Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-08
CLARK CONFESSES
To commissioner
THROWS SEARCHLlGHT ON
SALT LAKE
Started out with the Idea Of an lnde-
pendent Railroad, but Oregon
Short Line Had the
Upper Hand


!
! Continued from. Pnpe onc)
everything has been entirely harmo-
| NOUS,
An Animated Scene
The superme court room in the Bull
lard block was crowded when Commits
sioner Lane. without the slightest in
| dication of having changed physically
since he visited Los Angeles during
| the state Compaign four years ago,
took his seat upon the bench ana
raped for order.
The gathering had every appearance
of being a conference OF railroad OF
hCials at convention OF employees
for. in addition to the many officials
present there were number or clerks
and other employees who are supposed
to have been subpoenaed as witnesses
Included i'm the audience were Second
Vice President J. Ross Clark OF the
salt Lake road; T, q. Gibbon. former
vice president and general manager
of the same line: e. w. Gillett, former
freight and traffic manager of the same
line: r. j. Norton the local general
counsel Of the Santa Fe; A. G. Wells,
local general manager of the Santa
Fe: Judge Kelly of the Salt Lakes
legal department; r. f.. Wells, general
manager of the Salt Lake; z. f. Dunne,
chief counsel of for the Hartman in
terests, Attorney f. c. Durborrow OF
the Southern Pacific; I. A. Graham,
ger traffic manager of the Southern
Pacific, and other railroad officials and
employees.
There were also present a number of
fruit growers and representatives of
shipping interests.
Tells Of Clark Trials
Commissioner Lane lost no time in
preliminaries, and he opened with the
following brief statement:
Gentlemen, we will continue the i'll
ouiry into the Hartman matter con-
cerning the Southern Pacific system,
the Union Pacific and the oregon
Short Line. Attorneys Severance and
F. G.. Finlayson appear for the COM
mission, P. F. Dunno for the southern
Pacific, T. J. Norton for the Santa Fe,
and Judge w. r. Kelly for the salt
Lake. Is that correct, gentlemen?'
He was assured that the names were
correct, and he then instructed Attor-
ney Severance to call the first witness,
which proved to be j. Ross Clark.
AS the second vice president of the
Salt Lake road seated himself in the
witness chair after being sworn he be-
trayed considerable nervousness, which
was noticeable throughout his exam
ination.
In reply to questions, Mr.. Clark told
OF his brother and himself, together
with r. C. Kerens and other associates,
acquiring control of the old Terminal
company, operating a line between Los
Angeles and San Pedro, and which
controlled so per cent of the east side
of the inner harbor.
Hartman Not Interested
At that time Mr.. Hartman was not
interested in the venture. Definite
plan to construct a road between San
Pedro and Salt Lake was adopted ny
the company in 1901, and everything
went we'll until the surveyors reached
Meadow Valley wash, in Nevada. Con-
tinulng, Mr.. Clark said:
Here we had trouble with our OPP
ponent, the Oregon Short Line said
the witness, as he nervouSly twisted
his finger rings. "Our opponent had an
old grade through the canyon, built in
1889 or 1890. 1t connected with the
Utah-Pacific line, which. I believe, Is
a sub.company of the older company
This grade had been sold for taxes and
we presumed it had been abandoned
We bought up the tax title, and then
got into court. The court ruled against
us, and we abandoned the work. Next
we proceeded to survey from Caliente
west through the canyon, and again
we got into conflict. The question was
one of survey and approval of our
maps These suits never We're finally
determined
Mr.. Clark said that in order to build
through the wash the Salt Lake road
would have to cross the right of way Of
the Utah-Pacific twenty-six times
within a short distance, which would
make the cost of construction too great,
and also that the Oregon Short Line
had declared its intention of parallel
ing the Clark road.
Hartman Gets the Upper Hand
Attorney Severance then referred to
the agreements and contracts between
w. A. Clark as trustee of the Salt Lake
road and e. H. Hartman as trustee of
the Oregon Short Line, all brought to
the surface at the recent hearing in
New York, and by means of which the
Hartman interests secured possession
of 80 per cent of the capital stock Of
the Salt Lake road and are able to
dictate all the policies of the Salt Lake.
Mr.. Clark admitted that he was
aware of the nature of the contracts
at the time of their adoption, and he
gave as a reason for making the deal
with Hartman the desire of the Salt
Lake road promoters to complete their
plan for constructing the line.
Attorney Severance called attention
to a section in the contract in which
it Is expressly stated that Hartman
had the right to replace half the board
of directors of the Salt Lake by reason
of his purchase of half the stock, but
that 1t was considered best for all con =
cerned that no change be made at that
time, because lit was to the advantage
of the company to have it appear that
the road was an independent line"
Hartman Takes Kindly Interest
Mr. Clark admitted that Mr.. Harri-
man had made arrangement with the
Southern Pacific, for the use by the
Salt Lake of the Southern Pacific
tracks between Riverside and Cotton