Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-27
FISH REPLIES
TO HARTMAN
ANSWERS HARAHAN's CIRCULAR
OF TUESDAY
SAYS THE ISSUE IS ABSORPTION
WITH U. p.
"ShouId the Illinois Central Become a
Mere Feeder and Fattener to
Bigger Road?" He
Asks

BY Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Sept. 2e.-stuyvesant Fish
tonight made public a reply to a circular
letter sent out on Tuesday last by Presi-
dent Harahan of the Illinois Central IN
which he declares the charges made by
Mr.. Harahan were not new but had been
published long ago and met by me and
disposed of.
But the one point at issue to be decided
by the stockholders of the Illinois Cen
trail at the coming annual meeting Is not
here touched upon" says Mr.. Fish.
That issue is this: Shall the Illinois
Central become a mere feeder and fat
tener of the Union Pacific? Can any such
perversion of the purposes and oppor-
tunities of the Illinois Central be profit
able to the stockholders? Will the H.
linois Central stockholders submit to hav-
ing their voice and power In the manage
ment and control OF their property dele
gated to one man, under the power of at
torney plan. which Mr.. Hartman so
adroitly used to his own proht?"
Mr.. Fish then quotes from the bylaws
of the Union Pacific to show how this
could be done, and continuesa
"A certain interest does, however, at
tach to some of the specious excuses now
put out by Mr.. Hartman and his financial
associates for my having been ousted.
"And there is also interest attaching to
the reasons why 1t has been necessary to
change and modify those excuses SO often.
THE circular of September "a, which is
fathered by Mr.. Harahan, shows on its
face that 1t emanates from Mr.. Harri
man, in that it contains precisely the
same allegations that he injected last
February
Mr.. Fish here quotes the reply to these
charges which was widely published at
the time and says:
But the reason given last February by
Mr.. Hartman for having turned me out
of the presidency of the Illinois Central
was by no means the only one which he
had given. At the last meeting of the
stockholders of the Illinois Central Rail-
road company, held on October II. 1905,
Mr.. Hartman and his, attorney, Mr..
Cromwell, made their fight solely on the
ground that 1 would not consent to the
election into the Illinois Central board of
another director Of the Union Pacific
Southern Pacific system.
"Finds Excuses"
But when called to testimony before
the interstate commerce commissioner,
Mr.. Hartman could not stand on either
the proposition that he had quarreled
with me because / would not add to the
Union Pacific-Southern Pacific representa- |
llOn III l0S IlllnOlS OeHtTdl DOdTQ VI Ol
the vague generalities of the letter of
November Z, 1906. which he had caused
the other directors to join with him in
signing and handing to me at the opening
of the meeting of the board of directors
held on that day.
Nor yet on the statement that he was
and had been the principal owner of
Illinois Central stock, because it had just
then been proved in the hearing before
he i,,ta tot 4y,ak
he had sold his Illinois Central holdings
to the Union Pacific in July of 1906 nor
yet on the statement that the Illinois
Central had grown and progressed, as
that was emphatically contradicted by
the annual representatives of that COM
mission which was In possession of that
commission.
'Hence the necessity for him to then
invent yet another charge, which he did
by trumping up an accusation against
me in respect to matters which had hap
pened four years before, which were and
had been fully shown on the books of
the company, and were perfectly well
known to the directors of the Illinois
Central Railway company when they
unanimously reelected me president In
the autumn of 1903 and again in 1904, and
for a third time in 1905"
Concerning the loan by him as president
of the Illinois Central to Mr.. Dresser,
Mr. Fish says that it was made in collat-
eral which at the time was market
able and abundant"
After the failure of the Dresser firm the
collateral was sold at loss. "But," says
Mrss Fish, 'ff my personal enemies can
only claim that caused the company a
single small loss in respect to the mil
lions, might say hundreds of millions,
loaned in the meanwhile-more of it to
Mr.. Hartman than to any other individ-
ual-I am content to let the matter rest
there.
'Nor need I refer to the so-called in
vestment in July, 1906. by Mr.. Hartman
and his associates of about $140, 900 900 of
the money of the stockholders of the
Union Pacific in the purchase from him
and then of their securities, which in the
meanwhile deprecated by some s25, ,000,-
600, more or less"