The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-11-17
LOOKING INTO MR.. HARTMAN

The announcement is made in Wash
ington that the Interstate Commerce
commission proposes to make a criti-
cal investigation of the so-called Har-
riman properties, and member OF
the commission is quoted as saying
that a condition is involved similar to
that which was disclosed in the case
of the Northern Securities company,
which was dissolved by the United
States encouragement.
The news appears to possess Pc
culiar significance, coming as it does
close upon the heels Of the election
and following hard upon the election
of Mr. Stuyvesant Fish from the pres
fdency of an important railroad sys-
tenn and the ensconcing therein of
Hartman in his place, says the N. Y.
Sun.
Not unrelated, perhaps is the cleo
ton as governor of California Of one
of Harriman's creatures as the out
come of a characteristic deal with
Hearst.
We incline to reject the political part
of the theory, and we hope we are
justified in doing so. Politics ought
never to have however remotely, any
part in suggesting or inspiring the
course of the Interstate Commerce
commission. Politics has had a good
deal to do with it's action in the past,
it is true; but the political necessity
which then existed has apparently
vanished for good. Mr.. Hartman
campaign, and there is every reason
to believe that his attitude, which was
particularly offensive, has been dis
cussed with some warmth in Wash
:ngton. 1t is unfortunate that such
Hartman is understood to have been
explicit in explaining his preference
for a democratic legislature at AL
bany. The matter has no relevancy to
the legal or illegal status of the gen.
tleman's railroad systems, and it is
to be hoped that it will be thorough
ly ASSOCIATED from the proposed in
quiry.
1t is very difficult to see wherein any
parallelism can be detected between
the Hartman systems and the North
ern Securities company. 1t must not
be forgotten, though, that the latter
concern was condemned and tried not
because of any illegal act that it had
committed or any lawless act that it
planned to commit, but because as it
stood constituted it was feasible and
competent for it to commit various il
LOCALITIES and Irregularities This
principle in law is now recognized as
identical with that which contemplates
the sequestration of all married cou-
Piles in order to do away with teh
crying abuses of divorce.
Regarded, therefore, as an estab-
lished precedent, which, indeed, it ac-
tually is, the prospect of an inquiry
should disturb Mr.. Hartman. His
reputation has been established with
singular felicity and entire lack of
equivocation by various and several
| matters Of history in this state. His
career with his acomplice Odell, the
robbery of the state treasury by the
F'urnaceville Iron company, the shock
ing disclosures touching his relations
with the Equitable Life-these and
other matters would seem to create
suspicion that an active inquiry into
his domestic circumstances so far as
| the Hartman systems are concerned
might not prove wholly infructuous. If
high tribunal should gravely hold
that Mr.. Hartman was not guilty,
but that he was extensively suscep-
| tible of enormity, and therefore that