The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-09-05
CONFERENCE WILL
DETERMINE MOVE
GOVERNMENT MAY TAKE CASE
OF HARTMAN LINES INTO
FEDERAL COURT.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3.-The
coming conference between the presi-
dent and lns advisors regarding the
Hartman lines is going to be far
reaching in consequences. 1t is said
that one of two things will have to
happen-either all attempts to break
up the so-called combination of
railroads in restraint of trade, will
be abandoned for good, or the gov
ernment will take the case into the
federal courts and not rest until the
Hartman roads have been separated
from each other, one by one, like
threads from the woof of a raveling
ribbon, until one single line is left
exposed to all the light of public
scrutiny
President Roosevelt must take his
western trip before coming back to
Washington. His return will be in
October and it is believed one of the
first things he will do will be to hold
the Hartman conference.
Consideration will be given first
it is understood to the merger of
the Union Pacific and the Southern
Pacific systems, which some authori-
ties declare is the strongest case in
which the administration may pro-
coed if it has not abandoned its in
tention to go after Mr.. Hartman. On
the surface the administration an
pears to be at loss as to how to
proceed in the matter. Some people
hold that the administration would
be happy if the pubic forgot the case
and be content to pigeon-hole the evil
ha 1ac
which certain officials allege tends
to show that the great railroad COM
binations engineered and directed by
Hartman are conducted in violation
of law.
This, it was explained today in an
official quarter, does not reflect ac-
curately the attitude of the admins
tration toward Mr.. Hartman or the
Hartman lines. That individuals
associated with the Hartman rail-
road management will not be pro-
secuted criminally was decided long
ago, in fact, before the president left
Washington for his summer vacation.
But final decision as to whether civil
cases shall be instituted to break up
certain combinations in restraint of
trade disclosed during the inquiry of
the Interstate Commerce commission
into the matter, for which Mr.. Harri-
man and men associated with him
are supposed to be responsible, is yet
to be made This point will be set
tied early in the fall.
There is good reason to believe
that the president will discuss the
Hartman case in his first message
to the Sixtieth congress, using 1t as
an example in support of supplement
tai railroad legislation, which he will
recommend and which he has already
outlined in public addresses, notably
Indianapolis on Memorial day.
1t is now known for a certainty
that if the administration makes an
effort to smash" Hartman, the I'm
ion Paeific-Southern Pacific consoli-
dation will be the first point of at
tack. According to the Interstate
Commerce commission, competition
between there two systems has been
eliminated under the Hartman man
agement. Whether the merger is
beneficent or otherwise in its effects
upon interstate trade must be decid-
ed by the legal advisors of the admin
istration. If it should be held that
the consolidation is wholesome in
its influences upon interstate trade
and interstate shippers, as the United
States supreme court, in its decree
dissolving the merger of the Hill
roads, gave an intimation that a mer-
ger of competing railroads that was
helpful instead of hurtful to inter-
state commerce, was, in all probable
ity, legal combination.