Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1909 — MAN OF WONDERFUL COURAGE [ARTICLE]

MAN OF WONDERFUL COURAGE

WHI Take Years to Understand Character of Harriman. Chicago, SepL 10—“ It will take forty years for the people of this country to understand Edward H. Harriman. Like the history of the civil war his life cannot be written until time has removed the blots that now stand in the way of the people’s appreciation of his value to the country.” This Is an estimate of Harriman made here by a man who had been In close touch with him for many years. This friend said: “Harriman was a man of wonderful courage. He came up out of Wall street and he showed the men of that street that he could play their game better than they. When Erie was In trouble the National City group wanted to let It go into the hands of a receiver, but Harriman objected. He was afraid of a panic. He went home that right and stayed awake until 3 o’clock in the morning. He always did a great deal of thinking in bed. When he went to sleep that day he had made up his mind that the other men were wrong. In the morning he called his men in and told them to hustle out and get something like $10,000,000 of securities. He borrowed the money to pay off the notes on his own responsibility. “Some people called that foolhardy, but he won out. “In the Alton matter you will find that he was only banking on the future of the road. There was no water. “I do not know upon whose shoulders the mantle of Mr. Harriman will fall. I assume that Judge Robert Loyett will take the chairmanship of the boards. Mr. Harriman picked him out of Texas as he picked many another man. “You will find that he left his properties in such shape that they cannot get at them. Stocks may tumble but the real values of the properties will not be hurt and the ordinary man never will feel Jlr. Harriman’s death. There is an organization for every one of the Harriman lines and the great system will go on.”