Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-16
TELLS OF FIGHT
OVER ROUTE TO
SALT LAKE CITY
CLARK ATTORNEY TESTIFlES
AT MERGER HEARING
EARLY HISTORY OF SENATOR'S
ROAD is RELATED
Special Examiner for Government Sc
cures Testimony Relative to AL
legged Combination with
Hartman Lines

For the purpose Of taking the tes-
timony of several Los Angeles men
intimate with the subject, S. G. Will
liarns, a special examiner, held a near
ing Yesterday in the United States dis
trict court room on behalf of the gov
eminent. which is investigating what
is known as the Hartman merger.
The particular property alleged TO
have been merged into the Hartman
interests which is under investigation
here is the Salt Lake road, and the VII
nesses called are men who We're IN one
way or another identified with the or
ganization of that road and worked
with Senator Clark in projecting the
road from Salt Lake City to Los An
geles.
The witnesses examined were c. o..
Whittemore, general attorney for the
Salt Lake road in Utah and Nevada;
]. Ross Clark of this city, brother of
Senator w. A. Clark and second vice
president of the road, and Judge T. 10:
Gibbon of this city, former general
counsel of the road.
Organized as Independent Road
C. A. Severance appeared for the gov
eminent. The Hartman interests were
represented by w. r. Kelly, general
counsel for the Salt Lake road. r. 5.
Lovett of New York, head of the legal
department of all the Hartman inter
ests. was present at the hearing for
a while. but did not remain through
out the taking of testimony Mr.. Low
EFT has been mentioned as Harrimans
probable successor in the event of the
retirement of the railroad king.
The testimony brought out at the
hearing yesterday was to the effect that
the Salt Lake road was organized as
an Independent company
The first witness was c. o. White
more, who is now counsel for the Las
Vegas & Tonopah railroad. He related
the history of the fight between the
Clark and Hartman interests for the
right of way from the Nevada-Ut
line through the Meadows valley wash,
which, it is said, resulted in the merger
OF the opposing interests.
Survey with Wagon
Attorney Whittemore said that the
Salt Lake road was incorporated in
March, 1901, and that the incorporates
had previously acquired the Los An
geles Terminal railway and the Utah
and California railroad in the vicinity
of what is now Caliente, New. White
more detailed the fight in the field as
well as in the courts over rights of
way dIttSlllS mat lilG Ildl pCOpi-
made the survey by dragging a chain
over the ground behind a wagon.
Judge Kelly brought out the fact that
the engineers were checking up an old
survey and that the Utah e Califor-
MIA road had not at that time taken
out charter in Nevada.
j. Ross Clark, second vice president
of the Salt Lake road and brother of
Senator Clark, it's builder. corroborat-
aH n affidavit ha ha
time of the disputes over the right of
way. He said it was the purpose of
the Salt Lake road promoters at that
time to build an entire system of it's
own connecting Salt Lake City with
Los Angeles. and that surveys were
made with this object in view.
Adjournment Taken to New York
T. E. Gibbon was put on the stand
and. gave testimony concerning the
history of the Los Angeles Terminal
railroad, organized in 1891, which was
intended to furnish terminal facilities
for an eastern road that was to enter
Los Angeles The Union Pacific was
named in the franchise as a road that
would use it. That was before Harri-
man acquired control of the Union Pa
cific. After the road changed manage
ment the extension was not built.
When Hartman came to Los Angeles
several years later he talked over the
matter with him, but nothing came of
it and he then laid the matter before
Senator Clark through j. Ross Clark,
his brother, with the result that Sem
ator Clark organized the Salt Lake
road and took over the property and
franchise of the Los Angeles Termi-
nal company. He testified that SEN
ator Clark, in pubic statement made
in Salt Lake City, said that the new
road would be Independent of other
roads and he said that, as general
counsel for the road, he so represented
IT to the city councils of Salt Lake
City and other cities.
Special Examiner Williams finished
the taking of testimony here and adj
journed the hearing until June TO-
when further evidence will be heard
in New York city.
]. Ross Clark last night most en-
phatically contradicted statement
made in a Los Angeles morning pa
per purporting to come from his
brother, Senator w. A. Clark. "My
brother will reach New York tomor-
row Sunday. The purported state
ment coming from him is absolutely
false and misleading. I can authorize
The Herald to fatty contradict It,"
~