Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-20

! that he could handle their traffic. The
road paid, and was finally sold to the
Pennsylvania.
The Illinois Central was one of Har-
rimans early holdings, and in 1888,
when the fight arose in the line, Mr..
| Hartman had a considerable amount
Of the stock, was chosen a director,
and Stuyvesant Fish made vice presi-
dent. Hartman gradually got control
| of the stock and later Fish was made
president, Hartman succeeding him as
vice president. Hartman became act
ing president when Fish went to
Europe. AS an official of this road he
put it on a plane with the best in the
| country.
He believed that big dividends re-
suited in giving the public good ship
ping and travelling facilities, and so he
went In for new sidings, extending of
old ones, to put out better class of roll
ing stock, and the Illinois Central b.
| came modern railroad.
Puts Union Pacific on Its Feet
1t was then that Hartman turned his
| eyes toward the west, to the Union Pa
cific system stretching across the con-
tinent for 1900 miles. This road had
| been Frustrated in the great crash of
1903, but Hartman felt there was an
opportunity to put it on it's feet again
despite the heavy government debt,
amounting to something like $54, 200, 900.
There were securities held in deposit,
however, to the valuation of $13, ,000, 900
against this, so that the claim of the
government was somewhat in the
neighborhood of $41000,000.
Several capitalists had attempted to
get the road from the government, but
had been unsuccessful until Jacob H.
Schiff came along with proposition to
pay the government claim and take
over the road. The SAL 10000 paid to
the government was only part of the
cost, for there were other mortgages
and matters to be settled.
| Hartman became chairman of the
executive committee, and good engi-
neering ability being necessary to the
reconstruction of the road, Harriman's
experiences began to tell and gradu-
ally the road that lay dormant began to
revive, and wheels that had been idle
began to turn, crops were good on the
western prairies, traffic began to pick
up, money was available, $20,00O,OOO
was invested ir the work and a railroad
resulted.
Threatens, Then Buys
Finding the Central Pacific railroad
to be bad competitor, Hartman, in
1900, began negotiations for the pur-
chase of the road. The officials of the
Southern Pacific, who controlled this
road, would not let go of the holding,
and Hartman threatened the construc-
tion Of an independent line from San
Francisco to ogden.
This had telling effect on the South
ern Pacific, which resulted In the pur-
chasing of almost the entire system of
5000 miles on an investment of some-
thing like $75,000,000.
The income from these western roads,
which have been made real railroads
by Hartman, last year amounted to
more than 100000. and the actual
/ dividends disbursed to the public
amounted to $38,000,OO0.
Not content with operations in
western roads, Hartman is a heavy
stockholder in some of the eastern lines
such as the New York Central, in which
he is said to control something over
$l4OOO,OOO worth of stock, and in tho
baltimore & Ohio, where he has over
$S2,OOOO00 worth of common stock and
over TOOO0OO worth of preferred.
Harrlman's Holdings
The following table shows some of the
Hartman holdings: