Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-12-07


:. For the Spectator.
Report of the President and Directors of
the Virginia Central Railroad.
As the only source OF information open to the
stockholders and the public, in reference to the
present condition, the future prospects, and
the past history of the various works of internal
Improvement in the State, is found in the annu-
al reports of the President and Directors of the
several works over which they respectively pre-.
side, it becomes matter OF the first importance
that these reports should embody, as concisely
as possible, clear and candid statement of the
financial condition, the expenses of administers
ton the objects to which the nett revenue, i
not paid in dividends, has been applied, and
generally, all such information as may be ne
cessary to enable the stockholders to form cor
rect and intelligent opinion as well in reference
to the management as the value of their proper.
ty.
On the 25th OF November last the annual re-
port of the President and Directors of the Cen
trail railroad was submitted to meeting of it,
stockholders. A careful examination of thai
document satisfies me that it entirely fails in
giving that lucid and satisfactory exposition o.
the condition and prospects of the Central rail
road, demanded by the magnitude and impor.
lance of the work.
The report states the gross income of the road
for the year ending 90th Sept. last at $685. S82..
Is, an increase over last year of $45 801 ,35 and
the Expense of administration" for the same
time is $290,056.03, leaving a nett revenue fol-
the year of 1926, 776.l2, a sumequivalent to more
than nine per cent upon the ''capital stock &C.
tually paid in" To what specific object this
large nett revenue has been applied is no where
stated in the report. That luminous document
leaves to every stockholder the task-perhaps
the Board deem it q pleasure-of inding out
for himself from the complicated statement OF
the Treasurer the purposes to which this money
has been appropriated. But to plain man
like the writer, who is entirely ignorant of the
abstruse science of accounting and unskilled in
the mysteries of ''book keeping" this would be
a truly Herculean labor.
In the comments may make on this subject
do not design to iutimate-for entertain no
such opinion or suspicion-tbat a single dollar
of the revenue of the company has been i'm.
properly applied by the Board. Nor do doubt
the accuracy and fidelity with which the Treas
urer discharges his responsible and onerous du-
ties.
learn from statement 10" that during the
year the Board purchased twenty thousand dol
lars worth and sold thirty thousand dollars of the
coupon bonds of the company. a way OF liqui-
dating debts do not understand, neither am
able to reconcile this fnanciering with nett
revenue of near three hundred thousand dollars
and promised dividend the first of April next.
1t appears, think, from this statement that
there was realized from the $4,000 of bonds
sold the sum of $22,010, and for the $4,000
purchased there were paid $14525. Now if |
sm correct in supposing this purchase of bonds
to represent the sum appropriated to the sink
ing fund, it follows that the amount actually set
apart for that purpose was but $l5,525, instead
of $4,000.
But have already confessed my inability to
understand or unravel these accounts, and
think, the stockholders have legitimate grounds
of complaint; that all these matters have not
been stated by the Board in plain and intelligi
bic English instead of being lett wrapped up in
complicated, and to most men, unintelligible ia
bles of figures. 1t seems to me that it was obvi-
ously the duty of the President and Directors to
have informed the stockholders in clea- and dis
tinct terms of the specific objects to which they
appropriated the large nett earnings of the road,
the precise sum invested in sinking fund, aud
the exact amount by which the debts OF the
company had been reduced, and not to have left
them to grope their way in search OF this infor'
nation through whole pages of intricate figures,
and necessarily complicated statements. To
have done this would have required but little
more space than is occupied in the report, with
recital of the large income of the New York
and Erie railroad and the low price at which
its stock sells in the market, and the information
would have been almost as interesting to the
stockholders.
The report states that reduction of nearly
$50, 900 has been made in the "expense of ad
ministration" for the year just closed as compar-
ed with that of the preceding year. | now in
tend to examine this statement in the light Of
the ''report and accompanying documents" sub
United to the annual meeting of the stockholders
at the close of the year 1867.
In the report of that year at page 10 the e1-
penses are stated to be $319, 791,, omit cents an
expenditure so much above that of the year 1866
that it attracted considerable attention and sew
eral subjects of extraordinary expense are refer
red to in the report in general terms as explain
ing aud accounting for it. The Superintendent
10 his report also refers to this subject at page
"a, and states the items, (but omits the amount
of each,) that are llegitimately charged to the
expense account of that year. But there is an
other document accompanying the report of 1857
that also takes up the matter. And on pages
CT and 60 will be found the various items, con-
stituting these improper charges, stated in de-
tail, with the amount of each given in dollars
and cents making an aggregate of 81, 100.-
This document closes with the declaration shat
with these deductions, the ratio of expenses
with receipts as compared with the. year of low
est expenditure, has increased only in appear
a,,ce and not in fact" This statement seems to
have been satisfactory to both stockholders and
Directors, and its correctness was not called in
question.
l shall now compare the expenses Of 1858
with those of the year 1857.
Amount of expenses incurred in 1855 $3l9,79l
Deduct amount improperly charged as
per report pages 81 and 6S. 44,lOO
S275, 6sl
and we have $275,691 as the true current ex-
penditures for 1868.
Then in 1858 we have
Actual expenditures $20OO56
Deduct cost of shop repairs to tools, &C., 1882
s275.l74
Which leaves $275, ia as the current expenses
for the year 1868, and exhibits difference of
but $5l7 in favor of the year just closed, instead
of nearly $4,000, as claimed by the report.
But there is another consideration to be taken
into the account in making this comparison be-
tween the two years. "On the 18th of April
last the trains commenced running through the
Blue Ridge Tunnel, consequently rendering the
uss of the temporary track over the Blue Ridge
no longer necessary" 1t is thus seen that for
nearly six months of the last year the heavy eI
pense incurred in running across the mountain
had been dispensed with. In view of these facts
think it clear that the expenses of 1858 have
been in no degree diminished as compared with
those of 1857
In regard to the exciting topic of dividends
about which the Board seem so sensitive, pre-