The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1906-09-14
A WIZARD OF THE RAILS

Salt lake in Utah has been bridged
and other physical obstacles have
been overcome the surrounding OF
which up to the time that Mr.. Harri.
man took hold of them had been con.
sidered impossible. Much of the ex.
pense of making these physical inn
provements has been met out of the
earnings of what before had been
bankrupt properties incapable of pay.
ing fixed charges. They have now
been made to earn, in addition to the
amounts appropriated for these i'm.
provements, immense dividends for
their stockholders.
One year after his purchase of the
Southern Pacific Mr.. Hartman gave
the railroad and financial world a sur
prise great enough to throw them
into state of convulsion, and for a
short time threatened almost univer-
sal collapse. In 1901 James j. Hill
purchased the Burlington road for
the Northern Pacific. Mr.. Hartman
thought that purchase threatened
Union Pacific interests. and demanded
that he be allowed to have a finger
in the pie. He was brusquely refused
Before Mr.. Hill or his associate, J.
Pierpont Morgan, knew what was
happening, Mr.. Hartman was in the
market purchasing control of the
Northern Pacific with the result that
on May 8, 1901, the price of the
stock of that road scared to $1,000
share. Two days later Mr.. Hartman
announced that he owned a majority
of Northern Pacific stock. Out of
total of $155,000,000 he held shares
of the par value of $7S,000,000. A COM
parison of notes, however. showed
that his holdings, 100000, was
preferred stock, which under the plan
of reorganization could be retired at
any time. Mr.. Hill and Mr.. Morgan
had $42,O00,000 of the common, and
this was majority of the controlling
power. The result was compromise,
as manifested in the organization OF
the Northern Securities company as
the Northern Pacific, Great Northern
and Burlington systems.
The securities company subsequent
ly was dissolved by decree of the SUI
preme court of the United States,
and the properties fell back to the
control of the Hill-Morgan combina-
ton, but only after the Hartman in
terests had made many millions out
of their connection with the enter
prise
Hartman seems to have an utter
contempt for popular opinion. In
manner he is brusque in the extreme-
He shows intolerance of other peo-
pies opinion, and seems incapable OF
comprehending that any will but his
own should govern in the carrying out
of plans which may be under consid-
Grafton. Possessed of remarkable
quickness of perception and deter
mination to have his own way, which
has brooked no opposition, he has
ridden rough-shod over the opinions
and feelings of others who believed
they had as much right to considera-
ton as he. BY so doing he has Gre
alter hatred and enmity to an ex-
tent which few men could bear, but
he has moved along apparently wholly
Indifferent to the whole affair.
Mr. Hartman is small man, OF
slight build, narrow chested and del
icate in appearance, but he is whirl-
wind for energy in his work. He
keeps busy a small army of stenog-
raphers. He is very rapid thinker,
and acts as rapidly as he thinks. He
never SulkS he never SWaggerS, and
has very few fads, though he is
lover of out-of-doors and insists that
his children belong to nearly all OF
the open air clubs and societies about
his country home.
Mr. Hartman is wholly self-made
man. His father was a clergyman,
and when the son began his active
career it was as clerk in brokers'
office in Wall street. In that vicin-
ity his career has been spent. There
his great financial battles have been
fought and his great financial tri-
umphs won. There his latest surprise
has been enacted and there his latest
financial achievement is being can
vassed with all the bitterness of criti-
cism which most of his surprises have
evoked.