The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1907-04-18
Washington Letter.
(From our regular correspondent

At last the Interstate Commerce
Commission has decided that it will
apply to the Circuit Court of the
State of New York for authority to
compel E. IT. Hartman to answer
the questions that he refused to an
swer when he was on the witness
stand in New York. This on the
face of it may not be very import
ant decision. 1t will have no par
ticular effect on the question of
civil or criminal prosecution. But
it will probably ruin Mr.. Hartman
as railroad promoter if the decision
of the court is against him and in
favor of the commission. It is for
this reason: The questions he evad
ed in the New York inquiry were
how much private interest he had in
the stock of the Southern Pacific
when the Union Pacific bought that
stock for the purpose of owning the
competing road. The question in
connection with the Alton was in
the same direction The Commits
sion wanted to know how much of
the stock of the Alton Mr.. Harri-
man bought before he turned it over
to the stockholders reorganization
syndicate, how much he held in the
syndicate and how much, if any, he
now holds and at what pirce his va
rious holdings were bought and
sold
The fnancler refused to answer
these questions on the ground that
they were his private transactions,
bluntly that it was none of the Com
missions business. This might
seem so on first view. But it has a
very pertinent bearing on the man
ipulation of the several roads under
the Hartman management. It is
believed that an answer to these
questions would show that Harri-
man had profted vastly by the sew
eral railroad deals, that he had
skinned most of his partners as well
as the public, and it would ruin his
chances as promoter in the future
1t is of little moment to the big ones
in New York that fellow promot-
err loo S railroad OF gets the best
of the general public in deal. But
1t is a very different thing when they
fn1 that they have been "whip-
sawed themselves and that their
partner in deal has ght cheap r
and sold dearer 10 them than they
hed any reason to suspect. Mr.
III III iman's fortune, vast as it is, will
not yet suffice unaided for buying
and selling whole transcontint ntal
ines, and if bis business associates
find reason to fight shy of him, his
career as promoter is perilously
near done.
For this reason there will be hot
legal fight over the demand that
Mr.. Hartman answer the questions
of the Commission. Whichever
party is beaten in the New York
court viii! be sure to appeal immedi-
ately to the Supreme Court of the
United States There is no chance
of getting hearing for it before
the court meets for the October
session. Then at the request of the
Attorney General the case may be
made special and set forward for an
early hearing. But the decision can
hardly be looked for before the mid
die of the coming winter 1t will
have no effect, however, on the
question OF prosecution of Mr..
Hartman under the anti trust law.
There is already material enough to
warrant a report to the Department
of Justice and the question of
prosecution and the nature of it,
whether it shall be civil or criminal,
will be left to the Attorney General.
This report cannot be made in less
than a month.
The decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States that the
Isle Of Pines is Cuban and not Uni
ted States property will>be severe
blow to hundreds of American citi-
zens who have invested all or nearly
all their money in property there
under the impression that they were
under the protection of the United
States There is no question that
when the Treaty of Paris was sign
ed that everyone thought the Isle of
Pines was American property The
island was marked as a United
States possession even on the official
maps, and the right of the United
States to it probably never would
have been questioned even by Cuba
had not Gen. Wood calmly banded
over the island to the Cuban gov
ernment while he was in control of