The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-03-26
AROUSED FAIRNESS.

a strong appeal TO the common sense
Washington Post and other leading pa
pers, in their rcmonstrance against the
inconsiderate and wholesale condemna-
tion of railway management in the
United States
Unquestionably the abuses of railway
rates and the selfish and even dishonest
manipulation of railway securities have
justified proceedings of rigorous charac-
ter i'll the individual cases of wrong
doing; and unquestionably an aroused
public sentiment, coupled with official
zeal, to redress evils and prosecute evil.
doers are In these strenuous days likely
to go altogether too far unless the
American sense Of fairness can be
aroused.
The people want wrongs remedled;
they do not want prosperity destroyed
With all Mr.. Hartman faults, even
If he shall be dangcrous-as. President
Roosevelt assumes him To be. MIR. Harri-
man has been Il great upbuilder Of prop
critics. Where other men in the past in
their manipulations have wrecked rail
way companies, Mr.. Hartman s genius
has been shown in lifting properties,
heretofore wrecked, into great divi,
dend-payers and mighty helpfulncss TO
the business interests of States in which
they operate. If Mr.. Hartman has
done as well by his other properties
and fha sfnpx bp1lprS IN hic nYl
critics, If he has done as well by the
regions through which his other lines
run, as he has done by Union Pacific
and by Union Pacific stockholders and
for the States through which that great
iron band wcnds its way, Mr., Harri-
man is TOO valuable man for the pub
hc. to permit of his being crushed by
Executive anger, or legislative unfair.
ness or antagonlstic financial combina-
tion. without a solemn public remou-
STRANGE, Shortly before Mr. Hartman s
advent into Union Pacific affairs that
company was on the verge of dissolu-
ton. Its properties had been sold at
auction. 1t had been in the hands of
receivers \ prominent statesman de-
clarcd from the floor of the Senate that
Union Pacific was mortgage on two
lines of rust desccrating the Rocky
Mountain landscape Mr., Hartman APP
peared and his word sent reluvena-
ting spirit through all the Union Pa
cific affairs and through all the country
which the Union Pacific touches.
II this man has committed evil acts
in his relation to his companies, let his
evil acts be punished. If other men
holding station like his own in the
financial and railway world have trans
gressed the laws or the propricties, let
them suffer .or their specific acts of
wrongdoing. But all these individuals
are entitled 10 hearing; and if no
sense OF Justice for them shall influence
the public mind TO decent considcra-
tion, let the interest Of the public it.
self command Il conservatism which
will spare the public welfare. II the
attacks upon railway interests shall 90
Oh without check, if the demagogic
spirit Of dcstruction-which receives
all too much of comfort in high places
at Washington-shall be permitted TO
govern in these great affairs, the pub
lie will be the losers. We are now oil
the verge of a great event; enlargement
Of railway facilities, with attendant up.
building throughout the intermountain
West; or crash in railway securities
which Will stop extensions and equip.
mcnt, with attendant palsy to commu-
uity upbuilding in the agricultural and
mineral regions Of the lands west of
the Mississippi.
Which shall it be' The answer is