Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-04-26
HARTMAN AND HIS WORK
What de Has Achieved Since BE Feohms
q Railroad Builder.
UNION PACIFIC ROAD HIS MONUMENT
Great Overland system Reiuvenated
by His Genius and Made an Inn
menseIy Profitable Prop
erty for Stockholders.


! Friends Of Mr. Hartman, like those OF
Meyer and Haywood, take much exception
to the presidents classification Of the presi-
dent Of the Union Pacific as an undesirable
citizen and vigorously resent the imputa-
/ ton that Mr.. Hartman is a menace TO SO
ciety and good order. One of them, Mr..
/ William Whitney, says:
1T is the business Of the public press to
1 reflect the news sentiment as we'll as the
| news Of fact and l think that It does right
in printing the state of public sentiment
/ against MIR. Hartman at the present time.
/ Nevertheless, small as my voice may be,
/ want to raise 1t In defense of Mr.. HarT1-
man, and / want TO declare that public
sentiment is not a safe guide in relation to
finance or financial men. One Is usually
| entitled to be tried before a jury Of his
peers. l admit that Mr.. Hartman is
failure as u politician. 1 admit also that
he is a failure on the witness stand, that
he is failure in good manners with many
Of his associates and that he is a failure
in winning public confidence.
"Oakes Ames. who built the Union Pa
cifc railroad, was a failure before the peo-
pie and the politicians, but the name OF
Cakes Ames as the pioneer builder Of the
Union Pacific and one Of the great ma
| tcrial developers Of the United States, VIII
live and be honored when the work, the
name and memory OF millions who Sian
dered him rest In oblivion.
| "Oakes Ames built a railroad q thousand
| miles long that knit the Pacific states 70
the eastern states commercially and po-
litically in the period Of our great civil war.
| The competition which the public so highly
values lowered the rates on that thousand
miles until It could not earn more than
two-thirds the interest on its debt
Harrtman'a Achievements.
''E H. Hartman took that road, reor-
ganized from bankruptcy, and welded out
Of it a system of 10000 miles, twice reach
ing the Pacific; raised its credit and its
earnings, poured money into 1t by the hun
dred millions until It is today earning 20
per cent upon SeOO,0O00O0 of common shares
capital, or $40 100000 Of stockholders net
earnings where there we're before only S.
100000 Of net earnings with which to pay
100000 in annual charges-$4O,O 100000 sur
plus in place OF 100000 deficit-and the
assets in the Union Pacific treasury now
! would pay the larger part Of all its bonds
Is Mr.. Hartman a success as railroad
man and a fnancier?
81 told Mr.. Hartman many years ago
that the public would never pay interest
upon the improvements he proposed 70 put
into the Union Pacific railroad and that
should sell my Union Pacific stock. In due
time | sold It and for one-half what 1t
later sold for Mr. Hartman poured his
millions, his brains and his great energy
into the Union Pacific, and the Union Pa
cihc Of today is IIarriman's creation just
as much as the Union Pacific OF the pre-
vious generation was the creation OF Oakes
Ames.
Mr. Jacob II. Schiff, who has been Mr..
Harriman's banker, has told me that Mr..
Hartman stood alone against his bankers
and his associate directors in his faith in
the Union Pacific and his ability to earn
money upon the improvements he proposed
to make, .
what Clark said,
''Mr s. II. II. Clark. who previously
managed the Union Pacific for so many
years, told me many times before he
died that the Union Pacific. when 1t was
bankrupt was gone forever. Competition,
he said. and the opening of wheat fields In
Russia and South America, etc, made the
resurrection Of the Union Pacific an i'm
possibility.
'Now Mr.. Hartman won alone against
the whole world, as did Oakes Ames.
Il have not shared in the prosperity OF
/. the Union Pacific because l did not be-
= HeNe Mr.. t1aIIlLnAu "uhlu EhGSNtn Ali
building up that property, but II Mr. Harri-
man is defeated b. the politicians or re-
tired by public sentiment 1 will subscribe
to build a monument to him bigger and
! taller than that which on the summit of
Union Pacific honors the name of Ames.
81 do not yet approve or disapprove of
what Mr.. Hartman did in the way OF SELL
ing securities to the Union Pacific treasury.
, He refuses to give the details Of the tran
saction. ] know, however. that before this
, investigation started he explained to Presl-
! dent Roosevelt exactly what he had bought
I for the Union Pacinc treasury and stated
! | 10 Mr. Roosevelt that he was not through
with his purchases and desired not to be
interrupted in the expanding policy of the
Union Pacific. Mr.. Hartman believes in
, the expanding policy; Mr.. Roosevelt be-
ueves there should be a limit to capital
expansion. No moral quaiity whatsoever
: is involved in this issue. Before the ex-
pansion is permitted to 20 much further
there may well be more publicity in re-
spect to railroad treasures and political
, contributions, and the interference Of r.
! nance with elections and political parties
? should be legally stopped; but Mr.. Harri-
: man II not the maker OF the laws. He
. contributes TO politics as invited and &C.
cording 70 his means. but there II danger
, in enlarged means making enlarged politl-
J cal contributions and It Is on this point
that public sentiment should concentrate.
About the Alton Deal.
"As 70 the disqualification OF the Chi
eago & Alton. that was for the publ,
good and for no special private beneht
A Hartman bought the Alton road for 80,
= 10000. l declined to sell him my Altor
d shares, declined to take the watered CAPT
r tai he offered. He had to water the capt
o tai 70 set the money to improve the prop
b srty. for TO make his Sl0.0OO.Oo0 investment
Q good he had to put In more than S2O.00o, 90
r more. Everybody who knows anythinl
n about the stock market knows that Mr.
Hartman could not buy Chicago a Altol
shares al 200, pay in 800 for their improve
: ment and sell the shares at a proft owe
500 per share. He had 10 re-dlvfde tn
r capitalization sell bonds az a low rate o
; interest to people who wanted good &c
: curity, preferred stock to people VIII
= would take a medium security and SCI
!, the water or hope OF the future for wha
4 anybody would pay for non-dividen
> eOnuo0n atocE On tha ahaHa ry,arEak