Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-09-09
Friend of Children.

eAtliely uuDeuC were cnluren. In New
York he was the head Of great boys
institution, a sort of combined gym
nas1um, club and debating society, fol-
more than quarter of century
At Arden he was never SO happy as
when he had an automobile load of
little ones and was spinning about the
countryside. To them he was not the
cold business machine known to the
world. He was Pop" Hartman, their
comrade and friend. Perhaps he was
so unreserved with the children be-
cause they did not ask him leading
questions and try to take away his
money. In the country he was as God
made him. In business he was as Wall
street made him. There is differ
ence here, one that will appear greater
the more it is contemplated.
Great Constructive Genius.
The best two things about Mr.. Har-
riman were that he was constructive
and had Il national view of things. He
was not alone stock manipulation,
but a builder. History must give him
this credit 1t is questionable if we
have had any greater railroad build
ers than he. The manner fn which he
took the rundown and bankrupt Union
Pacific, went Owe. the ground and saw
the business there was for the line,
coupled with the subsequent courage
and energy he displayed in pouring
hundreds Of millions into straighten-
ing and improving the road, showed
constructive genius of the first order.
Ruthless he might have been, yet the
fact that lie did things. and big things
at that, must be told to his praise.
The story of bridging Great Salt lake
and draining the Salton sea is not one
that could be told Of every man, not
even Of every railroad king He touched
most of the properties that came un-
der his control only to build them up.
Overcapitalize he probably did, al
though he called it capitalizing the fu-
ture. Used Wall street methods, some
Of them of a doubtful kind-with this
his enemies charged him. And Harri-
man had enemies, bitter and big ones,
with Theodore Roosevelt eX-president
Of the United States, at their head 1t
is perfectly true that in the world of
men he had more foes that hated him
than friends that loved him. Yet when
this is said we cannot forget those
east side boys in New York nor those
shouting children at Arden. A man
that loves child and is loved by it in
return cannot be all bad.
HnrriYn1n'c national y,iciOn nc
shown in manifold ways. Though
born near New York city and living
In or about it all his life, he did not
have the New York viewpoint. He
saw America from the angle Of the
Pacific coast and of the central west.
as well as Of the east. He had enough
imagination to forecast the future Of
the country, to count on 1t as most
| important factor In all his business
enterprises. He could see the desir-
ability Of buying steamship lines
across the Pacific, Of planning rail
| road in Mexico rev men realized
the possibilities of the great empire
building on the shores of the Pacific
ocean with more clearness than Har-
Il
even in brain, he was not small in
his grasp of things. He thought in
terms of the continent. planned in
millions, built with systems.
His Greatest Monument.
Hartman has often been compared
to Jay Gould. In opinion, he
was bigger mah THAN Gould and a
better one. With all the abuse that
has been heaped upon him he is en-
titled to that which his own deeds
carved out. He was not as shrewd
man on the Stock Exchange as
Gould, not as "foxy" perhaps. if you
like the term, but he had infinitely
bigger ideals and more audacity to
plan and execute great undertakings.
| Gould was essentially fnancier.
Hartman was that and more and it
is the more" that will redeem him.
| The romance of the Pacific railroads
and steamship lines and Of his other
great railroad deals cannot be wiped
| off the slate. Whatever we may think
| of Hartman in Wall street or Harri-
man in politics or Hartman in in
surance or Hartman in Chicago and
| Alton, his work on the Pacific empire,
both this side and on the seas, will
| fire the imagination and compel re-
spect Good and evil mingle in all
men. This is the good Of Hartman.
1t is his greatest monument.
1t was recently stated that Harri-
man nnnfrO1loI 10000 villas oF
way. or six times across the conti-
nent; that these lines employ $4,000
men; that, in addition, he directed a.
600 miles Of steamship lines, max
ing 1900 miles of transportation in
all; that one could go from New York
to Hongkong without ever leaving the
Hartman lines and that he could re-
turn by another route on Hartman
lines nearly all the way.
| To show something Of the mans
great activities, the mere corporations
of which he was the head or with
T-'hh!!cA hc -::s officially connected may
give hint. although little more than a
hint. He had been member Of the New
York Stock Exchange since 1870. He
was president Of the Oregon Railroad
and Navigation company, president Of
the Oregon Short Line, president Of the
Southern Pacific, president of the
Texas ana New Orleans Railroad COM
pany, president of the Southern Pa
cifc Coast railway, president Of the
Oregon and California Railroad CON-
pany, president of the Central Pacific
Railroad company, president Of the