Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-08
Hartman Owns Half
of Senator Clark'S
Railroad
Second Vice President
Gives Insight Into
Workings
Interstate Commerce Commissioner
Sinks Probe Deeply and Brings
Forth Facts Which Shippers
Had Suspected

III is perfectly pain I1dL LneTe mas
been no merger between the Salt Lake
road and the Hartman interests" said
a spectator at the conclusion of the
first days hearing conducted in Los
Angeles by Interstate Commerce Com
missioner Franklin K. Lane, assisted
by Attorneys c. A. Severance and
Frank G.. Finlayson. 1T was merely
a case of absorption of the Salt Lake
road by the roads known as the Har-
riman lines"
This trite comment probably would
be indorsed as the views of practically
everyone present, including half hun
dred railroad men, if they cared to
make the admission.
Only one witness was examined dur
ing the two sessions of two hours each,
but he told enough to show conclu-
sively that the line from San Pedro to
Salt Lake City, built by Senator w.
A. Clark and his associates. is an in
dependent road in name only and that
not only Is half the stock of $25, 900, 900
owned by the Hartman interests. but
that the road is absolutely controlled
by those interests by means of IRON
clad agreements and contracts re-
specting rates and In all other ques-
tions of vital Importance, including the
extension OF lines and in preferential
operation.
]. Ross Clark. second vice president
of the Salt Lake road and brother of
Senator w. A. Clark, was the witness
who went through the trying ordeal
of four hours of almost continuous
questioning. and he will resume the
stand this morning in order to give
his counsel an opportunity to throw a
a different light upon some of the tes-
timony adduced.
No Hope for Shippers
1t was shown that through rates in
either direction are the same when con-
signed over the Salt Lake as they are
now by way of Sacramento over the
Southern Pacific and Union Pacific and
that contracts exist which render 1t
impossible for the Salt Lake to change
the condition of affairs without the
consent of the recognized Hartman
roads.
This condition is to continue for q
period of ninety-nine years from the
date of the negotiation of the agree
ments and contracts, which was only
a short time before the completion of
the construction of the Salt Lake line.
''It is like the lion and the lamb ly-
ing down together with the lamb in
side the lion," whispered one specta-
tor to another just before the close of
the afternoon session.
If any doubt had existed whether
the inquiry was to be a thorough one
1t was dissipated by the result of the
disclosures made almost at the open
ing of the hearing.
Commissioner Lane and his attorneys
not only got to the meat of the situa-
tion, but they cut to the bone and then
scraped that as clean as the proverb-
ial whistle.
Blackstonian Dissection
Commissioner Lane was always alert
to take advantage of any opportunity
offered to make a point moro telling,
and frequently when the attorney
would make a clever incision Commits
Sioner Lane would insert the probe
and deftly turn it around until the af-
fected part was laid bare.
Occasionally counsel for the Salt Lake
and the Southern Pacific, who jointly
made efforts to protect the witness,
seemed to think that the commissioner
and his attorneys We're not aVerse to
rubbing In an occasional handful of
salt when they reached a particularly
sore spot, and they raised number of
objections to questions, but in no in
stance did they receive any particular
satisfaction and the vigorous probing
continued unrelentingly throughout
the day.
The Clark Waterloo
1t developed during the replies of
Mr.. Clark to the first questions pro-
pounded by Attorney Severance that
Senator Clark met his Waterloo in
railroad construction at the Meadow
Valley wash in Nevada and that there
after all hope of Los Angeles securing
an Independent outlet to the East was
gone.
Clark's trouble all resulted through
the acquisition by the Oregon Short
Line of the franchise of the Utah<Pa-
cific, which had a right of way and
had constructed portion of grade
through Meadow Valley wash. In order
TO get through the wash and canyon
Il would have been necessary to cross
the grade of the Utah Pacific twenty
six times within short distance. maxi
ing the cost of construction almost pro-
hibitive and operation hazardous, but
I'm addition to that the Oregon Short
Line threatened to parallel the Salt
Lake road the entire distance.
In order to avoid these punches of
trouble Senator, Clark eapitulated,
transferred to the Hartman interests
30 per cent of the Salt Lake stock, en-
tered into all the various agreements
and contracts, and since which time