The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-08 00:00:00

PROTECTION FOR TRADES SOCIETIES

FUNDS.

At a recent meeting of the Manchester and Salford
Trades Council the following correspondence between the
council and Mr. Justice Lush was read, in reference to the
case of William Dodd, recently tried at the Spring Assizes
for forgery and appropriation of the funds of the Operative
Painters' Society, and was authorised to be forwarded to
the newspapers for the benefit of the public and the trade
societies of the United Kingdom :—" Three Crowns Inn,
Salford, March 19, 1868.—T0 Sir Robert Lush, Judge of
her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench. -- My Lord,
I am instructed, on behalf of the above-named
council (composed of thirty-two trades, all located in
Manchester, and numbering over 9,000 members, to re-
turn to yourself and your honourable colleague, Justice
Mellor, their sincere and heartfelt thanks for the im-
portant decision pronounced during the present assizes in
Manchester, in reference to the case of William Dodd,
late treasurer to the Manchester Operative House Painters'
Society, which body is a branch of our council. It was in
the belief that the law would protect the honest and faith-
ful subjects of her Majesty in the possession of their funds,
accumulated against a period of depression in trade, sick-
ness, or death, and against the malpractices of any of
the officials of such societies, that the Manchester and
Salford Trade Council encouraged the officers of the
before-named society to prosecute the said William Dodd,
they pledging that the council would use every endeavour
to procure pecuniary assistance to enable them to do so
effectually, their own funds having been reduced through
the dishonourable action of the said individual. The
understood lax state of the law has, for several years
past, led to the defrauding of many societies whose
members have failed to prosecute in the belief that they
had no locus stancli. Hence moral obligations have been
violated, and encouragement offered for the continuance
of dishonest practices, and many have been tempted to
appropriate such funds in the belief that no punish-
ment awaited them. The case " Hornby v. Close"
was tried on behalf of a considerable number of members
of trades unions who are registered under the Friendly
Societies Act, and upon the failure of that case much
agitation has taken place, members of Parliament waited
upon, and a bill prepared by efficient lawyers to meet
the case. It is a aenrce of congratulation to the council
that your lordship's decision has rendered future agitation
unnecessary, and placed the trade societies in that position
which they conceive to be the privilege of all faithful
subjects to enjoy.— I am, my lord, your obedient servant,
W. H. Wool), Secretary." In reply to the above com-
munication the following letter has been received :—" As-
size Courts, Manchester, Judges' Lodgings, March 21,
1833. —'Arr. Justice Lush begs to acknowledge the receipt
of a letter from Kr. Wood, written as secretary to and on
behalf of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council.
As one of the judges who decided the case of ' Hornby
v. Close,' he learnt at the trial of William Dodd,
with equal surprise and regret, the erroneous views
which had been taken of the effect of that decision,
and the bad use which had been made of it by un-
principled men, and he agrees with the council that it is a
cause of congratulation that these mistaken notions have
been dispelled. At the same time he thinks it right, having
regard to the last paragraph of Mr. Wood's letter, to
caution the council against falling into error on the other
side, and inferring too much from the judgment in Dodd's
case. Cases may arise, particularly in civil matters, in
which a large and fluctuating body, not having a corpo-
rate character, may be defeated in a just claim by the
technicalities of procedure."

MISSION TO WOMEN DISCHARGED FROM

PRISON.

A meeting of the friends and supporters of this institu-
tion has been held in Willis's Rooms. In the absence of
Lord Shaftesbury, who is abroad, and slightly indisposed,
the chair was taken by Lord Henry Chohnondeley, who
was accompanied on the platform by Major Martin
Petrie, Captain Fishbourne, the Rev. Lloyd Jones,
ordinary of Newgate, and Sir Walter Crofton. Letters
were read from the Earl of Cavan, the Earl of Devon, and
the Rev. Foster Rogers, chaplain of Winchester Gaol.
Chiefly through the instrumentality of Miss Meredith,
a home for the class indicated in the metropolitan
districts was opened in June 1866, in Kensington-park-
road, at the cost of 2470 Os. 54d. Since that period
98 women have passed through the probationary home,
of whom only three have been recommitted to prison.
Forty women have gone to situations without entering
the home, 18 children have been taken charge of, 13
have been received again at home, 5 remain chargeable
to the mission ; 325 women have been helped in other
ways ; 900, or thereabouts, have attended meetings ;
603 have been visited in their haunts ; 4 mission
rooms are open ; 96 Bible meetings and 74 sewing classes
have been held. Owing to the abolition of transporta-
tion, convicts are thrown entirely on the home public,
the relapse of many of whom into crime is frequently
traceable to the difficulties they encounter in earning a
livelihood. The remarkable fact that out of the 4,310
women committed to prison in one year more than once,
2,419 have been above ten times imprisoned, is probably
ascribable to this cause. Being able-bodied, they are
excluded from poor-law relief, while their want of
character precludes them from the only resource from the
repetition of crime —employment. ,It is the purpose of the
society to relieve these women by giving them profitable
occupation in the home, and retaining them under good
influence after liberation, in order to enable them to regain
their character. It is proposed to set up washhouses, and to
hire the women by the day to work in them. From estimates
made there appear to be in London alone about 2,000
women in need of the aid the society desires to give. Be-
tween 5,000 and 6,000 children belong to these, sharing
their poverty and learning their crimes. For the aid of
these a nursery and a school, with a colonial branch for
girls, are in contemplation. By the speeches of the chair-
man and others, and from the report read by the secre-
tary, it would appear that in a religious point of view,
especially both at the home and through the agency of
missionaries, the society has been instrumental in re-
claiming many of the worst of female thieves, inclu-
ding burglars, coiners, and shoplifters. Photographs of
some of these, as well as a real ticket of leave,
were Amu to aml handed round the meeting, which
consisted chiefly of benevolent ladies. Mr. Lloyd Jones,
alluding to a meeting that afternoon of those directing the
Sheriffs' Fund, said they would be glad to afford assistance
to suitable pers,-,n3 in this home who had bern tried at
the Central Criminal Court. The lowest class of all
criminals, and the worst to reclaim, are those who take to
getting a living by uttering counterfeit coin. A bad
shilling could be bought for twopence, half-a-crown
for fourpence, a two-shilling piece for threepence,
a five-shilling-piece for sixpence, and so on. He believed
that in nineteen eases out of twenty the utterer escaped
detection. He thought the establishment of washhouses
very feasible, as washing and ironing formed the great
occupations in prisons. After brief remarks by Sir Walter
Crofton and Captain Gardiner Fishbourne, the meeting
separated,

THE
_ERIE RAILWAY FIGHT-VANDER.
BILT VERSUS DREW.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

Amalgamation and consolidation in railways, in
express companies, and other joint-stock under-
takings have lately been the order of the day in
New York. The express companies have success-
fully united so as to form a monopoly, which many
fear will be more beneficial to the shareholders than
to the public. The railway consolidation movement
has been headed by Commodore Vanderbilt, a man
of great administrative ability, courage, and deter-
mination, backed by a large fortune. He succeeded
in obtaining the control of the New York Central,
the Hudson River, the Harlem, and securing an
overriding influence in other lines. The power
this has thrown into his hands is enormous ; indeed
not unlike that exercised by Hudson, the Commo-
dore being styled in New York, as Hudson was in
England, " the Railway King." Vanderbilt, after
overcoming all opposition, used his influence to
correct abuses ; but in this he raised up a host of
enemies, while he received a strong support from
the shareholders generally. Albany was disgusted
by an improvement which enabled travellers to pass
through. without delay ; Rochester was enraged
by a freight tariff which compelled it to pay in
proportion to its distance ;—the former used its
influence in the New York Legislature in endea-
vouring to pass bills by which Vanderbilt and his
associates should be ousted from the control. An
Act had been passed in 1848, which provides that
a certain portion of the Directors shall be residents
of the section traversed by the road, and all must
be residents of the State. This law was violated in
the last elections. Rochester iner,:ased the tax on
the railway property within the city limits from
$30,000 to $40,000. Strong as Vanderbilt was in
the direction of the lines he controlled, he was still
opposed even on his own ground. These were the
circumstances when he set to work to absorb the
Erie, where the rival king Daniel Drew reigned
supreme. For many years Mr. Drew managed
the Erie, being its treasurer and most in-
fluential director. Long ago when the line
threatened to sink into irretrievable bank-
ruptcy he invested his whole fortune in its shares,
and gave it the benefit of his credit and of
his abilities. The Erie is, more than any other, the
gambler's stock in Wall-street. What the Metro-
politan is on the London Stock Exchange in a mild
way, the Erie has been on a grand scale in New
York. Combinations have been formed to " bear"
it, and counter-combinations to " bull" it. Influ-
ential men have always led in these conspiracies
generally with an ulterior object. Mr. Drew has
been deeply engaged in these speculations, and
wholly controlling as he did the line, he has thus
derived a vast profit. The Philadelphia correspon-
dent of the Times says that during seven years its
price fluctuated from 17, in April, 1861, to 126 in
March, 1864 ; to 45 in the same month in the fol-
lowing year, while now it flies up and down from
70 to 80. The syndicates working against Drew
have invariably come to grief, and of this the most
noticeable instance occurred about two years
ago. A party formed in Wall-street pur-
chased largely, and the price advanced, so as
to leave Mr. Drew a heavy loser, as he had
sold heavily for future delivery. How he managed
to overwhelm his opponents was afterwards shown
in the New York courts. The board borrowed from
him convertible bonds and
newhim $s :t30,150k00a,
as collateral
giving
security. Turning the bonds
into stock, with that issued to him, he made up
58,000 shares, which, as an avalanche, be threw at
once upon the market, instantly carrying down the
shares 40 per cent., and annihilating all engaged in
the " bull" operations. Mr. Vanderbilt having
successfully carried out his New York Central
schemes turned his attention to the Erie Railway,
and with his backers commenced picking up the
stock. The Erie, like the Atlantic and Great Western,
was constructed through a thinly-peopled country,
ending, at a point on Lake Erie, without even a
name! It was projected to develope a rich terri-
tory, and the views of its founders have been jus-
tified by the result. Originally its route commenced
at a spot on the Hudstm, 25 miles from New York,
but by piercing Weehawken it has brought its ter-
minus to the harbour of New York, and perhaps
done more for that city thin any work yet pro-
jected. By its connection with the Atlantic and
Great Western it gives a direct road to St. Louis
entering the valley of the Mississippi, and with
Chicago, as well as with the whole western railroad
system by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
roads. To all but its shareholders it has been an
inestimable benefit, but to them through its un-
fortunate management it has been.littler better than
a curse. It extends over 528 miles, and cost
$39,328,000, yielding a gross receipt of $12,000,000
annually. The fluctuations since January have been
very great, the rise being steady at first from a low
figure to 78. The dealers in Fancy Stocks, aware
that Vanderbilt was at the bottom of the move-
ment, bought the shares, although it was known
that the dreaded Drew was not engaged in it. Sud-
denly their complacency was disturbed ; large par-
cels of stock were pressed for sale, and down Erie
went to 66, amidst rumours of impending disclo-
sures, almost producing a panic. It then became
known that Drew and his backers were the
actors in the counter-movement. But now the two
great chiefs were face to face—Greek had met Greek
—and the real tug of war began. Drew bad com-
mitted himself largely to future delivery of Stock,
tmask
andbe thea rs”
ssold, Vanderbiltinspite
party, b
purchasing
r thhars ny
until it reached 83, buying more largely
than ever
before known on the New York Stock Exchanges.
Simultaneously an injunction was procured to re-
strain Drew from using the shares converted from
the Bonds—a conversion alleged to be fraudulent.
It was publicly announced that Vanderbilt, at the
head of the greatest combination ever formed in New
York, had determined to add the Erie to
the other
railways already held by him, and the two cham-
pions were thus committed to a life-and-death
struggle. Drew worked in a different court, from
which he procured an injunction restraininghim
from completing any of his "short" orders, and
otherwise confusing the legal rights of the
parties.
Then he threw 50,000 new shares upon the market,
and the stock which on the 9th March had reached
83 fell next day to 72. To prevent Vanderbilt
from raising money he withdrew from circulation
$7,000,000 of greenbacks, thus creating an artificial
stringency which made it most difficult for any one
to borrow. Vanderbilt rushed off to Philadelphia
to negotiate a ten-million loan, in which he failed,
as Drew had been busy working on the fears of the
capitalists, and of the rivals of the Vanderbilt lines,
and secured the support of those controlling the
Western extensions connected with the Erie, as
well as the Pennsylvanian Central, and the Balti-
more and Ohio roads. Having formed the sup-
porters of the more Southern routes into a formid-
able combination against Vanderbilt, he was pre-
pared for his adversary's further attacks. The
Commodore having failed in Philadelphia, suc-
ceeded in procuring a loan of six millions sterling
from foreign houses by pledging his entire railway pro-
perty. Thus reinforced, he again entered the field and
procured an order for the seizure of the railway
accounts, and the arrest of the Erie directors, in-
cluding Drew, for contempt, from the Court which
had issued the injunction he had disregarded, to re-
strain him from selling the newly converted shares.

The board hurried across the Hudson River to
Jersey City with the entire office of the Erie Rail-
way, and thus placed themselves beyond the reach
of arrest in the State of New York. A temporary
office was established at Taylor's Hotel with the
books, papers, and money of the company, and the
exodns of the board was complete, with the excep-
tion of the Vice-President Diven, who was caught
and lodged in gaol. Two of the directors got off in
a small boat at night and were lost in a fog, escap-
ing Vanderbilt's emissaries, who watched the sta-
tions and ferries. When Drew had enthroned
himself in Jersey City, he surrounded his office
with a cordon of sentinels. Thus affairs stood
during the 12th and 13th March, but on the 14th
the war, which for that space had failed, " Now
trebly thundering shook the gale, and Vander-
bilt was the cry !" Vanderbilt's counsel ap-
peared in the New York Court, and secured the