The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-19

From the Providence Journal
 When Hartman took up the reorganiza- ton of Union Pacific he was little known in Wall street. His matter-of-face terse- ness in speaking had nothing in common with the big cerbose geniality of the typical promoter The road then was struggling, ill-kept line. running fromOm- aha to Ogden The directors had no idea of its possibilities. Hartman had. Tney wanted to run 1t in the way it always had been run, with 8 little economy here, and there, perhaps, to pay dividends. Harri- man had other notions.
 ."This," complained one of the opponents of Harriman's policy, ''is an old, broken down road. It will cost 31 ,0oo, ,ooo.0O0 to carry out your ideas"
 Perhaps" replied Hartman. 'but figure it closer than that. At any rate, it will be worth the money. We haven't bought a railroad here. We have bought an empire"
 In 1898, with the Spanish war coming on, Hartman was all for going ahead with the contemplated improvements or the road The directors held back. They feared the outcome of the struggle over Cuba. "We have here" said Hartman, .-the vital franchise to railroad 1SO0 miles long, running through the heart or the richest part of the country. Populism is dead and dollar wheat Is paying mort gages and piling up bank accounts. Now is the time to build now is the time to buy. This road offers us an opportunity that comes to men but once in centuries"
 The directors still demurred, and Harri- man virtually bought the equipment over their heads. Jacob Schiff of Kuhn, Loeb a O., though he even then considered Har- riman a good deal of dreamer, backed him up. In six years he put $20o00o,O0O into improvements on the Union Pacifis and Southern Pacific lines.
 When he took it over the Union Pacific began nowhere and ended nowhere. Prob ably the hustling business men of Omaha and Ogden will strongly resent this state ment. but from a railroad point it's truth is exact when one considers the situation in 1s9S The Oregon Short Line had not then been added, to give an outlet to the northwest coast nor could the central Pacific be considered a sure outlet to the California coast so long as 1t was in the control of Collis P. Huntington and his friends On the eastern end the Union Pacific was entirely dependent upon the traffic it could pick up from the roads running into Omaha, and It's wretched physical condition made its competition with the Atchison. the Missouri Pacific, the St. Paul and the Chicago and North western a precarious affair.
 Early in 1898 Mir. Hartman made trip over the lines. That trip was prob ably the most uncomfortable that he ever put in both in point of the physical hardships that he was subjected t0and the discouraglng outlook that he met on every haul. On the 1900 miles of Union Pacific main stem he found only 400 miles that had ever been graded. The rest of the road consisted of rails and ties laid on dirt foundation. The station buildings were in the last stages of decay and the cars and other rolling stock as badly battered. There were curves and grades, and more curves and more grades until the whole thing became an abomination to the eye of man whose railroad ex- perience. had been gained upon the pros- porous Illinois Central. rushing through the comparatively level Mississippi val ley country, and upon the prosperous trunk lines of the east.
 And the spirit had gone out or the men. The people along the line were dis heartened also The famous phrase two streaks of rust on q lot of ties" described . condition that had so thoroughly im- pressed itself upon them that there was no courage eithsr in the Union Pacmc itself or in its paHrons- But that didn't disturb Hartman. it is told that on this very trip ono of the raetlst1ap old en- ginss draw3ng lz1s tsain loafed even long CT than usual ta1Efng on Wster uutn tho