New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-07-13
The Railroad Bonds.

The Railroad BONDS. ls
In the Lower Board of the City Council on
Tuesday night last the Finance Committee re
ported a resolution instructing the Mayor moi
to make any issue Of City Bonds in behalf Of tn,
New Orleans and Pontchartrain Railroad Com
pany until all the stockholders of the existing
road should consent to relinquish its earnings
to the construction Of the Mobile Road A let
ter from the City Attorney accompanied this
report, stating in effect that without the unani
nous consent Of the stockholders no transfer O.
any Of their rights or privileges can be made
and that without such consent the new stock,
holders and the city will not stand upon thai
equal footing with the old which is guaranteed
to them by the ordinance
From the instant when the ordinance was de-
clared adopted by the voters Of New Orleans, it
was orr opinion that it would be wise for the
city to afford Messrs Egerton and Hennen every
opportunity to conduct the affair honestly and
fairly, and every facility for the rapid prosecu
tion Of the work. The enterprise itself we have
been strongly in favor of from the start, and
however little confidence we may have in the
gentlemen who have it in hand we greatly de
sire to see it pushed through to successful
uAAhSSSsoNiJ ppSpaSASs
fore, should be thrown in the way of the work,
either to defeat or delay it, but every aid and
encouragement should be rendered for its speedy
completion AT the same time, every provision
" and requirement calculated to secure the rights
esof the city should be insisted upon and strictly
complied with. II the terms of the ordinance
are complied with in every particular, the bond
should be issued in their regular series, and n,
attempt should be made to delay them or iniure
their credit; we may then expect to see at eas,
sixty miles Of the road completed by the com
pany. But any effort on the part Of the Pont-
ehartrain Railroad Company to secure these
bonds andat the same time fail to comply with
part of the agreement, and thus compel the
city to bear the burden of the enterprise without
o just share in its profits, should be promptly
met and resisted.
Let us see what the objection of the Finance
Committee consists in:
The ordinance provides, that g from the time
of the city subscription to the stock of the said
company, the old and new stockholders and the
city shall in oil respects be upon an equal foot
ing, in proportion to their respective number OF
shares, as to the earnings that may accrue on
the road now in existence, as well as that to be
constructed to Mobile; and provided further,
that the rights and exclusive privileges now
held by the Pontchartrain Railroad Company,
and by which, under charters granted by the
States of Alabama and Mississippi, the said
Pontchartrain Railroad Company has obtained
the privilege Of constructing and maintaining
railroad from New Orleans to Mobile through
those States, shall, on the subscription by the
city as above set forth, become the joint asset
the new as we'll as old stockholders of the sale
Ponschartran Railroad Company, and Of the
city of New Orleans.'
The Directors Of the Company have given their
assent to this provision, but it is clear that in
doing 50 they disposed of rights and privileges
over which they could have no control without
the consent of every person owning a single
dollar Of the stock That consent has not been
obtained, and now the question stands-shali
the city subscribe to the stock and issue her
bonds with the certainty Of being deprived Of
the benefit of this important provision Would
the issue of bonds under circumstances directly
against a requirement ofthe ordinance be legal J
And if issued with well founded doubts Of their
legality, would not their credit be deprecated
to degree that might prove ruinous to the en-
terprise, and thus involve the city in an enor-
NOUS expenditure without the shadow of COM
pensation?
There certainly should be no haste in a mat
ter where caution and correctness are so essen
tial to success. The bonds should not be issued
until their issue is made legal by a full COM
pliance with the law and the requirements Of
the ordinance.
The affair wears an ugly aspect. To us it
appears the first decisive move in grand game
to swindle the city. If no attention is to be
paid to one Of the most important provisions OF
the ordinance, and the original company is thus
allowed to retain for its own use q large fund
which the law declares shall be appropriated to
the construction of the Mobile road, how can it
reasonably be expected that any part Of thu
ordinance will be complied with which the com.
pany tnds It profitable to avoid, OF that the
bonds when issued will be honestly applied to
the purposes for which they are intended
We will say in conclusion that it is clearly
the duty Of the Mayor to delay the issue of the
bonds until they can be placed in the market
without a doubt as to their legality There is
nj urgent reason for their immediate issue; no
Contracts have yet been made, (no public con-
tracts,) and the company cannot be in want Of
money until the work is commenced And the
strongest possible argument against premature
issue is the one we have already stated, that
the credit of the bonds would be liable to suffer
great injury thereby.
A New RAILROAD HorEL.-It will be seen BY
a card in another column that fine new Hotel
is about to be completed at the Amte Station,
6s miles from the city, on the line of the Jack
son Railroad The location will probably prove
o desirable one.
ENEcur1oN.-The negro man convicted at our
last Circuit Court of assault with intent to kill
white man, was hanged yesterday, at about
u O'clock N, A pretty large concourse of per-
sons, black and white, turned out on the coca,
sion. The crowd, though unnecessarily large,
was not 50 great as usually 60 to see the dis
gushing spectacle. montgomery Advocate.
This execution took place on the 18th inst
the same day on which Frank Smith was hanged
in this city.
The Tepislatnre of Connecticut has passed {