Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-03-06
ED1roRIAL coRRnsPoNDENcE
No. 20.
CoLrNsus, Feb. ", 1880.

Jedf Ietegrdph: An unusual press
ofbusiness,;n Committee and otherwise,
has prevented our writing for some days.
If our readers will have patience until
ourro roturn we shall strive to make the
contents. of. the, paper correspond to its
present dimensions. In the meantime
we.have to thank the printers for sup.
plying so we'll our lack Of service. ss
Business in the Legislature is being
dispatched as rapidly as the formalitiss
ef,the necessary routine will permit
The week has been spentin earnestwork,
although the number Of bills. passed
would hardly indicate it,
: The. bill for tho relief Of the NJ. & c.
II. r., which was passed ON Thursday
evening, was probably Of the most i'm
portance of any that has been, or will be,
before the body It certainly ELECTED
the most discussion--was the most earn
estly advocated and detcrminedly op-
posed of any other measure this winter.
The Road or the Company, rather--is
hopelessly insolyent. Thirteen millions
of dollars have been expended upon it,
and it is unfinished. The income does
not.pay the running expenses, and the
interest on the debts has been accumu-
lating for years. European Capitalists
held mortgages upon it for six or seven
millions Of dollars, while domestic cred
itors held its bonds for several millions.
In this state of things it was madness
to ask for money to complete the Road
and maintain it in running order. In
the meantime the bridges and trussel
work were going to decay, and the only
prospect ahead was the abandonment of
the Road, and its loss to the public as
means of developing the resources of the
mineral region through which it runs.
The entire stock subscribed was hope
lessly sunk, and could not be sold for a
cent on the thousand dollars The Road,
if cold, would not bring, under any cir
eumstances, enough to pay off the first
and second mortgages, the holders of
which had commenced proceedings to
bring it to sale. A decree had been
obtained for the sale of the Road, and if
purchased by the Mortgagers as it would
be, if sold at all, the stockholders and
unsecured creditors would, of course, re-
ceive nothing, andthe probabilities were,
that the purchasers would sell the iron
aud rolling stock, and abandon the Road
TO destruction. sAA eaa
To prevent this, an arrangement was
made with the European mortgages by
which it was agreed that if an act of the
Legislature could be passed authorizing
the purchasers, under the sale, to take
the corporate franchises of the Com
pany and re-organize under the charter,
they would advance the money neces-
sary to complete, the. work, with some
contingent benefits to the stockholders
and unsecured creditorsof the Company.
This arrangement was assented to by
the holders of eleven, out of the thir-
teen millions of dollars invested, and
they asked the sanction of the Legisla-
turc to their arrangement Some of the
unsecured creditors objected unless they
were first paid in full. But the main
objection raised by members was. of
course, to the sconstitutionality of the
act, and three days Of the session were
spentin debate. 1t is true we had the
silbaEate and we'll maturcd opinions of
such men as Ewing, and Vinton, and
Stanbery, and Swayne, and Thurman,
and Ranney, and Kennon, that the Leg
islaturc had full constitutional power to
grant the relief. And we must confess
it was considerable of bore to be COM
PEELED 10 sit for hours and even days,
listening to constitutional objections
urged in bad grammar and worse logic
by gentlemen legislators who never saw
the inside of book on constitutional
law in their lives.
The question of adjournment is yet
undecided. Its our opinion that there
will be no adjourned session, although
very many are in favor of it.
The more important bills are matur-
ing in the Committees, and the next two
eekswill be spent, We trust, in earnest
work, finishing what may be deemed es-
sential to be done.
The bill repeating the School Library
tax will be disposed of early in next
week, when a desperate effort will be
niadeto 50 amend the School Law as to
confne the distribution of the School
Fund to the counties in which it is
raised. This, We think, is vital stall;
at the whole system. We sent for pub
lication some time ago, the report of the
Committee on Schools on similar bill,
but not having received the last number
ofthe Telegraph, we don know whether
it was published or not. IF not, please
find place for II soon.
There isalso bill before the House
providing for the sale of the Public
Works, Canals, &C., belonging to the
State. This very grave question, and
one which meritsthe most thorough con-
sideration. They are now tax upon
the Treasury of about eighty thousand
An1iara a uaop hayacI III: -