The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-06-24
GIGANTIC MERGER !.
Of RAILROADS Is
HELLO LEGITIMATE
Federal Court at St. Paul
Calls Combination of Un-
ion Pacific and Southern
Pacific Legal One. .



sense were universally considered .par-
allel lines for two thousand miles.
Tho governments suit against <the
Union Pacific. Southern Pacific merger
was the elimination of a campaign of
financial buccaneering and extended
over nearly quarter OF century. and
resulted In the formation Of transpor-
tation system whose magnitude has
no equal In the history Of the financial
world. This campaign of railroad
absorption had It's commencement dur
ing the early '9O's when the late Col
lis Potter Huntington. president OF the
Southern Pacific, conceived the idea
OF dominating the transportation OF
the West by the purchase OF majority
stock holdings In the lines of his COM
petitors. The scheme was carried out
and In the year of 1900 the Southern
Pacific was sole arbiter of transpOr-
tatiop system extending from New
York to New Orleans by water, from
Now Orleans to San Francisco by rail.
and from San Francisco to Japan and
China by water.
At this time however. there appear
ed upon the scene that wizard OF II.
nance the late +. II. Hartman. Mr..
Hartman held a controlling interest
in the Southern Pacific's only Western
rival, the Union Pacific. whose lines
~wsocdod FROM, nnahn aud Kansas CITY
across the country to Utah. He was
not slow to see the financial advant.
age OF Huntington's scheme and In
1901 successfully out-generalled that
captain OF industry and absorbed the
Southern Pacific. This strategic move
gave the Harriman-Union Pacific in
terests absolute domination In the
West--a situation that Hartman and
his associates were not slow to take
advantage OF.
Mortgage Was Taken.
A mortgage Of 500. ZOO. 900 was TAX
en- on the Southern Pacific lines and
with this vast amount the railroad wiz.
ard" began campaign which 1t Is be-
lieved, was only bounded by an ambi-
ton to control every foot OF rails in
the United States. and promote him.
self and his friends the arbitrary own
ership of Americas transportation IA
cilitics. His method OF railroad alb
sorption was simple. and is well ex-
emplihed In his next move upon the
railroad map. With the 100000. 900
raised upon the Southern Pacific
properties, Hartman and his clique
bought controlling interest in the
Chicago and Alton. and voted their
own men into control through the
board Of directors. The Chicago and
Alton was then mortgaged and the
same process pursued with the Illinois
Central. Thus the game went merrily
on until halted by an investigation by
the Interstate Commerce commission
in 1907. when II was estimated that
the Hartman interests owned stock
aggregating $11O,OOO,000 in seven of
the largest roads of the continent.
This inquiry by the Interstate Com.
merce commission was brought about
by complaints that such wholesale
coalition between competing roads
was directly against the mandates of
the Sherman antitrust law. and its
findings resulted In the Aling of a suit
by the government in the United
States circuit court in Salt Lake City
on February 1. 1908 by Attorney Gen.
eral Bonaparte to dissolve the merg-
err The defendants, the late Edward
H. Hartman. Jacob II. Schiff. Otto II.
Kahn, James Stillman. the late Henry
H. Rogers. Henry c. Frick and VII.
liam A. Clark. through a host of legal
talent representing themselves and
the various railroad systems and
trust companies also named as de.
PENDANTS. used every vile known to
the law to delay and hinder its prose.
cution. Time and again a date was set
for a hearing. only to be postponed
through legal Quibbling, or the illness
or death Of one OF the principals. The
interests brought great pressure 10
bear at Warrington to circumvent the
efforts of the governments attorney to
prosecute the suit, but the case was
finally brought to close and the evi.
dence placed before the court.