first and last time |
to date. He gave it up to Northern |
Securities. When the law came to his /
aid. he fought for what he conceived |
to be his rights. and what he knew !
to be his ambition.
Hartman, in control of the North
ern Pacific, can break Hills power in
the north. This is the issue between |
- 1T L. -. - al
has stated on oath before the COM
mission that if Hartman wins this
suit, he will sell out of Great Northern