Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-20

S104, ,722.22 for his services as chairman OF
the executive committee from 1900 to
1904"
Inasmuch as these services appear by
the report of the commission to have
largely consisted Of selling the bonds of
the company to his own little coterie
at 65, which that coterie afterward sold
upon the Wall street market to the
investing public at from S21s to "a
cents and in distributing considera-
BILE portion of the proceeds received by
the company for the sale of its bonds
for 65 In the form of unearned divi-
dends to the same coterie, it would
appear to the disinterested public that
he might have been slightly overpaid
for his valuable" services.
In the course of the same investiga-
tion the sale to the Union Pacific COM
pany of certain stock Of the Illinois
Central. owned by Mr.. Hartman and
his colleagues, came under considera-
tion, and concerning this sale the inter-
state commerce commission says:
"Of the stock so purchased by the
Union Pacific r. H. Hartman owned
10000 shares, H. H. Rogers 10000 shares,
James Stillman 10000 shares, and Kuhn,
Loeb & Co.. official agents of the Union
Pacific company. 10000 shares. Mr..
Hartman declined to testify as to
whether this stock was acquired by
syndicate or pool for the purpose of
sale to the Union Pacific, or as TO
whether he was interested in the 105,000
shares which were bought from Kuhn,
Loeb & Co. And Mr. Kahn of that
firm declined to state whether any
part of the 100000 shares SO sold was
held by his firm for or on account of
aI or any of the directors Of the Union
Pacific"
This investigation also showed that
the stock of the st. Joseph & Grand
Island Railroad company had been
purchased by the Union Pacific. and
concerning this purchase the interstate
commerce commission in its report
says:
1.-THE stock of the st. Joseph & Grand
Island Railroad company, described in
the foregoing table, was purchased by
the Union Pacific company from Mr..
Hartman while he was president Of
the company, and he declined to state
when he acquired that stock and what
he paid for the same"
If these stocks and other stocks which
had been sold to the Union Pacific
company by its directors had not been
sold at profit, and if the sales had
been straight, honest and defensible
business transactions, is it conceivable
that Mr.. Hartman would have shown
such indisposition to take the public
into his confidence concerning them,
and would have subjected himself to
the proceeding which is now pending
against him in the United States courts
to force him to tell the truth concern
ing these matters?
After the facts elected by the inter-
state commerce commission in it's
investigation Of the Hartman prop
critics were made public, the papers all
over the world, and especially those, of
England and this country, denounced
these transactions in terms which
should be applied to the acts of people
who use the trust and confidence of a
for their own individual
enrichment and the consequent injury
of the holders of the stocks and securi-
ties of the corporation.
Concerning these acts of Mr.. Harri-
man and like manipulators of the rail-
road companies of this country the Lon
don Morning Post in an article upon the
fluctuation of American railroad securi-
ties and the attempt to attribute it to
adverse governmental action, says:
''The latest naneuver of American
magnates is probably the most childish
example of bluff of which they have
ever been guilty. They have wrecked
American railroad securities in the
mind of the American public by using
them as gambling counters in their own
schemes. They have used millions of
dollars which could have been employed
for the benefit of the lines for the fur
therance of pools and corners, and now
blandly suggest a conference. The
only remedy is sound finance. Confer
ences are useless. The slump in Amer
lean railroad securities may bring con-
siderable trouble on the other side of
the Atlantic. but if it converts the
railroad administration into something
better. than bucket shop it will be
worth it."
The New York Sun stated that the
facts ELECTED by the interstate COM
merce commission investigation had
created the impression that the Union
Pacific bag was convenient dumping
place for st. Paul, New York Central,
Atchison or whatever other railroad
stock may have been bought, specula-
lively or otherwise, by various MEM
bers of the Hartman party"
The London Economist, the leading
financial journal of Great Britain, in q
bitter editorial based on the result OF
the interstate commerce commission
investigation of the Hartman lines,
accused the manipulators Of American
railroad securities of playing with
I,-.a.l 5;oo,, IL, tho XMo1I ctraat syame