Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-03-19
f-4frqsil ilf & Nsslfh itlsss kla HARTMAN LODGING.
Docs Not Want to Fall Under Prcsi.
 dents Big Stick"


 Washington D. c. March 1s.-Ed- ward II. Hartman is cndeavoring to ward off q blow of the .bg stick.o A feW months ago. he grasped every thing that came his way with an iron iialid He would take few people in 10 hls confidence. He would have hollllng to, do with the public. He refused to talk to the newspapers Ills business was nobody's business but his own. and he declined to dis cllss il for publication. He would not mind the handwriting on the wall" which indicated clearly what public sentiment was. He could not be persuaded that he was running afoul Of the government and was likely to be brought up with round turn. Now it is different. He is willing to talk with apparent flankness to the newspapers. He realizes. or says he reallzeS, that the American public is entitled te know something of what be is doing in the control of the great railroad properties which he has ac- qured. He discusses the railroad sit nation frankly with the interstate commerce commission and seeks an interview with the president in the belief that the government and tEe railroads ought to reach Il common understanding that will avert much | trouble.
 While MT Hartman is concerned | personally very seriously with the at tltude Of the government toward him and his properties, the real trouble | has gone beyond the government Ii is not the attitude of the national | government, the president and con gross. that is giving Mir Hartman and | other railroad magnates so much 1 concern just now. as it is the attitude | of state legislatures. of city ,coun- | clls and boards of aldermen and of state, county and municipal author ities generally. The situation almost | threw Wall street into q panic and had q panic been preciptated there it might have spread to the entire country.
 | Railroad magnates, including I. r. Morgan and Mir Hartman, have in dicated that they do not apprehend | very serious trouble from the attitude l national administration. The presi- dent has said 10 them frankly that if they obey the laws they need to nave no apprehension That they have promised to do But the end is not l there.
 Throughout the country,' said an official of the interstate commerce commission. "a sentiment has grown | up that the railroads must be brought | to time That sentiment, which amounts almost to hysteria. has de- veloped from the long-contnued dis cussion of the railroad freight law. It has taken the form of redIrc- ton of passenger rates and legisla- lures throughout the country are en, acting laws requiring two-cent fare | within their boarderS. In the more sparsely settled sections of the coun, try such laws will work a hardship 1 on the railroads. In fact, some rIil- road officials have told me that their roads could not stand the pressure of two-cent fares. What the result may be nobody yet can tell
 It is known that the railroads will resist. in many states. two-cent fare laws This resistance will be mani Tested particularly ill the southern and western states. The roads vii attack the constituiionality of the laws, holding that they are contisca tory. The roads maintain that they cannot operate at two-cent rate m thinly settled sections of the country without great loss.
 The probability is that the con litions will result in a prolonged ie- gal fight. with the end seriously III doubt 1t is understood that John q Spoonpr. of Wisconsin. who recent ly resigned from the senate. will rep resent some of the railroads in, theil | contest against two-cent fares.