The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-07-28
Means Hartman Supreme.

Means Hartman Supreme.
No wonder Wall street is quivering
with expectant excitement, for with
E. H. Hartman as the guiding hand
of the Gould system and his power in
the railroad field would be so great as
to be almost uncanny. In the entire
West there would be none to longer
dispute his autocratic sway except
where his lines thread the Pacific
Northwest and encroach upon the do
main of James J. Hill and he would
practically be the master of two great
railway systems stretching from the
Pacific to the Atlantic and from the
Gulf to the Great Lakes and almost to
the Canadian border. His power in
the traffic world would be well nigh
supreme for his would be the ability to
dictate as to rates and conditions sur
rounding traffic to the four corners of
the United States.
That Gould is in tight quarters with
respect to his railway properties is
confidently declared by Wall street
and as emphatically denied by his
friends. The latter declare that his
have poured forth as by magic in the
past when needed to teach the power
full Pennsylvania system that there
was no tonnage storehouse, not even
In Pittsburg, which is sacred to any
single railroad interest: when needed
to teach the great Baltimore & Ohio
that the highways of the East are not
the divine inheritance of any single
transportation interest and that there
are still open roads to the Eastern
seaboard; when needed to prove to
Hartman himself that the boundless
West was too great for one man to
cover 1t by the single hand of his au-
thority. are not yet empty.
But now, so the rumor has it, E. H.
Hartman has at last succeeded in get
ting beneath the Gould armor plate
and has dealt fatal blow. If this is
true it will be the cause of one of the
most spectacular fights which have
been waged in railroad history-the
fight of one man, sometimes aided, but
most of the time single handed and
alone against the most powerful com
bination of capital and railroads that
has ever been formed.
1t is understood that if the banking
firm comes to Gould's assistance ii
will be upon the condition that he
thereafter be an interested spectator in
the management of his properties with
the tacit understanding that Hartman
will be the strongest factor.
Feels Financial Strinsency.
Three of the Gould properties are
now in the hands of receivers and it is
reported that the Missouri Pacific
which recently passed a dividend and
paid another in stock. is close to the
financial reefs. The Western Pacific
yet needs millions to complete it and
in general the Gould properties are
feeling bitterly the lash of financial
stringency. Had the unprecedented
tonnage of the early months of 1907
continued the Gould properties woult
probably have been able to weather
the gale.
Those familiar with the history o.
the Gould properties declare that the
first great financial mistake Gould
made was his forcing an entry into
Pittsburg. This undertaking wa:
pushed to a successful conclusion BY
Joseph Ramsey, Jr., then president O
the Wabash. and it cost Gould close t.
S10o,0oo,o0o. Then it cost him anoth
er S25,o0o00o to place his road in
physical position to secure any of tn,
Pittsburg tonnage after it got there
In order to get his share of the ton
mage he was compelled to build a bel