The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-29
HERO WORSHIPPERS
IN WALL STREET
Hartman Now Occupies the
Center of interest
CRAZY STORIES AFLOAT
Return of Hartman is Said To Be
for the Purpose of Divertine Ac-
cumulated Cash of Union
Pacific to Wrong Ends.
CRAZY STORIES AFLOAT
BY w. C. NICHOLAS.

New 1ork, Aug. ZS.-(Speclal. OF
the conspicuous Weaknesses of Wall
street is Indulgence in nero worship It
must always have some overwhelming
personality to bow down to. If it is not
one man 1t must be another. Just now
Mr.. Hartman is the object to which the
knee is bent and obeisance made. The
crowned king before him was J. Pier
pont Morgan, who, by the way, has never
abdicated and who is to-day powerful as
ever though not so much in the limeight.
Previous to Mr.. Morgan's reign there
were Jay Gould. w. H. Vanderbilt, Cor
nelius Vanderbilt, the founder of the
family fortune, Daniel Drew and others
almost as we'll known.
Many times during his thirty years in
Wall street, James r. Keene has been the
star performer and has swayed the mar
kets at his will. Cammacx, Woerishoffer,
John W. Gates, H. H. Rogers, the Gug-
genheims, Edwin Hawley. H. C. Frick
and William Rockefeller among others
have been stars of near-first magnitude.
There are dozens of others equally i'm
portant in their day. There never is a
time, however, that some big man is not
filling the stage of Wall street affairs to
the observation of everything that hap
pens to be behind them.
All of which is more or less foolish,
because the biggest of men in Wall street
and the most important groups of Inen
pass away without serious interruption of
the business of the country or backset-
ting of its interests. OF those who have
joined the great majority the leave-tak-
ing of the greatest of them made scarce
ly dent. 1t is IN Wall street the same
as in the larger political stage. There
has been witnessed procession of Presi-
dents each of commanding Importance in
his day yet many Of them are almost
forgotten by name.
With Mr.. Hartman it may be said in
all truthfulness and without disparage-
ment of his genius that he could die and
not be missed after very short interval
of the adjustment of the affairs with
which he is intimately identified. Under
his directing hand great property struc-
lures have been created which will en-
dure long after he has gone to his fathers
and when Hartman the man has been
forgotten. He has built monuments that
will endure, however.
Among the many crazy stories ahoat
about and concerning Mr.. Hartman is
lea was FASTENED in order to defeat
deep laid conspiracy to divert the, accu-
INFLATED cash and other assets Of the I'm
ion Pacific for the profit of the con-
spirators-a plot predicated on the theory
that Mr.. Hartman would not return
alive and that 1t was entirely safe to
claw at his corporations. Mr.. Edwin
Hawley was named In this story as
being the man selected to assume the
Off al ant Of a
properties. 1t was added in order to
give strength to the tale that the bitter
est feelings existed between the two men.
Now there may be the faintest shadow
of a foundation for the theory that Mr..
Hawley is slated to succeed Mr.. Harri-
man in an official way but 1t is entirely
untrue that Hartman and Hawley are
enemies They were at swords points
for several years but are now close
friends both business and social. A little
explanation on this point will be enlght-
ening: Mr.. Hawley engineered the sale
of the Southern Pacific to Mr.. Hartman
and was to have been given place on
the new Hartman directory and also i'm
portant standing in the conduct of the
property.
ington's right-hand man and felt that he
was entitled to heavy weight recognition
under the new regime. Mr.. Hartman
forgot him entirely in the makeup of
the new roster, whereat the neglected
one searched him out and gave him
vitriolic tongue flashing. They parted
openly hostile. Backed by the Hunting
ton millions, Mr.. Hawley launched out
upon a railroad career of his own. Col
orado Southern was his first ambitious
enterprise He took up that road and
built it Into a state where 1t became at
| tractive to James J. Hill, who annexed
| 1t to his Burlington system at great
| profit to the Hawley combination.
Meantime Hawley had gone into Iowa
railroads and taken over Glover Leaf.
| Quietly and unknown to the public he
| reached out and acquired control of Al
1 ton which Mr. Hartman had gotten out
| of at nigh prices with the expectation
| of being able to pick 1t up again from
| the bargain counter. When he discov
cred that Mr.. Hawley was after Alton,
| Mr.. Hartman called on him and pro-
| ceeded to read the riot act, saying in
! blunt language that he would not toll
| crate such interference with the Harri-
man plans. He wound up the interview
with the remark, ALTON Is mine and
| YOU can't have it." unfortunately"
| retorted Mr.. Hawley, 'I win have it and
| I've got 1t already" To demonstrate the
| correctness of his statement, Mr.. Haw-
ley within few days transferred the
control of Alton to the Clover Leaf
| treasury.
Then a great light dawned upon Mr.
Hartman and by methods of his own he
sought peace with Hawley, and within n
few days the two men had buried the