The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-11-19
The Eric Railway War Revived in
New Shape.


New Shape.
Within few days the Erie Railway war has
been revived with greater fury than ever.
Strangely enough it has assumed new and
peculiar shape. The positions of some Of the
chief combata nts in the latest battle between
changed. One of them, thick head and
shoulders above the rest finds himself in
direct opposition to his ancient allies of last
winter. Another, Ga victim) standing on the
shoulders of certain foreign houses who
suffered FROM the rise in Erie engineered
on Saturday and Monday, has appealed to
the aid of the law to protect those whom
he represents against the inevitable depre-
citation of the common stock of COM
pany majority of whose directors are
charged with having Illegally increased it
from seventeen million dollars to sixty -one
millions, and with devoting the funds of the
corporation to the purchase of opera houses
and other kinds of property. Areceiver of the
company has been asked for and an injunction
has been granted and served upon it. But it
is rumored that, with q view to checkmate this
movement, which had been anticipated by the
antagonistic parties, the latter had already
secretly applied for and obtained the appoint
ment of a receiver from their own ranks. 1t
is also rumored that to put as much money as
possible beyond the clutches of the law in case
an injunction should be issued seven millions Of
gold have been transferred across the Hudson
to Jersey City, beyond the jurisdiction of the
New York courts.
The rival spectators in Erie are thus again
litigants. The proceedings in court will doubt
less reveal more distinctly than we can now
perceive them, amid the din and confusion
and smoke with which Wall street is still filed,
the colossal proportions Of the Erie specula-
tons. These speculations have altogether
transcribed the ordinary limits OF the sharp
practice which is familiar enough in Wall
street. It is not too much to say that an honest
eye could with difficulty distinguish the acts
charged upon certain directors of the Erie
Railway Company from positive acts of swim
ding and fraud. The viest gift enterprises
have betrayed no uglier features than those
which some Of these spectators seem to wear.
1t is not unlikely that the present Erie Railway
war may prove far worse than that of last
year. When an over-issue of millions of stock
can be effected, and purchases by the million
and loans by the million can be made, without
the knowledge or consent of other stockholders
than those within the ''ring," what is to guar
antee against a fatal depreciation Of the stock
sFriend George" once said a straightforward
Quaker to George Hudson, the ex-railway
king, "what has thee done with the money paid
for certain estates bought with the dividends
of thy company" George Hudson was dumb
before the conscientious and vigilant Quaker.
What reply can our Erie Railway thieves make
to similar questions? What shall prevent our
community from being startled within the next
year or two at hearing that this or that Wall
streetthief, after quietly pocketing the millions
realized by unrighteous private speculations,
has ''Swartwouted" to Europe? 1t is time the
public should demand that final stop be
put to high-handed proceedings, disgraceful
even to Wall street and injurious to our
national credit. Wall street is supposed
to be the heart of our financial system,
and If the heart be incurably corrupt its poi
sonous influences will permeate everywhere.
Its baleful effect will be felt in the paralyzed
trade of the East aud in the crippled produce
of the West. Such dangerous and reckless
speculation as has recently prevailed in this
metropolis, If left unchecked, win spread its
influence over all classes and all interests,
and producers rs we'll as merchants and
1t seems now as if only an earthquake, swal-
lowing up Wall street and its tributaries,
would prove an effeciual remedy for these iniol-
cradle evils.
The Elections In Enrln nd-I.i,,rrul Tr;uu,p,,.