Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-20
BOLD OPERATOR
STARTLES BY
HIS METHODS
Confines Himself to
Railroad Stocks
Works -Four Days Each Week, Keep.
ing Secretaries and Visitors on
the Jump During Work.
ing Hours

E. II. Hartman, who now controls
Los Angeles street car system. and is
turning his millions Californiawards, is
much-talked-about man today.
There Is probably no greater active
financier in the world today than E. II.
Hartman, president, director and
stockholder in n dozen or so railroads
that stretch between the two oceans,
and whose keen business deals have
been receiving somewhat of an airing
before the interstate commerce commits
sion.
The interstate commerce inquiry,
which resulted from the Union Pacific
Southern Pacific merger, might be said
to be an attack by the government upon
the greatest railroad magnates of the
age. Mr. Harriman's business deals
range in millions. and the name Co
lossus of Roads, is Justly applied.
The railroad world has had it's Nor
Sans, Goulds and Vanderblts, but il
remained for Hartman to stir the
country from Wall street to the Pacific
coast, where his Pacific liners dock, and
to have himself crowned the king of
fnanciers."
But little has been known of Harri-
man until of late years. His operations
or the past have ever been done quiet
~ ana he is man who has avoided
Eotoriety. The investigation Of the So
called Hartman lines has brought out
the fact that he is interested in some
way or another in almost every rail-
road OF Importance in the country, and
in several steamship lines.
Harriman's Corporations
He absolutely controls the Union and
Southern Pacific, the Oregon Short Line
and the Oregon Railway q Navigation
company, and it was brought out at the
hearing that he is the president of each
company.
In connection with this it is also said
that the Southern aPcifc COM
pany owns the Pacific Mail Steamship
company, line of no mean consequence
between North America and the Orient
The Southern Pacific owns the line of
steamers running between New York
and New Orleans, formerly known as
the Morgan line.
Besides these important holdings,
Hartman is deeply interested in the
Illinois Central. in connection with
which railroad he attained considerable
notoriety in the ousting of Stuyvesant
Fish from the presidency, an office
which Fish had held for nineteen years.
He is heavy holder in the Baltimore
& Ohio. the New York Central, the
Santa Fe, the st. Joseph & Grand Is
land and several other lines. Alto
gether it is estimated that Harriman's
interests control 'er 25000 miles of
railway trackage. more than an eighth
of the railway mileage of the country,
with capitalization of 50, 500, 900, 900.
Hartman, although not a young man.
Nnir old hns,
before the public He was over so
years old when he began the greatest
work of his life in the reconstruction Of
the Union Pacific railway. Hartman
like a great many other world builders
began life poor and work early.
Son of a Clergyman
His father was an Episcopal clergy
man and rector of st. Georges parish,
Hampstead, l.. l., when Edward Henry
was born. The father had been a bril-
liant student, having won honors at
Columbia university, and the railroad
king of today seems to have inherited
some of these qualities.
When IA years old he left school and
entered a brokers' Office in Wall street,
New York. His father collected his first
years salary.
This tendency on the part of young
Hartman to drift into Wall street
seemed to be an inheritance also, from
the fact that three of his uncles had
been actively engaged in business in
that famous street. One of these un-
cles Nelson Hartman, had been a
partner of the famous Larry" jerome,
father of the present district attorney of
Gotham.
Four years after he was initiated into
the mysteries of Wall street at the age
of 1S Hartman had partnership, and
four years later, when % years old,
he went into business for himself. He
bought a seat in the stock exchange,
which he has held ever since. Wall
street took him as a boy nodded him
into his ways, and Wall street meth
ods have ever been the manual that
has guided him in all the great bust
ness coups he has ACCOMPLISHED.
e. II. Hartman & Co, was the orig
inal firm, which is now known as Har-
riman & Co., but of this he is no
longer a member.
For Railroads Only
Hartman early began speculating in
railroad stocks, and it was not many
years after he went into business on
his own behalf that he dropped every
thing else and went in for railroads
altogether, and gradually he began the
collection of railroad stocks that be-
came railroads, and the country awoke
one day to find that a man, who had
heretofore not created a great furore
in the business mart, was captain,
yes, more than a captain of finance,
n general in fact.
So active was Hartman and so little
NWyMN AA'AA1AA'A-A-A' A-A'1Ahns