Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03
Financial News Letter
BY w. g. NICHOLAS.

BY w. g. NICHOLAS.
NEW YORK. March 2.-Mr. Hartman
has had more attention in Wall street this
| week than Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, and this
| is saying a good deal. Before Mr.. Harri-
| man was put on the rack by the govern
| ment inquisitors Lawson and the Thaw girl
divided the attention of brokers. Every
evening the crowd of brokers going to their
homes seized the evening editions of the
newspapers and proceeded to wade through
the columns Of verbatim testimony Of the
celebrated murder trial. On their way back
to Wall street from their homes in the
| morning they devoured the prophetic say
! ings Of the gentleman from Boston spread
| over the advertising pages OF the morning
| newspapers. But this week Mr.. Hartman
| alone has been in the limelight.
~
What Mr.. Hartman has had to say, more
| or less against his will, in response to the
diligent probing of the attorneys Of the
interstate commerce commission. is an old
story to Wall street. The street has not
been SO much interested in the facts
brought out by the Investigation as the
manner In which Mr.. Hartman and his
The story Of the enormous injection of
water into the Chicago and Alton Company
was old enough almost to have been for
gotten in the street. Likewise the purchase
Of the Huntington holdings of the Southern
Pacific by the Union Pacific, the invest
ment OF the enormous profits In the sale of
the Union Pacific's Great Northern and
. Northern Pacific stock in the stocks Of
other railways, the old Northern Pacific
fght-all these things were part Of Wall
| street history. But the interstate commerce
commission hearing has thrown all this old
story up into a condensed, concrete and
| readable form, and the entire financial dis
| trict has been devouring the story word for
word. The only really brand new thing
that was brought out in the quizzing Of Mr..
Hartman was his reason for deposing
Stuyvesant Fish from the presidency Of
the Illinois Central. The. government in
quisitors did not care to know about this
and they tried to prevent Mr.. Hartman
from telling 1t, but he insisted on taking
the opportunity to tell what he thought of
his former friend. Mr.. Fish, Il appears,
was not backward in his adaptation Of the
rules Of high finance in his own affairs.
Mr.. Fish, by Mr.. Harriman's statement,
was only doing In the Illinois Central in a
small way what Mr. Hartman had been
doing in a big way in the Union Pacific.
Mr.. Harriman's assumed Indignation at Mr..
F1sRs conduct rather amused Wall street.
~
A friend Of President Roosevelt, and a
man who is not a friend of Mr.. Hartman,
passes this judgment on Mr.. Hartman as
a witness: Mr.. Hartman was at his best
in his praise Of the Union Pacific and Of its
development under his regime. He talked
of the millions upon millions which have
been expended for improvements, how he
bought the stock in 1893, when 1t was SELL
ing at %, bought it even then in expecta-
ton of the dividend which was declared
last fall; how he had been buying it ever
since and advised people to buy it now. In
fact, Mr.. Hartman, warming into elo-
quence, practically said, with a pardonable
exaggeration which becomes the father in
n fho yyfrf of to chi f1,ok <Io
Union Pacific had more money expended
upon it for improvements in recent years
| than had been expended upon any other
railroad in the country, and in q word he
clearly gave the impression that he at least
thought the Union Pacific the greatest
railroad property in the land. Discussing
riman showed a freedom from bigotry on
the subject which must have surprised all
except those who knew him well. He
frankly declared that the railroads were
to blame much for the antagonism which
exists today toward railway capital on the
part of the public and said that by peren-
NAL squabbling among themselves they had
precipitated squabbling between themselves
and the public
4
Wall street Is not shocked at the dis
closures which have been made in the in
vestigation by the interstate commerce
commission. 1t Is not likely to be shocked
NY dily " We LdOSs HS SllOCh II pTO.
fesses to feel is over what it fears the eff
feet may be on the outside world. There
Is nothing new In what has come out nor Is
it at all likely there will be anything new
in what is still to be revealed-that is. moth
ing new to Wall street. The trouble is
that the Wall street conscience is hard
ened and that 1t has become accustomed
to methods and to doings which are not in
strict harmony with high ideals of honesty
and honor as entertained by a great ma
jority of civilized mankind.
~
Those who have been in the thick OF
Wall street action do not appreciate the re-
Gently quickened perception of the outside
world and do not realize the force of reflex
sentiment on Wall street as an institution.
According to the Wall street idea there
may be nothing out of the way and moth
ing really wrong in such operations as ere
now being brought to light A large per-
street are tarred with the same stick.
They have been brought up to believe that
they were entitled to exact toll on every
capital for exploitation: The application
of this latest investigation development to
Wall street is that 1t will prove to the
of the attack which is being directed
against it by President Roosevelt and the
political machinery behind him.
*
One vital statement made by Mr. Harri-
man was to the effect that the Sherman
antitrust law, prohibiting all combinations
In interstate trade. compelled the railroads
to adopt methods by which competing roads
could be put in closer relations to each
other. Mr.. Hartman pleaded for legisla-
ton permitting railroads to enter into rea-
sonable contracts. He referred to the fact
that President Roosevelt in his last annual
message suggested this same thing. 1t Is
surprising that the Presidents declaration
| to this effect had met with such little pub
| lie response. So far as legitimate economic
one-man power in the railroad world, con-
trolling or influencing the action Of many
| railroads. some Of them competitive, he is
| the direct result of the law which prohibits
combinations or agreements between rail-
| roads, such agreements being unlawful and
| criminal. Railroad capital had been forced
| to enter into consultations, into inter-