The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-01-04

the Importance of the enterprise which prom
iSes to supplement our railway system by a
road putting us in communication with Pas
samaquoddy bay, st. John, the gulf of St.
Lawrence at Shediac, and Halifax on the At
lantic. 1t is route which cannot be overlat-
ed, and we are glad to know that our Proyin-
cal neighbors are pushing their part OF the
work through with the utmost energy. The
work on our side of the line, We are told,
drags. The lands on the st. John and Penob
scot, granted to the road in 1864, subject to a
claim OF Massachusetts amounting now TO
S15O,OOO, are unavailable on account of he
unwillingnesS Of Massachusetts to relinouish
that claim. Governor Chamberlain thinks
the State may be called upon to remove that
lncumbrance in order to secure the prompt
completion of the road, and il this subsidy,
amounting TO about $1,000 mile, is absolutely
needed we have no doubt the Legislature will
grant it. 1t will be necessary, however, to
satisfy the Legislature not only tha. this addi-
tional bounty is needed but that il will be ap-
piled to the purpose for which it is demanded,
and furthermore that the road when complet-
ed is to be held and managed ior the interest
Of tie public which helps build it and not
merely for the interest of private corpora
tion.
The Legislature will also desire to Under
stand little more fully the merits of a fla-
grant controversy between the directors and
some OF the stockholders of the company.
hint Of that controversy will be found in
| adu nh; ob
er column, calling for special meeting of the
stockholders of the European and North
American Railroad Company, to be held in
Bangor on Monday, 18th instant. Further
developments appear in two communications
which have been published in the Bangor
| Wing, the first without signature but under
stood to have beer written by George K. Jew
EFT, president of the company, the second
signed by John A. Poor. From these letters we
learn that the president and directors of the
company are desirous of selling S125, 5,0O0in cap
ital stock to contractors oil responsibility and
great wealth who have expended several hun
dred thousand dollars during the past sum-
mer upon the road within the State" Mr..
Poor describes this as project to vote away
the rights OF the stockholders and the control
of the corporation into the hands of w. G.
Case of Columbia, Pennsylvania At a
meeting Of the directors ON Monday, 23d De-
cember, to act upon this proposition, they
were astonished by summons to appear be-
fore the United States court in Portland and
show cause why they should not be enjoined
and restrained from issuing such stock.
AT the same meeting, an application signed
by Pierce and BlaisdeI contractors for work
in New Brunswick, John A. Poor, Charles j.
Gilman, Allen Haines, Eben S. Poor, Marga-
ret 2. Poor and Henry V. Poor, holding in all
162 shares, was presented to the directors, re-
questing them to cali special meeting of
stockholders, to be held in Bangor on the
| 18th January. As the stockholders signing
the application held more than one twentieth
OF the stock subscribed for, the directors were
bound by the bylaws of the company to call
a meeting. 1t happens, however, that the
the third bylaw provides that the time and
| place of all meetings of the stockholders, ex-
cepting the time of the annual meeting, shall
be determined by the directors" and the d.
rectors, availing themselves of the privilege of
! fixing the time, called special meeting as re-
| ouested, to be held ON the second Tuesday in
/ March. Thereupon, on the next day, Mr..
Poor and his friends, interpreting the action
of the directors as refusal to call special
meeting as desired, procured from a justice of
the peace warrant to notify meeting on
the 18th of January, in accordance with their
original application. 2l11 tI
|
This was on Tuesday of last week. The
hearing of the injunction case was had on
Thursday and Friday, before Judge Fox, at
chambers, and the application was rejected on
the ground, as Mr.. Jewett says, that "the
seventeen lwentieths interest of the contrac-
tors, which applied for the stock, had full pow
'er to act, as against the hree-twentieths ask
ing for an injunction" The directors were
next summoned to appear before the Supreme
Judicial Court Of Maine, on the ID tn Janua-
ry, on similar application by John A. Poor
ani'C. j. Gilman. .rla
So much for the proceedings hitherto.
There are still however some matters of Incl
dental interest. The fifth proposition in the
call for meeting Of stockholders is T" To see
If the stockh olders will authorize the directors
to purchase any existing line or lines of rail.
way, as authorized by law, or lease the
same, or enter into any other contract of sale
or lease of its line, or for operating the same
bJ any other company or party" To this
the directors, through the president, reply
Bangor has been sold out once and we pro
test against second operation of that kind.'
The following grave charge, we co1y usr-
bdtim from the communication to the Wing,
attributed to Mr.. Jewett: ad1.a
1t appeared at the hearing before judge
Fox, that majority of the directors of this
road, in its embryo state, in 1868 or 1864, all
non-residents of Bangor, met at Waterville or
Winslow, and there settled with themselves
Tor their arduous services, and actually issued
to themselves about 100000 in so-called paid
| up stock of the Company, toithout paying one
dollar for 1t into the Treasury of the Conspa1ly.
and of which Mr.. John A. Poor, of Portland
took the lions share, S56,6o0l III
To this Mr.. Poor replies by reciting the
history of the company at great length, be
ginning with the charter granted in 1850 to
E. L.. Hamlin, A. G. Chandler and John A.
Poor, tc build the European and North Amer
lean railway from Bangor to the New Bruins
wick line. The corporation was organized IN
1S53,and 1881 shares were subscribed for, $50
OF them by John M. Wood of Portland. The
contractors who built the Grand Trunk rail-
way then offered to build the European and
North American road from the Kennebec to
the State line, but through the opposition OF
persons interested in the Penobscot and Ken
nebec railroad the company failed to get a
charter for this extension of their line and
the opportunity was lost. During the next
nine years efforts to build the Penboscot rail
road the O.dtown aud Lincoln railroad. and
Aroostook railroad all failed.
AT length, in 1852, a proposition was made
to unite these various enterprises and push
forward the line under the name of the Eu-
ropean and North American railway. Mr..
Poor was at that time president of the com.
pany, and among the directors were C. j. Gill
man, Joseph Eaton and A. C. Morton. Sub
sequently Gideon Mayo of Orono and S. II.
Dale and Rufus Dwiuel of Bangor were chos-
en- directors. By authority OF the board Mr..
Poor then bought up the stock and over two
thirds of the S3O0,000 in bonds of the Penob-
scot Railroad Company and Judgment Tor
some $4,000 in favor of Courtland Palmer,
and sold the franchise of the corporation.
Prior to this sale S32s,OoO had been expend.