The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1909-09-28
Hartman.
Editorial From CollIer.)

On September 9 there died at his
summer home. in the country, one of
the most power fui men of the present
generation, and probably the most
powerful railroad captain who has
ever lived. 1t was characteristic of
his era that, the son of poor clergy
man, he left school at fourteen to
carve his own careeT-for such facts
help to account for the strength and
for the weakness of our great business
kings. In the last years of his life
Mr.. Hartman went through one
change Of attitude. He had been
fighting the Government and the pub
lie all his life, and was brought up in a
school that favored doing what seemed
promising in a business way and meet
ing public outcry with silence. Re-
Gently. however, Mr.. Hartman has
frequently gone out of his path to ex-
plain and justify himself to The public.
Had he been differently educated, his
great powers might have been used
uniformly for good, instead of being
divided as they were. His best claim
to public appreciation has been in his
constructive railroad work. Although
there was a great deal of the specula-
tor in him, no man understood better
than he what the equipment and SER
vice of railroad ought to be. He
never wrecked any property which he
got hold of, and his ability in putting
roads on sound and paying basis was
what made investors so anxious to put
their money in property controlled by
them, and this confidence was large
part of his power. In spite of his
many inexcusable stock manipulations
and his very much criticised doings
in the Equitable, the Alton, the Union
Pacific and other companies. it has al
ways been impossible to shake the be-
lief of business men that control by
Hartman meant success.
MIR. Hartman, like all other big
railroad men, had the idea of cross
continental line, which he was en-
deavoring to complete. but really more
interesting among his unfinished plans
were his extensions into Mexico, of
which he Enthusiastically twas first
to see the possibilities, and his inten-
ton to do for the Erie. which he saved
last year, what he had formerly done
for the Union Pacific. His greatest
achievement remains his reconstruction
of the Union Pacific. which he took
when it was bankrupt. The soundness
and brilliancy of his mind. on the side
of constructive work, were illustrated
as truly, and in q dramatic manner
easily understood by the public. when
be spent millions to cut off ten mile
haul at Omaha, and millions more to
cross Salt Lake. Hartman would do
anything to shorten the haul, for the
thought in vast figurves, thought
creatively, and saw the future as
vividly as the present. He would In
cur any cost to increase the train load,
to get more traffic behind the engine,
for that also was fundamental, and for
such great ideas Edward Hartman
will be respected when his headstrong
specuIaticns have been forgotten. Per-
haps the opposite of Mark Antony's
remark is nearer the truth. The i'm
portant good men do lives after them;
the fieeting evil is inferred with their
bones. So let it be with Hartman.
We shall correct the errors of his era
and long continue to admire the gem
uine and courage Ct its biggest men.