The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-18
RAILROAD WORLDS
KING IS HARTMAN
He's Now More Dreaded in
Wall Street Than Ryan
MILLIONS BACK OF HIM
The Stake to Be Played for in oustins
Fish From the Illinois Central
Something More Than
Mere Revenge.

New York, November T.-(Special)- Ao
cording to authorities in Wall street, Il
Fl. Hartman won a bigger stake thar
mere revenge for opposition in the Mutua
| Life insurance inquiry when he ousteC
Stuyvesant Fish from the presidency Of
the Illinois Central railroad. Time will
show just how valuable was the stake.
"rhe game" says the Evening Mail
was between the Mississippi valley and
the Pacific coast with Panama as the
pivotal point and Hartman played the
hand of the far west
THE big central trough Of the CONT
| ncnt, at the extremes of which stand Chi
cago and New Oreans, already is tre-
mendous channel of commerce. Its mag
nitude when the isthmian canal is opened
and our Oriental trade fully developed Is
almost beyond Imaginative measurement.
Stuyvesant Fish has been looking into the
future for a long while. The Illinois Cen
trail holds all that is best worth holding
OF the water fronts of Chicago, depot of
the northwests grain and all the natural
and manufactured products carried in the
immense traffic of the great lakes Of
Memphis, most progressive and prosper
Gus of the inland cities of the SOUTH and
OF New Orleans. chief port of the Gulf Of
Mexico and future point of departure for
the bulk of all shipments by Panama.
1.-THE Gould interests are striving des.
psrately to complete chain of branch
roads on the west bank of the Mississippi
Should they succeed. their north and south
system would not compare In strength
ten years hence, with what the Illinois
Central has already on the rivers eastern
shore.
This was the question presented-shall
the country's central commerce and ex
ports follow the lines logically presented
by the future, or shall the grain of the
north and the cotton of the south be d.
verted to the Pacific ports, their transport
tation saving the transcontinental rail-
roads from incalculable loss?
Achieved Lies Ambition.
Hartman fought for his own hand, as
usual The campaign of obstruction and
Misrepresentation against the canal has
ceased temporarily, in Congress and in
sensational magazines. 1t has only just
begun in the railroad general offices.
Hartman achieved the ambition of his
life when he made himself master of four
big railroads He is now the head of a
lantic to the Pacific and from Chicago to
the gulf-an achievement that has been
the dream Of every ambitious railroad
man. 1t took the courage which few men
possess to forge the last link in the chain
Hartman was already master of the lines
from east to west, and it remained for
him to get the connection from north to
south. This missing link in the chain was
the Illinois Central How he got this
II. III. IIarr
man. the man, is well told by the World
LAS long as Stuyvesant Fish remained
president of the road the link would be
missing Fish had to be removed. That
was job few railroad men would have
undertaken-eve the most reckless of the
new school of high financiers. In the face
of bitter opposition from every respectable
quarter of the financial district. Hartman
went calmly ahead with his PLAN ignoring
all criticism, oblivious to all complaints
Fish had to be slaughtered. He stood
in the way and had to be Knocked down
and wiped out. That he was the choice
of 70 per cent of the stockholders, that
he had managed the road with intelligence
and honesty, with a single eye to safe
guarding the property for its owners. were
facts which counted as nothing with Har-
riman Things of that sort do not appeal
to Hartman when he Is driving toward
certain goal.
THAT Mr.. Fish was an unusually emf
nent man both in the east and west. with
peculiarly lovable traits of character and
with friends innumerable both among the
poor and the rich. had no influence what
ever with Mr.. Hartman. Fish had to be
bowled out and the link brought in
Wall Street Fears Hartman.
"Wal1 street fears Hartman. 1t fears
Thomas r. Ryan, too, but Of the two
Hartman has the first place. Nobody Is
too big and no combination Is too rich
for Hartman to fight. 1t Is said that his
courage lies in the fact that he has the
Standard Oil at his back, and that he
never takes up a campaign Unless IL has
first been considered from all YieMpoints