The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-04
GREAT VICT0Ry FOR
 HE HARTMAN FORCES
Long Struggle For Control of Illinois Central Is Ended By the Official Action of the Stoekhold-
 CTS Meeting.

1HlcaBo. Martn o.-lne long slTugSle for control of the Illinois Central rail road was ended. at least temporarily to- day when the official adjourned meeting of the stockholders held its final ses- sion and elected four directors. With only formal protests recorded by the in- terests headed by stuyvesant Fish. which have been opposing the administration of the road E. H. Hartman and John Ja- cob Astor were reelected to the board. A. G. Hackstan, who has been serving
 as director since the death of John
 C. Yelling, was chosen to fill out the unexpred term, and Joseph F. Titus was elected to succeed Stuyvesant Fish upon the directorate.
 MT. Titus. however is to serve only a few weeks. President Harahan an-
 nounced to the stockholders that c. Og- i den Armour of Chicago will be chosen
 to take the place of MT. Titus so soon 1 as the stock owned by Mir Armour can
 be transferred to the account on the book
 thus making him stockholder of record.
 Fish Is Absent.
 Mir Fish, was not present at the meet l ing and only a few of his allies 1 there to watch his interests Neither 1 was the bulk of the proxies held by MT.
 Fish presented to the proxy committee. 1 The report of that body showed that | 5s4 6sS shares out of total of 950,4o out 1 standing were entitled to be voted. Of these 5S, 456 were held bY President Har- i ahan. The comparatively small repre- | sentation of stock at the meeting had one 1 effect which was bit disappointing to 1 the administrative forces. With less than 1 two-thirds of the outstanding stock vot- ing it was found impossible to ratify the l action of the board of directors in agree l ing to purchase two small branch lines l the Kensington and Eastern. and the l Memphis and State Line railroads. The | charter of the railroad requires that 6S2,- 600 shares shall be voted in favor of any proposition looking to the purchase of other railways Today only 5sS.o61 were recorded In favor of the plan to purchase the two lines in question. The kensing- I ton and Eastern runs from kensington,
 Ill., to Hammond. Ind acting as con- meeting link between the Illinois Central and various roads. The Memphis and State Line is belt railroad around Memphis, Tenn. Both properties it was stated by President Harahan. have been constructed with funds furnished by the Illinois Central. He added that the projects were begun under the adminls- tration of MT. Fish
 Terminals Purchased. In addition to the election of direc- tors the stockholders ratified the pur- chase of certain terminal properties in New Orleans and Memphis. The value of these was stated to be in the neigh borhood of sl,0oOo00.
 The first incident of the meeting which
 recalled the acrimonious discussion that characterized former sessions came when
 motion for acceptance and approval of the report of the proxy committee was made by William Nelson Cromwell, att torney for E. II. Hartman. Frank Ii. l Culver. acting attorney for Henry W. Lehman, presented a formal protest against the voting of the PSI 231 shares of
 stock held by the Union Pacific Railroad company and the Railroad Securities coil- pany.
 The protest rected briefly the same al- legations upon which the suit instituted by Stuyvesant Fish. afterward decided ad- versely by Judge Ball. and that begun recently by Mir Lehman, were based. Great emphasis was laid upon the fact that the two holding companies are not Illinois corporations, and upon the allesa- tion that they have not compiled with statutes of this state regarding foreign corporations seeking to do business here. MT Culver alone presented an exactly similar case on ms own DeDdI ana lueI-' tical documents were handed in by Paul P. Harris and William H. Enrich.
 Vote Is Taken.
 When a vote was taken on MT Crom- wells motion there was chorus of "ayes' and only a few scattered noes
 The nomination of directors followed. There was ticket in opposition to that brought forward by the administration forces. and the ballot that followed was more or less perfunctory.
 When the result was announced 1t was found that 60 votes had been cast for MT. Wentworth Holmes. MT. Astor received 5S3 ISL Messrs. Hartman, Titus and Hackstaff S3162 each.
 A ripple of applause followed President, Harahans announcement of the electior- Messrs. Hartman, Astor. and Titus were elected for the term ending in October, l911 Mir Hackstaff's term will expire in 1909 The annual reports of officers )f the roads and the actions of the directors during 1907 were approved.
 Temporary Director.
 The negative vote on this numbered 692. Action on the proposition to purchase the branch railroads and terminal properties concluded the proceedings. MT. Cromwell explained after the meeting that the tenn porary election of MT. Titus to the direc- torate due to doubt as to the ie- gallty of choosing to this position a per- son who was not stockholder of rec ord
 "The fact that the stock owned by MT. Armour had never been transferred to him the books of the corporation was not discovered until after the books had closed for this meeting" said MT. Cromwell. 'rhe statutes of Illinois I understand. provide that onlv stockh elders may serve as directors. While MT. Armour Is stockhol6er Tn fact he is not stockhol of rec ord Therefore 1t was deemed best to postpone his election until all tech nicalities could be provided for"
 Joseph F. Titus is an official of the railroad. holding the position of as- sistant to the president.