The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-09
NICHOLAS WALL
 STREET LETTER What Would Happen If Harri- man Should Die2 MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR Absolute Dictator Over More Than 4oooo Miles of the Best Railroad
 Lines in the United
 States.
By w. G. NICHOLAS.

New York, August S.-What would hap pen if E. H. Hartman should die?
 MT Hartman is far and away the most important 6gule in the railroad world today. There has never been man in personal, individual, supreme control of as many miles of railroad as E. H. Har- riman, or upon whose plans so much de- pended.
 He is absolute dictator over more than 40,OOO miles of the best railroad lines in the United States, barring only the New York Central and the Pennsylvanj svs- tems, and giving the "Jim' Hill roads in the northwest competitive 'look-in." The roads over which MT. Hartman ex- ercises supreme control represent nearly 20 percent of the total mileage of the United States and fully 25 per cent of the capitalization, the aggregate of stocks and bonds being in excess of sS,- O0O,0OO000, in grand total of about s13,- GOO, ,OO0,000.
 MT. Harrman's plans are notoriously in a state of incompleteness. To Chicago newspaper men he has said within the week that he did not know where he was at," a confession that came from the heart. He is working out dreams of
 
 alone in the retention of his health an- other ten years he might be found in command of the entire transportation situation of North America.
 His "big career'' as it now stands has been compressed within the limits of ten years. Nothing much was heard Of him before he engineered the deal that redeemed Union Pacific from the gov oart hal mi Rgo-n 1S99 True he had shortly before bearded J. P. Morgan in his den and forced the hitherto undisputed despot of Wall street to modify his Erie re-or- ganization plan, but that incident created little excitement outside of the financial center, and when he appeared in Wash- ington to save" Union Pacific he was, comparatively speaking, an unknown man.
 It was then that he got his stride and he has never lost it. although he gave up against influences and combinations that would have destroyed most men similarly situated. He has at times been confronted with the entire power of the federal administration at Washington, actively and openly aided by apparently invincible Wall street alliances, and se- cret enemies in his own camp almost as strong How he ever escaped ruin in the face of the tremendous interests combined for his discontinue is the mar vel of latter day financial history yet he looms up greater and more powerful than ever before and seemingly in a fair way to achieve fresh triumphs.
 He is not only the acknowledged king of the railroad world, but absolute master of the speculative arena. It~was Harri- man who took up the stock market when Morgan and the rest of the old time generals were willing to lay back and let nature take it's course-that was last spring after the 'wreckage corps' had unloaded at fabulous profits the stocks bought at panic prices with public de- posits in banks kept beyond the reach of lawful owners. The situation saw ers' were ready to take their winnings and quit for year or two. Not so with Hartman and his chums. They picked up the stock market where Morgan and his friends had dropped it. and in asso- citation with H. c. Prick, William Rocke- feller John A. Archbold, young John D. Rockefeller H. H. Rogers, James Still man and others, got under stocks and be- gan a campaign that has turned out to be the most remarkable ever witnessed pn the New York stock exchange.
 The advance in prices may not have been warranted by business conditions