The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1857-03-18
For the Journal

IContinued from yesterdays Journal


IContinued from yesterdays Journal
10 my fello,e- Citizens:
have shown to you, that even upon the
terms OF this contract, which Mir. lngle de-
nounces to Won rs most runously extravagant
to the Company, the Straight Line Road will
he as cheap roai relatively as the Il. & C. I
Road, built as it is, under circumstances,
equivalent to 10 per cent against us. And if
we could separate from the other portions
that part of the Il. e G Road built under Mr.
Ingle's special care-irom here to White Riv
err think we could show that we are beat
ing him $1,000 or 5000 per mile, notwith-
standing the unfayorablc difference in the
times.
In every view in which he places the con-
tract before you, his own statements refute
his own charges. lie says the stock is worth
less; take that from our compensation and we
have S25, 900 iii bonds per mile left. The L
Il e. Road-which is his standard of good
management in railroad building. costs, he
says sl9, 100 per mile. Our iron alone, will
cost us in bonds So, 100 per mile more than
theirs, which exceeds the amount left us i'm
bonds for our pay, and refutes his own asser-
ton that the amount paid US, is extravagant;
or that it weuld be. even if we were opera
he laborel. and il orr grade and guage were
the same as theirs. But our guage and grade
is one quarter wider than theirs, and is con-
sequcntly % per cent more expensive which
COSTS Of difference in grade would be, under
his own showing. an entire loss to us. unless
it shall be covered-as have no doubt it will
be-by the future value, of what he declares
to be worthless stock.
i But without making any invidious COMPARE
sons. and supposing tn, contract never to
have been made with us, could the road have
been made at less than The contract price in
any other way? The Il. & G. Road realized
on their securities about zoe on the dollar;
and if their road cost nineteen-t Thousand dol
lars in bonds, it would have cost thirteen
thousand three hundred and seventy dollars
in cash The iron of our road will cost US in
cash four. THOUSAND dollars more than theirs,
and oursrade being one quarter greater, will
cost % per cent more in cash, or two thous-
and-fve hundred dollars per mile, which il
added, would make the cost of our road built
with cash funds, Observation-Disclosures
hundred and seventy dollars. throw out OF
the calculation the increased costs Of labor
and living, AMI the proposition is reduced to
this simple question, has there been any way,
10y any financial skill, without any malignant
opponents TO impeach our credit. within the
la,t three years, when the bonds and stock
given to conld have been converted into
nineteen thousand ght-- hundred dollars
cash. Mr. lngle knows as well as myself
that to get seventeen thousand iye-hundred
dollars for the thirty thousand dollars could
not have been done under the unfavorable diff
ticuites that has surrounded the enterprise
The cost would therefore have been greater il
the Company had attempted to build the road
under contracts for payments in cash, and to
have raised that cash by negotiating its own
securities The simple truth is, that such a
road as we are building cannot, at this day, be
completed for less than the contract price
with the means zoe hare to pay for it in. The
estimates for all roads are made for cash pay.
ments; they are usually paid for in bonds and
securities that are sold at discount Of "a to
40 per cent, and this makes the difference be-
tween the estimated and actual cost in most
T instances. There are few if any roads now
building in the Western country. whose Secu.
rites are selling for more than Go per cent
the general range is from 60 to 20 cents Oh
the dollar. Twist it and turn it, as We
may, the road we are producing costs more
, than the actual value of The pay We are get
ting for il; and If the contractors had been
compelled to rely on the securities they re-
ceiyed from the road, for the means to make
it, the road would never have been graded ten
miles; or if they had been forced to sell the
bonds in the market, in the face OF the opposi
ton they have encountered from open and
secret enemies, they would have been ruined
5 Having shown you that the Straight Line
: Railroad has not been swIndsed by the con
, trace for its construction, and that the conf
dencc you have placed in me has not been be
trayed or abused. propose now to give yO,
5 a full and explicit statement OF what has beer
done to complete the road and its future pros
poets: which, when you reflect upon the serle
of unprecedented difficulties We have encoun
tered at home and abroad, am confident vii
4 meet your hearty approval, and secure to M
E your confidence and aid in pushing forward
, the great enterprise.
The Office of the principal engineer is a
Petersburg, and | am without books and doc
uments from which to give detailed accurate
statement of amounts. will present then
D to you as have them in my own memOr,
from statements made on the first instant
There had been paid out under the con
+ tract for work done from S350OOOto S3600UC
And of this sum, the contractors have fur
: nishcd from their own means $4,000 il
cash, and have provided $4,000 in goods tina
have been, or are to be used in payments 70
= the Road, making their advances under the
contract from their Individual means, l60,OOC
dollars, or nearly one-half of the whole ex
penditure. These heavy advances they ar
carrying at high rates of interests to proven
the necessity of sacrificing the securities O
! the Company. The balance Of the mean
has been raised by a sale of securities which
have been sold only when what we deemed
their true value could be obtained
BY calculation made by the contractor
| for their own guidance, on the first day of tn
. present month"; it was estimated by them, al
ter very careful Investigation and examina
ton, that further expenditure Of $4,000
would finish the grading, bridges, cuiyerts ant
supply the ties, and fully prepare the first di
l..i... LAl.tl IL. g al. :.