The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-01-11
To JOHN W GARRETT, Esq,

President of the
Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad COMPANY:
SIR.-In communication which had the honor to
address to you yesterday took occasion advert the
language employed by the Directors Of the New York and
Erie Railroad Company when upon the of failure,
for the purpose of demonstrating how tits present
in the annual report Railroad Company view it's
condition by which the credulous and uninvestigatng
may be deceived and how necessary it is for who
about venturng his means upon the faith of the report
of Corporation to look beyond the specious and pausi
BILE document which always prepared without response
bility, adopted without examination by obsequious
Board and given to the public with audacity which
evnces profound and habitua contempt for the public
judg ment Now, Sir, have examined, with minute at
tenton the actual condition of the New York and Erie
Railroad at the period March 25 1866 when the report
from which have quoted put out, and aver that,
in every essential respect except that its funded debt
was nearer its maturity than that of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company and that the crisis in its
affairs more imminent the Erie Railroad Company
was in better condition that day than the
Both of September, 1859
To prove this, commend to your examination the fol-
lowing statements
l. That the debt of the Main Stem of The Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company was greater mile for mile on
the 30th of September 1885, than the debt of the New
York and Erie Railroad Company in March, 1856.
q That the of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Company from its Main Stem and all its branches, and
every source was less mile for mile for the year ending
Sept 80, 1852 than the revenue of the Erie Railroad
Company for the year 1885, and continues to be less mile
1852
In proof of the first of these propositions the official
report OF TIT Erie Railroad Company for 1885 shows that
its entire debt then $780, 2o9 Divide this by the
length of the road eaving out of view its immense line
of double rack and the result is that the debt of the
Company $74 ,306 per mile.
Now, what is yours, tried by the standard
Your liabilities, stated in your annual report
$50 27S9 The length of your road is 379 miles
The result is that the debt of your Company taking your
liabilities at your figures, is $40 500 per me-more
five thousand dollars per mile greater than debt
of a road whose stock is unsaleabe.
Let turn to comparison of the respec-
tive per mile of road used by each Company
The revenue of the Erie Railroad Company, f)r 1856,
So ASS, 1893. To this the Company worked 497
miles of road-showing revenue per mile of 81 043.
The revenue of your road for the year ending Septem
Der 3d. 1885, which you cite evidence of unparalleled
prosperity, S4301 009 To this you used the
main stem-the Washington Branch and the North West
Virginia Road-in all 523 miles, showing revenue
per mile of SS223, and proving that you pros per
upon income nearly three thousand dollars mile less
than that which breaks rival Lest, however, it may
roads for the year ending the Both of September 1852
flor the fiscal year of each Company ends the
same day. it will appear that your business is now more
favorable than that of the Erie Company, present,
for your scrutiny the results of the labors Of the two
Companies for the past year:
The Erie road earned for the year ending September
so, 1852 S44s2149 Divide this by the length of road
t4e7 miles) and the receipts per mile are 50 OlS
Your road earned for the period s4 O09 Di-
vide this by the length of the roads employed earning
it, and we have So, 223 the earnings of each mile of
road.
Unless these statistics can be shown TO be faacous
and until they be shown, claim to have demonstra
ted that whether consider the debt charged
every mile of your road the income derived from
ry mile of the roads worked by the contrast between
the condition of the Erie Company and the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company, presents nothing which is calcu
lated aay the apprehension that the fate which has
overtaken the only be averted from the other by
policy which, discarding temporary eXpedients, framed
for purpose initiating the stock looks only to the
permanent interests of the Corporation.