Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-07
LItN N N|t VNl|NI|0l DlIy NiN.

Tt may lead to a conversational investi-
CATION Certainly the Senate District
Committee will examine it before Hart
mans recent reappointment Is con-
frmed.
Back In 1925, at the time Of the ex-
change Of the letters, these two men.
apparently, were the best Of friends.
Four years later, in June, 1929, few
days after Hartman took the oath OF
ONCE as a member Of the Public Utili-
ties Commission, Hansel was one OF the
first to call at the commission and con-
graduate him.
During that brief visit. Hansel told
Hartman he had friend he would like
to introduce. Ten days later Hansel re-
turned to Hartman's ONCE and intro
duced his friend. That friend was
Harley P. Wilson, o director Of the
North American Co.. which controls the
washington Railway & Electric Co.,
who, at that particular time. was work
ing assiduouSly to bring about a merger
Of the car companies in Washington.
Early Transit Plan Fails.
A transit unification plan which Will
son had drawn up and which had been
approved by the car companies and the
former Public Utilities Commission,
headed by John w. Childress, had
shortly before died a natural death IN
Congress because it provided too much
for the corporations and not enough
for the public.
So the new commission, OF which
Hartman was a member, undertook to
renew the merger negotiations. The
car companies were unwilling to partici-
pate. Then the commission, on its own
initiative, drew up a merger plan and
sent II to Congress- plan based on
the original agreement, but more in the
public interest. Congress also failed to
ratify this plan, and merger negotia-
tons have since been at a standstlll.
Handling valuation cases for large
Eastern railroads has been Hansel's
forte. In his long engineering career
he has represented the Pennsylvania
system, the Central Railroad of New
Jersey, the Reading and the Philadel-
phia Rapid Transit system. He also
has had other important connections.
In 1901 he was appointed by the Gov
ernor Of Michigan to the State Board
of Review to adjudicate problems in
connection with the valuation OF rail-
roads in that State, and in 1911 he pre-
pared a report on the retaliation Of
railroads and canals in New Jersey for
Woodrow Wilson, who at that time was
Governor of the State.
Hansel Proposes Survey.
Back in 1914, year after the crea-
ton of the District Public Utilities
Commission, Hansel sought the job Of
evaluating Washington's public utility
corporations He did not get it. Again,
in 1927, at the request of the Childress
commission, he made an estimate on
the cost of revaluing the properties of
the Capital Traction and Washington
Railway g. Electric companies. Core
spondence on file at the commission
shows he proposed to complete the re-
valuation work in three months and
estimated the cost at $4,000. He did
not get that job either.
So Hansel's first job of prominence
in Washington was his transportation
survey. Even then he had undertaken
the work before it became known thS%
he was the man who anonymously had
offered his services to the Federation of
Citizens Associations. for which the
study ostensibly was to be made.
Hansel's offer to make the survey was
carried to the federation by Maj. Clay
ton E. Emig, then acting chairman OF
its Committee on Public Utilities. He
reported that an outstanding engineer.
whose name he did not reveal. would do
the work. Obviously, the federation had